“Unsettled”. That’s the word Scott Howe, LiveRamp’s CEO, used in his opening keynote address to describe the overwhelming feeling of the past two years.
Between the pandemic and the far-reaching disruptions it has brought to all of our lives, deep structural AdTech industry changes, and now a war threatening the core values of European democracies, a lot has changed since the RampUp audience last convened in 2020.
Amongst this increasingly complex environment, Howe, however, reminds us of a beacon, the central theme of this conference: “data, [which], when used ethically and responsibly, can change the world”.
A leitmotiv which resonates across the 3 main takeaways that our team gathered from the 2 days of sessions.
RampUp 2022 — We were there
Key Takeaways from a Long-Awaited Industry Reunion
#1 Third-party cookies are (still) going away - for the (greater) good
“It’s an opportunity to really think about how we want to talk to consumers. Third-party cookies were never a good solution to begin with.”
Amanda Martin, VP Enterprise Partnerships, Goodway Group
Speakers emphasized the importance of seeing alternate tracking and measurement solutions as a new approach, rather than a replacement. A chance to build a new, more transparent and balanced system. They also urged the audience to keep in mind that solutions developed by walled gardens will be walled-gardens-centric, entailing a strong risk of these actors “grading their own homework”.
Diversifying methods, remaining creative, and working with collaborative industry solutions will be key to navigate this next phase.
#2 Avoiding the creepiness factor: privacy matters
“Advertisers’ and consumers‘ interests are a lot more aligned than one could think – advertisers are not interested in violating policies or being creepy.”
Jeff Green, CEO The Trade Desk
The crucial role of PET (Privacy-Enhancing Technologies) as a way to reconcile control and data access was highlighted. Moreover, they are also key to building a sustainable model for the open internet, and allowing a fruitful competition with walled garden actors. A win-win model for brands and consumers alike is the way forward for the ad tech industry.
#3 Retail Media has never been this exciting
“It’s not about opposing brands and retailers, it’s about working together to build category growth.”
Samuel Baroukh, Head of Marketing and eBusiness and CMO, Nestlé France
Walmart, Kroger, Carrefour, Best Buy, Amazon, etc.: all the major retailers have ventured into this new exciting area of programmatic collaboration, or are actively planning to.
The exponential growth of e-commerce brought forth by the pandemic, and the ongoing need for new measurement solutions have tremendously accelerated this trend. Enabling a productive collaboration between retailers, allowing them to monetize their rich 1st-party data and create more relevant customer experiences, and brands, giving them access to valuable shopper insights and higher ROAS, this growing new type of collaboration is a winning bet for all parties.