What To Do When The Cookie Crumbles

By Eugene Buchanan

Here’s a stat: nearly 80% of marketers rely on third-party cookies for their digital advertising needs. For the past couple of decades, cookies have been the leading source of tracking and monitoring website users, providing sophisticated targeting and retargeting for digital marketers in the outdoor industry and beyond. All of that is about to change.

Google first announced third party cookies would be going away in 2020; without a solution in place, they have since postponed their removal to 2024. The tech giant is now kicking the can because it doesn’t have a solution. “This underscores how big of a deal it is,” says Eliza Hill, vice president of strategy at Maine-based, full-service ad agency Blaze Partners.

Apple’s iOS14 update asking consumers to opt in to allow apps to track their activity has already created a seismic shift in social advertising. The disappearance of cookies altogether carries even bigger ramifications. “Brands need to re-evaluate their digital advertising strategy,” says Hill. “The days of tracking everyone’s activity online are gone. It’s important that brands get in front of this major shift and put solutions in place to ensure marketing dollars continue to work hard for them in a post-cookie world.”

In other words: When the cookie crumbles, how do we pick up the pieces and stay relevant?

Luckily, a keynote seminar at this winter’s Outdoor Retailer Snow Show, which will be hosted by Hill, is designed to address this particular problem.

But what, exactly, is the problem?

There are five key elements to marketing, Hill says, all of which will be impacted by the demise of the cookie. They include audience, creative, context, attribution, and budget. The audience component, she adds, will be affected the most. “On any website, cookies are in the backend tracking what users are doing, and then giving that feedback back to advertisers. They are what help advertisers put the right message in front of the right people at the right time,” says Hill. “Without them, the marketing industry is losing tremendous amounts of data.”

And in a category like the outdoor industry which relies heavily on E-commerce that’s even more important. “It’s going to be instrumental for the outdoor industry,” Hill says. “So often marketers understand what people are in the market for—you can tell who’s been searching for backpacks. But now you won’t necessarily have that data anymore. It will become that much more important for brands to break through the clutter.”

Hill won’t be alone at the Outdoor Retailer seminar. Joining her will be a panel of experts, including Chuck Gannon, brand and performance marketing media director for Freeport, Maine’s L.L.Bean. Gannon agrees with Hill’s diagnosis, but sees the change as inevitable, if not essential.

“It’s certainly a big deal, but a necessary one as the industry continues to focus on solutions to ensure the privacy of its consumers,” Gannon says. “The change is also forcing much-needed evolution in the digital measurement and identity space, as third party cookies are an outdated technology that hold less value over time.”

Solutions to combat the effects of the extinction of cookies are varied, Gannon adds—and attending seminars such as the one being held at January’s Outdoor Retailer Snow Show are a great way to begin getting a handle on the concept. But you need to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your own business and get all your major stakeholders on board.

“First, understand where on the spectrum you sit and what aspects of your business might be most impacted,” Gannon says. “Then, formulate a collaborative team from across the company—including marketing, IT, legal/compliance, E-comm, and more—to develop a strategic approach to how you’ll address the challenge. While there will be a variety of unique solutions based on the makeup of each brand, the common threads will likely include a focus on gathering and managing first party data in a transparent fashion, evolving your practices around measurement and attribution, and working with partners that can help you implement best practices moving forward. And do the above while still maintaining an ever-present customer-centric approach.”

Joining Gannon on the panel at January’s Snow Show will be a host of other industry experts in the field also offering valuable insights into this new age of digital marketing.

“I am excited to give brands of all sizes practical solutions and best practices in anticipation of a cookieless world,” Hill says.

For more information, attend the “RIP Cookies. So, now what?” seminar at 10 a.m., Jan. 11, at The Ranger Station at this year’s trade show, or visit blaze-partners.com 

Don’t Miss this Session!
When: Day 2, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. at The Ranger Station.

RIP Cookies. So, now what?
After more than two decades as the leading source of tracking and monitoring website users and providing sophisticated targeting and retargeting, third party cookies are going away. The death of the cookie, as well as Apple’s policy that asks consumers to opt in to allow apps to track their activity, represent a seismic shift in the marketing world. Brands will be forced to increase their spend — some significantly — in order to reach the same goals as last year.

Marketers and CMOs are in a frenzied race to discover, “What’s next? And what do I need to be investing in now to make this a less cumbersome blow to my bottom line?” Eliza Hill, VP of Strategy at Blaze Partners, a Maine-based, B Corp certified advertising/digital marketing agency, will be asking experts from around the outdoor industry what steps they’ve taken in anticipation of the rapidly changing digital landscape and what strategies they’ll employ going forward. If your business relies on data to inform your marketing program, this is one session you won’t want to miss. The session will be on Day 2, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. at The Ranger Station.