Taking the Person Out of PII: Why We Need a New Approach to First-Party Data

Outside of search social and commerce platforms however the use of data in display and video media has been dominated by the use of cookies in general and thirdparty cookies in particular Thirdparty cookies in theory at least allow the advertiser to quotidentifyquot a previously unknown user and to resolve that identity to determine unique reach to cap frequency to retarget and to attribute an outcome The bad news is that thirdparty cookies are disputably accurate and indisputably invasiveAlongside identity lies the troubling idea that individuals are at risk if parties unknown to them nor permissioned by them can track their actions and infer their behaviors with any degree of precisionConsequently the use of cookies has been in the cross hairs of privacy advocates and regulators Since the publication of the GDPR in Europe in 2016 it has been assumed that cookie usage would become restricted by some combination of regulatory tightening and browserlevel actions Apple implemented default thirdparty cookie blocking in Safari in May 2020 and since then it seemed only a matter of time before Google followed suit with similar settings in ChromeThe industry response was predictable pursue substitute anonymous identifiers and gather as much firstparty data as you possibly can Best to gain permission from more customers and prospects at least to the level where the permissioned data can be used as a model for larger audiencesThereamp8217s no question that firstparty userlevel identity and data can be useful but itamp8217s expensive to acquire difficult to make persistently valuable and hard to scaleMaybe there is a different way to think about the problem The issue is that firstparty data is generally taken to refer to data attached to personally identifiable information PII The only real owner of PII is the person in question Maybe it39s time to think of it also as corporately identifiable information CII Like data owned by the individual data owned by the enterprise is precious useful and proprietaryTo many advertisers including many of the world39s largest brands CII may be more important than PII The volume value cadence and location of sales is of inestimably higher value than individual behaviors It39s of value in all of targeting trading and attribution Critically the proprietary knowledge it affords allows the advertiser the information asymmetry relative to both the seller and competitors required to trade effectively in reserve or auction marketsIf the advertiser has the mechanisms to apply data he or she also requires the tools to assess the tradeoff between the price of inventory and the cost of the precision of targeting in ways that are so much more textured than cookie dependency allows For example it becomes easy to assess if the premium for quotzip plus 4quot targeting is worth it versus DMA targeting Equally is any time Friday as effective as Friday between 5 pm and 8pm Returnondata cost is a vital measure Understanding the value of different data sets also helps advertisers assess the logistics and security of data sharing with their agency partners technology intermediaries and media sellersThese are thoughtful media tradeoffs but they also require advertisers to integrate CII data streams into their advertising tech stacks and via API to DSPs and other partners in the advertising chain Applying that muscle to the high stakes game of media investment is likely to enhance performance and lead to responsible behaviors by advertisers that maximize business outcomes and minimize cost to the consumerOnetoone marketing never was a necessity for most advertisers and the pursuit of the data that enables it may come at an unnecessary cost to all concerned Seems it39s time for marketers to turn their attention to CII insteadPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Taking the Person Out of PII: Why We Need a New Approach to First-Party Data

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John Donahue

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Taking the Person Out of PII: Why We Need a New Approach to First-Party Data

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