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 * Reading Now How generative AI could solve the cookie deprecation puzzle in
   2024 By: Chris Kelly
 * Reading Now Marketers see promise in push to ‘decouple’ retail media data By:
   Peter Adams
 * Reading Now Adapting to a cookie-less future: How marketers can pivot and
   prosper By: Acronym
 * Reading Now McDonald’s US CMO on brand’s first-party data transformation By:
   Peter Adams
 * Reading Now How Pop-Tarts Bites hones its messaging with data-driven insights
   By: Peter Adams
 * Reading Now Data-driven marketing investments to top $36B in 2024, report
   finds By: Peter Adams
 * Reading Now Third-party data loss could be problematic for SMBs: Here’s what
   the numbers say By: Sara Karlovitch
 * Reading Now What Taco Bell and DoorDash learned about loyalty through
   collaboration By: Chris Kelly



Trendline


WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DATA IN MARKETING


Jonathan Francisca / Unsplash

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

For the past few years, the data landscape has faced significant upheaval,
whether due to regulators ramping up pressure or tech giants like Apple making
changes to its privacy policies. To address these challenges, brands and other
stakeholders are experimenting with numerous ways to engage online consumers
while not running afoul of privacy concerns.

With Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies finally underway, marketers’
needs to master data has risen from a drum beat to a crescendo. The elimination
of a long-standing tracking tool, which is expected to be complete by the second
half of 2024, will leave unprepared advertisers in the dark.

In the face of these changes, brands are trying a variety of different ways to
make up for signal loss, from utilizing retail media networks to collaborating
with tech platforms and other brands. But it increasingly looks like the future
of data privacy will require many solutions, not a magic bullet.

In this report, Marketing Dive breaks down:

 * How generative AI could solve the cookie deprecation puzzle
 * What Taco Bell and DoorDash learned through collaboration
 * How retail media networks are answering calls to decouple their data

We hope these insights help inform your strategy in an increasingly crucial and
complicated area that is set to surge in activity in the months ahead. Going
forward, one thing is certain: Marketers will have to remain vigilant and agile
when approaching data.

Chris Kelly Reporter
 * Reading Now How generative AI could solve the cookie deprecation puzzle in
   2024 By: Chris Kelly
   
 * Reading Now Marketers see promise in push to ‘decouple’ retail media data By:
   Peter Adams
   
 * Sponsored Adapting to a cookie-less future: How marketers can pivot and
   prosper Sponsored content by Acronym
   
 * Reading Now McDonald’s US CMO on brand’s first-party data transformation By:
   Peter Adams
   
 * Reading Now How Pop-Tarts Bites hones its messaging with data-driven insights
   By: Peter Adams
   
 * Reading Now Data-driven marketing investments to top $36B in 2024, report
   finds By: Peter Adams
   
 * Reading Now Third-party data loss could be problematic for SMBs: Here’s what
   the numbers say By: Sara Karlovitch
   
 * Reading Now What Taco Bell and DoorDash learned about loyalty through
   collaboration By: Chris Kelly
   




HOW GENERATIVE AI COULD SOLVE THE COOKIE DEPRECATION PUZZLE IN 2024

As the death of the cookie nears, marketers will need to have a better handle on
their data, a task that AI might be able to handle.

By: Chris Kelly • Published Jan. 16, 2024

It finally has begun: On Jan. 4, Google disabled third-party cookies for 1% of
Chrome, or approximately 30 million users. The move represents the first
tangible step in the search giant’s plan to phase out the tracking technology
for all users in the second half of 2024 — a change that will eliminate a
long-standing digital advertising tool.

With the announcement in January 2020 that it would eventually kill the
third-party cookie, Google set into motion a race for the advertising industry
to build, test and adopt alternative targeting and tracking methods, whether
using its Privacy Sandbox proposals or those crafted by other players.

But while a panoply of alternative IDs, identity graphs and data clean room
solutions have cropped up in recent years, the missing piece in solving the
post-cookie problem could be an application of generative artificial
intelligence (AI), the buzzy technology that has captivated the worlds of
advertising, technology and general culture for more than a year.

