AdTech News Round-up

The Chrome Privacy Sandbox APIs Will Be Generally Available For All Users In July

Google will make the targeting and measurement APIs in its Chrome Privacy Sandbox generally available for all users in July so developers can do scaled testing before the phaseout of third-party cookies begins next year, as planned.

Developers will have access to a mechanism that simulates third-party-cookie-free traffic for testing purposes. Then, the third-party cookie will finally begin its gradual shuffle off this mortal coil.

In Q1 2024, Chrome will deprecate cookies for 1% of a randomly selected group of Chrome users and slowly expand deprecation to more users throughout the year.

IAB Removes Legitimate Interest from Reworked TCF

IAB Tech Lab released an updated version of its Transparency and Consent Framework, TCF 2.2. For targeted advertising, consent must be collected, legitimate interest is not a valid legal basis.

The full list of updates to the TCF provided by IAB Europe are as follows:

• Removal of the legitimate interest legal basis for advertising & content personalisation: within the scope of the TCF, Vendors will only be able to select consent as an acceptable legal basis for purposes 3, 4, 5 and 6 at registration level;
• Improvements to the information provided to end-users: the purposes and features’ names and descriptions have changed. The legal text has been removed and replaced by user-friendly descriptions – supplemented by examples of real-use cases (illustrations);
• Standardisation of additional information about Vendors: Vendors will be required to provide additional information about their data processing operations – so that this information can in turn be disclosed to end-users;
• Categories of data collected
• Retention periods on a per-purpose basis
• Legitimate interest(s) at stake – where applicable
• Transparency over the number of Vendors: CMPs will be required to disclose the total number of Vendors seeking to establish a legal basis on the first layer of their UIs;
• Specific requirements to facilitate users’ withdrawal of consent: Publishers and CMPs will need to ensure that users can resurface the CMP UIs and withdraw consent easily.

Twitter has a new chief

Former NBC Universal head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino, has been announced as Twitter’s new chief executive. Elon Musk will step away from the role at the company he bought for $44bn (~￡35bn) in October.?

Musk had hinted that he wouldn’t be in the role long-term. In Musk’s official announcement he revealed that Yaccarino will focus on business operations, while he turns his attentions to product and new tech.

The Current Retail Media Landscape

Touted as digital advertising’s “third wave”, retail media has emerged as one of the hottest topics in ad tech.?

- The European market for retail media is expected to increase to €25bn in 2026.?

- The medium (retail media) is also making significant headway in the APAC market, with over 40% of China’s digital ad spend in 2022 going towards retail media networks. Globally, the medium accounts for over 10% of ad spending, with no signs of its growth slowing.

Amazon

- Amazon owns 37% of the retail media market, which is valued at around USD$100bn.?

- Amazon's offering was reportedly chosen by 14,200 companies representing more than 17,000 brands in 2022. In the final quarter of 2022, Amazon’s ad sales increased 19% to USD $11.6bn.

Tesco

- Having launched the Tesco Media & Insight Platform during the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the supermarket quickly accrued a user base of over 450 of the UK’s leading CPG brands and offers an average ROAS of ￡6.60 for multichannel campaigns.?

- Tesco also announced an extension to its retail media network last year, stating new partnerships with ITVX and Pinterest would help brands to reach Tesco’s 20 million-strong Clubcard user base through numerous channels.?

Carrefour

- Carrefour launched its retail media network, Carrefour Links, in 2021 with aspirations to scale its retail media offerings in the European and Latin American markets.

- Developed in collaboration with tech heavy hitters Google, Criteo, and LiveRamp, Carrefour Links aims to meet both consumers’ and brands’ expectations by balancing personalised experiences with efficiency.?

Check out our blog post: What Is Retail Media & Retail Media Networks (RMNs)?

Google attempts to flaunt AI capabilities with new search function

“Generative AI” is already the key talking point of the marketing industry this year with Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI widely considered a game-changing development. It is within this context that Google, the online marketing industry’s dominant power, showcased its experiments in Search Labs at its developer conference Google I/O earlier this week.

The online advertising giant has been incubating AI capabilities within Search Labs for some time now starting with SGE, short for Search Generative Experience, an ongoing experiment that offers a conversational interface.

In short, SGE will enable Google users to “quickly get the lay of the land on a topic” by asking follow-up questions via AI-powered search returns. For instance, if a user is researching a purchase SGE will use Google Shopping Graph to provide contextual information such as local retail outlets as well as information, like product reviews, etcetera.

PubMatic launch DSP-free solution

PubMatic has launched a new supply path optimisation (SPO) solution which cuts out the need for demand-side platforms (DSPs) in CTV and video media buying. Activate enables advertisers to buy video and CTV inventory directly from PubMatic’s programmatic platform.?

Described in an official press release as a “single layer of technology that directly connects buyers and sellers of digital media,” Activate has already netted partnerships with firms including dentsu, FuboTV, GroupM, and Havas Media Group.

Check out our blog post: What’s the Difference Between SPO and DPO?

Post-Cookie Ecosystem: Publishers and Advertisers Focus on Contextual and Attention in 2023

AdTech industry concerns about third-party cookies withdrawn by Google Chrome have lessened since last year, According to a study by DoubleVerify, sentiments are becoming more optimistic, and publishers and advertisers are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.?

Publishers and advertisers are worried about finding the best solution and workflow for their businesses. Many third-party solutions — Alternative IDs, Seller-Defined Audiences, Email-hashing — exist, but companies are still testing them. Currently, only 24% of publishers surveyed had a post-cookie solution. This is why buyers and sellers believe that Google might delay third-party cookie deprecation further.

Check out our blog post: 6 Alternatives to Third-Party Cookies and Mobile IDs in AdTech & The Demise of Third-Party Cookies in AdTech: Why Are They Being Phased Out?