More Reasons Why
Digital Advertising is Risky Right Now
Third-party cookies. What are they? “Third- party cookies are cookies that are set by a website other than the one you are currently on. For example, you can have a “Like” button on your website which will store a cookie on a visitor’s computer, that cookie can later be accessed by Facebook to identify visitors and see which websites they visited. Such a cookie is considered to be a 3rd party cookie.” There is oodles of info on the Internet if you want to know more.
We are one year away from the shutdown of third-party cookies. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the elimination of third-party cookies that track your habits and your traffic across the Internet. For years advertising companies have been able to help people understand where their clients and prospects were searching and reporting that information back to the advertiser so that you could better shape their advertising campaigns. Awesome! Except for the fact that it’s been determined that our personal privacy has been violated by third-party cookies delivering your private digital habits to advertisers.
Way back in 2020, Google made third-party cookies illegal…
Oops, except that they stretched it out until December of 2023. But the day is coming! This means that you or I will not be able to track people without their permission.
There’s a solution coming – what is it? “Clean rooms.” This is the new “wild west” term for data privacy and advertiser’s ability to collect information on their future customers or prospects. These are data collection points that match up with what an entity like Amazon knows about you and they assemble your private information from different sources.
What we mean by that is that for each time that you sign up for different Amazon notifications, or other stores, these are all points on which Amazon has your permission to use your data. These are stored inside of a digital space that’s called a “Data room” where information is collected, categorized and then sold to potential advertisers to help you advertise your products effectively. But it’s still pulling your data without your awareness at the moment that it happens.
Clean rooms have actually been around for several years; they are now just getting much more attention! We are assured by the large tech companies that are managing “clean rooms” that our privacy will be protected. And now we can relax because big tech has never failed us and our privacy concerns… Facebook shut up!
For example, if you’re an Amazon member, they will connect and collect your information when you visit and put that into a “clean room” and then do analytics to determine what your habits are, where you search for, and what you like.
A great “listening” program is “Siri” on the iPhones. When it comes to data collection, similar to the book “1984,” this is where we are in our times. Combine this with Alexa and other information gathering listening AI devices. There are mountains of data on how Alexa and other listening streaming apps are hearing many things they shouldn’t… no time now to worry about whether it’s listening to you in your bedroom or any other activity that you don’t want categorized and recorded.
Some years ago, the European Union started enacting privacy laws online. The penalties have been heavy for companies that violate it and those types of laws have now made their way to America. You see them as the “Captcha” figures and other means by which people must verify that they are people and not robots. There are many good things about the privacy laws to keep people from being taken advantage of. Some of the GDP laws have worked their way over here to America. One of the first to be enacted is the elimination of third-party cookies, which track your habits online and report back to collection points.
Per eMarketer.com, in early 2023 Amazon will be launching their new “AWS clean room.” There’s been much talk about how advertisers are going to keep their fingers and their reach into your digital activities.
eMarketer.com goes on to say, “The goalposts for digital advertising have moved, and clean rooms appear to be a safe bet to appease regulators who demand stricter privacy rules. But while the technology is growing in popularity, a lack of standards means the definitions around what constitutes a “clean room” are muddy. To that end, the IAB is also working on a list of standards to solidify clean rooms’ place in the industry.”
What is my point in all this? It is this: If you don’t have the budget, staffing or time to figure out the brand new digital advertising frontier, then maybe radio (with 83 million people listening to it every month) might be your safest bet!
It’s true! You can’t tell with radio who is tuning into your station (unless it’s digital radio, then it’s just as digitally savvy as any other type of advertising format.) You have to wait for your customer or new prospect to take action i.e. go online or call you or come into your store.
But with all the difficulty of placing advertisements in the digital markets and protecting the digital advertisement, we believe that the simplicity of radio will let you focus on what you do best – your actual field of expertise!
If you have questions and need to understand the digital realm, contact us. We are happy to help you understand these things more clearly. Bottom line? Make broadcast radio a definite part of your “digital” plans! Call us at 800-208-7154 or fill out the contact form.
By Sean Pearce and Pete Miller