“To remedy the rift of third-party cookie depreciation, it’s crucial for
marketers to lean into AI to supercharge strategies utilizing zero- and
first-party consumer data,” said Anjali Yakkundi, vice president of product
marketing at Movable Ink, in emailed comments.

“AI can analyze consumers’ digital behavior like browsing history, purchasing
patterns and engagement to provide deeper audience understanding while creating
tailored experiences,” the executive added. “Moreover, brands can expand AI and
ML within predictive models that garner insights into consumers’ likely next
steps, allowing for proactive and strategic development of outputs that meet the
consumer where they are before they even know they’re going to be there.”


THE POWER OF AI

Much of advertising’s focus on generative AI to date has centered on the ability
to create text and image assets that can be produced quickly and help marketers
meet longtime goals around personalization-at-scale. But the ability of AI to
sift through and analyze data with incredible speed and accuracy could help
marketers make up for the signal loss created by cookie deprecation.

“2024 is going to be the true rise and scaling of additional intent
signals,” said Lynda Clarizio, a media industry veteran and co-founder of early
stage venture capital firm The 98. “For a long time, we’ve had web-tracking
intent and social intent. Now we’re going to have the rise of transaction intent
and contextual intent.”

Generative AI needs three things to work, according to experts: proprietary
first-party data, the infrastructure to process that data and data scientists to
develop the data to train new models. As applied to advertising, those
requirements will put tech players like Google and Amazon in the “driver’s
seat,” Clarizio said. 

“We’re really ‘Back to the Future,’” Clarizio explained, connecting the rise of
digital walled gardens to the previous walled gardens in TV advertising.

“Now we’re going back in the other direction, and some of that has been because
of deprecation of cookies and the inability to use data signals in a broader
way,” Clarizio added. “You’re really restricted to first-party data, which makes
sense from a privacy perspective but reinforces the strength of some of these
larger players.”

However, other players are beginning to leverage generative AI, using the tech
for search re-ranking in a fast, effective way and to deliver a more robust,
personal experience to users. Other use cases of the technology are still being
developed.

“AI will become more prevalent as agencies and talent find practical
applications to reduce costs and speed up processes,” said Rob Davis, CMO and
president of independent agency Novus, in emailed comments. “This will expand
beyond media optimization and data compilation — for example, applying
generative AI to simulated focus groups for cost-effective insight generation.”


THE RACE FOR DATA AND IDENTIFIERS CONTINUES

The death of the cookie will be a major test of efforts to acquire marketing
first-party data, as well as zero- and second-party data, in a privacy-safe way.
A continued push for data could encourage brands, agencies and publishers to
establish more data co-ops that allow entities to share data that can then be
used to fuel generative AI efforts.

“I’ve been looking for a long time for the rise of data co-ops that really take
first-party data from different web properties and combine that together to
rival something that Google does,” Clarizio said. “Maybe you’ll see more of that
in 2024 because generative AI will enhance the ability to create that. It’s like
identity graphs on steroids.”

Along with solving for marketing first-party data, the industry in 2024 will
also have to contend with a still-fragmented landscape of alternative ID
providers, including The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0, LiveRamp’s RampID and
dozens more, that are jockeying for market share and offering different use
cases.

“If you’re a buyer, it’s just mass confusion,” said Eli Heath, head of identity
at Lotame, which offers the Panorama ID. “Part of this has resulted in
paralysis, because it’s like, ‘What do I use? Is there going to be a
winner-takes-all?’”

Marketers should not expect one ID to rule them all. Instead, they will likely
have to coordinate behavior-based addressability and contextual strategy in a
variety of ways, Heath said.

“It’s really going to be a basket approach, not only within the cookieless
identifier spaces, but also in the general strategies and tactics that you
deploy within programmatic,” the executive added. “I really think it’s going to
be all over the place.”


PUSHING BACK ON GOOGLE

Along with ad-tech and agency-based solutions for data and identifiers,
marketers in 2024 will still have to grapple with the elephant in the room,
Google. If the company’s latest timeline holds, there is still much work to be
done before the second half of 2024, and still more questions than answers
around verification, measurement and attribution, according to Paul Bell,
president of ad-tech firm 33Across. 

