When we talk about the future of Advertising, it’s often hard to ignore the voices of doom and gloom. For many players in the industry, developments such as the death of third-party cookies indicate that Advertising as we know it is doomed and may never recover.
In one way, they may be right. Advertising as we know it is ending, with laws such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) forcing brands to be more transparent about the way they collect, store and use data. However, this is not as catastrophic as people may think, but it should rather be seen as an opportunity to turn the perceptions of online advertising around.
As the amount of time people spend online has increased, so has the amount of money brands are investing in their online advertising strategies. This money has typically not been spent wisely, with vast sums being poured into approaches that consumers often grew tired of, especially as they became more aware of the ways in which they were being tracked online. Despite measures like GDPR and cookie consent boxes, Consumer perceptions of advertising have improved very little, if at all. Simply put, most consumers don’t seem to feel they are receiving any value in return for the data they give up.
As we hurtle toward a “cookieless” future, listening to consumers and understanding exactly what they value in advertising is vital. This is why my company Seedtag partnered with YouGov to conduct a survey into European consumers’ attitudes towards Privacy and perceptions of online advertising. Three thousand consumers in six countries were surveyed. Our results indicated that brands actually have reason to be optimistic about the future of advertising—as long as they leverage the right strategies.
The survey highlighted a negative attitude towards the cookie-based advertising approach, unsurprisingly leading to a negative attitude towards the brands that use that approach. For example, some 82% of consumers said they feel positively toward brands who consciously decide to stop using consumers’ personal data to tailor advertisements to them. When asked about current cookie usage, only 17% of respondents felt positively toward brands using personal data for targeting purposes.
The survey also highlighted the actions many consumers are already taking to protect their Privacy online. For example, many users reported adjusting their cookie preferences to limit the storage of personal data, while others reported blocking cookies on some or all of the websites they visit.
This highlights the trust that has been lost between brands and consumers in this cookie-based advertising landscape. These negative attitudes have been the catalyst for cookie-led advertising techniques becoming increasingly obsolete. This should make investing in a data privacy strategy and leveraging new forms of advertising that respect Consumer privacy a top priority for brands.
