“C” is for ‘Cookie’

Recently, I was reminded of a certain blue monster’s diet journey. It was a Sunday morning, and I was watching Sesame Street with my niece as she was trying to get her hourly Elmo fix. I almost spilled my coffee as Cookie Monster ran across our TV screen and started rapping about deprecating cookies. “...taking only cookies all wrong! ‘Cause you also gotta eat fruits or veggies or meat, if you want to be healthy and strong!”

I couldn’t believe it. Much like our industry, Cookie Monster’s calorically dense food of choice had shaped him into the well-known monster he is today. However, Cookie Monster had to diversify his diet to benefit his constituents. Now, our industry is being asked to do the same. We need to fundamentally change the way we operate in order to better preserve the privacy of our audiences, yet retain the success that digital advertising provides brands and publishers around the globe. Let’s see how the advertising industry is going about these changes,  in the US. and UK, respectively.

The geographical differences in survey responses may be attributable to the driving force behind the demise of the cookie in each region. In the UK, regulations such as the GDPR, enforced by the UK’s ICO are the primary motivator. In the US, most companies are responding to platform changes from major industry players, and the market responses reflect the different motivations. One commonality however, is that both markets show a lag between the triggering motivator and the adoption of solutions. Since both markets are operating under some uncertainty, understanding the portfolio of solutions available (for advertisers and publishers) and how they address specific needs is the key to thriving. 

Third-party cookies are going away. It’s time to face that reality and adopt an attitude of pragmatism. Like Cookie Monster, SSPs need to diversify their plates and take a fresh, collaborative approach to addressing the vast majority of impressions on the open web, impressions that will soon no longer be tracked. If Cookie Monster can deal with cookie deprecation, we can too. 

AdAge, TripleLift U.S. Privacy & Identity Study, n=269, August 2021

ExchangeWire, TripleLift U.K. Privacy & Identity Study, n=963, August 2021