“Once the buy-side sees results that can be measured by marketers and/or a
trusted third party (i.e. not just Google), Google and the market can
confidently move beyond 1%,” Bell said in emailed comments. “To make this
transition smooth, Google needs to ensure partners that they can tie their
marketing dollars back to a trusted conversion metric. Based on the amount of
advertising dollars and the number of partners they need to put at ease, this
timeline feels aggressive.”

To assuage concerns about a cookieless future, Google has continued to develop
its Privacy Sandbox proposals. Throughout the process, many groups have pushed
back on Google’s claims about the effectiveness of its new offerings. Early
tests still demonstrate “real challenges,” per the IAB Tech Lab. 

In kind, Google has pushed back against a range of objections to Privacy Sandbox
around sufficiency and complexity via a blog post that suggests the company is
committed to its timeline and plan.

“We believe the current Privacy Sandbox APIs — generally available in Chrome
since September — are ready to carry the ecosystem into a more private future.
And we’re committed to pushing privacy-preserving technologies forward for years
to come, both in terms of privacy and utility,” wrote Victor Wong, senior
director of product management for the Privacy Sandbox.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“There is a wave of action that’s beginning to happen, and I think reality is
going to start slapping the industry in the face.”



Matt Hertig

CEO, ChannelMix

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still, advertisers should not put all their eggs in the Privacy Sandbox and look
to Google — still a dominant player in the market — to be a “savior of the
advertising world,” said Mathieu Roche, CEO and co-founder of ID5, in emailed
comments. 

“It’s important to remember throughout all of this that there are a number of
alternatives including universal IDs, Identity Graphs and Data Clean Rooms that
have proven to be effective in cookie-free browsers like Safari and
Firefox,” Roche said. “Advertisers only have a few months left to ensure they
can effectively engage with their audiences and measure results in the long
term.”

The best-prepared marketers will not wait any longer to get their cookieless
plans in motion. Plus, the second half of 2024 deadline is still vague and could
happen sooner rather than later: Lotame’s Heath predicts that more of the
landscape could be cookieless at some point in Q3 to not disrupt the critical Q4
ad-buying period.


ADVERTISERS WAKE UP

A recent survey conducted for the PrimeAudience ad network found that 88% of
U.S. marketers feel confident about cookie deprecation, with more than half
already testing the cookieless future. Still, almost a third don’t know how to
use Google’s Protected Audience API (formerly known as FLEDGE), even though 68%
plan to use the Privacy Sandbox proposal in 2024. Beyond Google, more than half
(53%) of marketers are looking to AI as part of their solutions.

“While it is promising to see U.S. marketers feel confident about their
preparation for the cookieless world, there is a desire to continue to put
effective solutions in place,” said Mateusz Rumiński, PrimeAudience vice
president of product, in a statement. “We believe that new advertising
technologies in combination with generative AI and optimal use of first-party
data can lead to a thriving advertising ecosystem.”

In line with PrimeAudience’s survey, some observers have seen large parts of the
ad industry finally wake up to the reality of what the death of the cookie means
to advertising, a shift that will only continue as the clock ticks down.

“There is a wave of action that’s beginning to happen, and I think reality is
going to start slapping the industry in the face,” said Matt Hertig, CEO of
analytics company ChannelMix. “This is probably one of the most monumental
shifts in how we understand marketing’s impact in the past 15 years… and that’s
the real excitement that AI can inject back into the marketing analytics space.”

Article top image credit: CreativaImages via Getty Images



MARKETERS SEE PROMISE IN PUSH TO ‘DECOUPLE’ RETAIL MEDIA DATA

At Advertising Week, Kroger’s retail media arm announced a solution with The
Trade Desk to address demands for more flexibility around data use.

By: Peter Adams • Published Oct. 17, 2023

The quickly growing retail media channel was a hot topic at Advertising Week New
York 2023 in October, with some attendees expressing the desire for retailers to
eventually “decouple” their first-party data and allow that information — a rich
asset amid cookie deprecation — to be used for a wider array of applications.

