When Brigitte King heard about Google’s third third-party cookie deprecation delay in April, she thought, “Oh no, here we go again.”
As the chief digital officer of Colgate-Palmolive, a big part of King’s job has been to evangelize the need for cookieless prep, which is hard to do without the urgency of a deadline.
And then, just three months later, Google said, “Never mind,” and announced a new plan that no longer involves deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome after all.
The news caught King by surprise, she said, but hasn’t done anything to alter Colgate-Palmolive’s new emphasis on first-party data.
“Fortunately, we were already focused on developing a more robust data strategy,” King told AdExchanger. “We recognized the opportunity for first-party data in our plans and we’ll continue testing durable audiences.”
The CPG POV on 1PD
Until recently, consumer-packaged goods brands haven’t been in a position to collect much first-party data beyond people signing up for their mailing list or joining their loyalty program.
CPGs have had to rely on third-party data from companies like Nielsen or data from retailer partners, King said.
“We’ve always had to trade on data we don’t own or control,” she said. “Over time, we’ve almost gotten used to being dependent on other people’s data.”
Two recent trends have come together to change that dynamic: signal loss and the rise of DTC brand-specific websites, King said.
Despite the uncertainty of Google’s timeline, the threat of third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome was the forcing function many brands needed to start developing a first-party data strategy. And branded websites are an excellent source of first-party data.
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Colgate-Palmolive redesigned all of its consumer-facing sites and apps to serve as information hubs about its brands and make it easier to collect email addresses and other opted-in user data. Some sites also include DTC commerce so people can buy products directly, while others point visitors to a third-party ecommerce partner, like CVS, Amazon or Target.
“The advent of the DTC model gives us access to first-party data sets we never knew we could have before,” King said. “But beyond transactional information, we can also see how people are engaging on our sites and what content they’re consuming.”
More than a pet project
The website for Hill’s, Colgate-Palmolive’s pet food brand, is a good example of a branded website that generates first-party data because the content is designed to be useful.
The first thing visitors see is the option to fill out a brief questionnaire to identify the right type of food for their pet’s health and nutrition. (Cat or dog? Birthday? Body condition? Dental issues? Joint problems? Do they need grain-free? Is your pet pregnant? Are they indoor or outdoor?)
On the last screen they see before the site formulates food options, respondents are asked to share their name and email, although it’s not a requirement.
But people are often willing to share a lot of information about their pets with Hill’s, King said, as well as their email address, because the brand produces food for cats and dogs that need special diets. Hill’s also has a line of pet food that’s only available with a vet’s prescription.
King’s own dog recently had kidney stones surgically removed, and she was told by the vet to feed her Hill’s going forward because it’s gentler on digestion. But King had questions about exactly which variants to get and so she ended up communicating with the customer service chatbot on the Hill’s website and sharing a lot of information about her pet.
“A lot of brands focus more on quantity over quality when they launch their first-party data strategies,” King said. “We’re not collecting data just to have it. It’s important that there’s a reason behind everything we collect – a value proposition.”
Putting the pipes in place
Collecting data is only the first step in a first-party data strategy. Brands also need to organize and manage their data so it’s useful for marketing and analytics.
Colgate-Palmolive is going through an RFP process for a customer data platform, and it’s building its own mar tech stack through a mix of in-house development and partner integrations.
“Having put what I call the preemptive data strategy in place,” King said, “we need somewhere to safely store our data and a way to engineer it so that it becomes our center of truth.”
Take Hill’s.
If someone visits the site because their vet sent them, leaves without buying anything, returns later to browse the product catalog and eventually contacts a customer service agent, Colgate-Palmolive should have a way to connect those dots, King said.
“It’s important to know that, regardless of the interaction or the channel, this is the same person,” she said. “That’s how we’re able to say, ‘We know what you need and we can help.’”