While a full peek behind the curtain may be a long shot, brand marketers are
clearly calling for greater flexibility in retail data usage and these demands
appear to be resonating. During a session on Oct. 16, Kroger Precision Marketing
(KPM) at 84.51°, the retail media arm of grocery giant Kroger, announced it will
be rolling out a solution with The Trade Desk addressing decoupling.

“[Retail media networks] are sitting on something that’s so incredibly powerful,
but in some cases, we are trying to solve for many things, and the best way to
do that, potentially, is monetizing that data and allowing your advertisers to
go and be very specific through self-service or a managed service,” said Aracely
Moreno-Mosier, senior director of omnichannel marketing and head of retail
partnerships at PepsiCo, during a panel at the conference. “If we can look at it
from that perspective, I think that could open up a whole other opportunity in
terms of growth.”

KPM’s solution was born out of advertiser feedback and aims to let partners use
KPM purchase data from their existing “seat” on The Trade Desk, a demand-side
platform (DSP). Seats are the licensed accounts that ad buyers are assigned on
DSPs to be able to conduct transactions and access other features.

“This fall, we’re launching a new programmatic offering with The Trade Desk
where we’re decoupling our audience, the inventory and the measurement data,”
said Jill Smith, vice president of media sales at KPM, during the talk. “In
terms of transparency, we’re now allowing brands to activate from their own
seat, enabling our retail data to be added onto that buy. It comes from your
seat, we don’t want to compromise any brand safety, any reach and frequency.”

“We want to make it easy to offer our data and also offer that daily
measurement,” Smith added.


A PIVOTAL MOMENT

As retail media continues to grow, one big question hanging over the channel is
whether retailers will follow legacy digital platforms — the Googles and
Facebooks of the world — in building walled gardens where getting a transparent
view into data is difficult. Decoupling could be the answer brands are looking
for.

Retail media networks showing signs of becoming more open with their first-party
data arrives as standardization across the channel sits top of mind. Publishers
are aware of frustrations with the current model and are seeking to preserve
momentum as retail media networks scale to be profit drivers. The retail media
category on the whole is forecast by GroupM to surpass the combined revenues of
linear and streaming TV by 2028. Kroger has helped the Interactive Advertising
Bureau develop its retail media measurement standards, as has Albertsons, a
rival the grocer is attempting to merge with if it can clear regulatory hurdles.

The theme of the Advertising Week panel, which also had a representative from
Bayer and was led by The Trade Desk, was around “retail data,” a term that
doesn’t carry a shared meaning, exemplifying the fractured nature of the current
landscape.

“I think we’re at the interesting toddler years of retail media and retail
data,” said Stephanie Paterik, the panel’s moderator and general manager of The
Trade Desk’s editorial division.

Among advertisers, 81% use retail data in their campaigns, according to a study
conducted by The Trade Desk’s intelligence unit in conjunction with
Materialplus. But definitions of what “retail data” means varied: 44% of those
surveyed believed it is data that retailers collect about their business; 40%
said that it is data collected by advertisers around purchasing trends; and 16%
said it is data collected by researchers on purchasing trends.

Panelists also had divergent perspectives. Smith stated that KPM thinks of
retail data as Kroger’s first-party shopper data applied for media planning and
buying for both offsite and onsite channels. PepsiCo’s Moreno-Mosier, whose role
supports the food and beverage company’s commercial and sales operations, had a
broader perspective.

“For us, it’s really around anything that can inform the business. Retail data
can be inventory levels, it can be how things are moving within the store,” the
executive said. “It absolutely is about the shopper behavior, but it can inform
your promotional calendar.”


BROADENING USE CASES

A push for less rigidity around retail data comes as marketers try to wring
utility out of the channel beyond lower-funnel ad formats like sponsored product
listings. Experimenting with regional brands was one prospect cited by PepsiCo.
NatuChips, a plantain snack focused on Latin America, might play well in certain
areas of the U.S., like the East Coast, while not warranting a national
promotional blitz. Retail data could be used to target localized campaigns more
precisely to promote trial and brand awareness.

PepsiCo at the time of the panel was also running a pilot around what
Moreno-Mosier called household elasticity. A diehard customer, or someone with
“low elasticity,” might get served less steep discounts since they’re more
likely committed to the marketer’s products, which include Pepsi, Doritos and
Quaker Oats. Similarly, consumers of different means may get served more
tailored ads with the aid of retail data as inflationary pressures continue to
affect messaging strategies.

“We’re seeing the bifurcation of wealth happening more and more. It’s getting
much more aggressive,” said Moreno-Mosier. “I think there has to be a win for
the shopper in this case.”

Article top image credit: Erik Isakson via Getty Images
Sponsored


ADAPTING TO A COOKIE-LESS FUTURE: HOW MARKETERS CAN PIVOT AND PROSPER

The impending changes in data tracking, their impact on digital marketing, and
strategies for marketers to adapt and thrive in this changing environment.


Sponsored content
By Acronym
By: Victoria Stapleton, VP Digital Analytics, Acronym • Published March 1, 2024

In the digital marketing industry, there has been much lament about the
impending demise of the cookie and how this will change the way marketers
measure and optimize their campaigns. With digital ad spend projected to exceed
$600 billion, the ongoing concern around cookies isn’t going anywhere soon as
marketers brace for this shift and have concerns about how to adjust.

THE GREAT COOKIE DIVIDE: FIRST-PARTY VS THIRD-PARTY

It’s true that the longevity and, therefore, reliability of both first- and
third-party cookies are changing. However, there is a distinct difference in the
changes between third- and first-party cookies. Here are some essential
differences to understand:

 * Third-party cookies have been phased out by Google in the Chrome browser for
   1% of users starting January 4, 2024, with the goal being a full phase-out by
   the end of this year. 
   
   However, Chrome is the only major browser left that hasn’t substantially
   phased out third-party cookies; so, for 34% of browsers worldwide the
   present-day scenario is currently ‘third-party cookie-less’.
 * For both first- and third-party cookies, browsers that clear cookies
   automatically after a set number of days, such as Apple’s Safari browser,
   will influence long-range user tracking. No cookies are safe from this type
   of restriction.

THE WINDS OF CHANGE: LEGISLATION, LITIGATION, AND CONSUMER PRESSURE

These changes are primarily driven by increased legislation, numerous lawsuits,
and consumer pressure along with some existing measurement challenges. Below are
some of the most recent changes impacting the shifts in data analytics
restrictions for marketers:  

 * Legislation: Privacy laws around the globe that restrict the use of cookies
   without user consent, such as GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy Directive, and a plethora
   of others. These laws require marketers to obtain explicit and informed
   consent from users before collecting and processing their personal data,
   which can reduce the reach and effectiveness of cookie-based advertising and
   analytics. 
 * Industry: Browser policies that block or limit third-party cookies, such as
   Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking
   Protection (ETP), Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox, etc. These policies aim to
   protect user privacy and security by preventing cross-site tracking and
   fingerprinting, which can undermine the accuracy and reliability of
   cookie-based measurement and targeting. 
 * Consumer: User preferences and behaviors that favor more privacy and control
   over their online data, such as using ad blockers, deleting cookies, or
   opting out of tracking to various degrees. These preferences and behaviors
   reflect the growing awareness and concern of users about how their online
   data is collected and used, which can reduce the availability and quality of
   cookie-based data and insights. 

NAVIGATING THROUGH CHALLENGES: THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE POST-COOKIE ERA

There’s plenty happening simultaneously, but the sky is certainly not falling.
This transition provides marketers with an opportunity to become more
sophisticated in the way they analyze and optimize marketing programs.
Traditional last-touch attribution models are just not cutting it anymore.

Medium to large-size businesses with a multi-pronged strategy have a plethora of
options to assess spend effectiveness outside of cookie-dependent platform data,
including marketing mix modeling, conversion, brand lift studies, data clean
rooms, multitouch attribution models, and many other methods.  Additionally,
there are technologies to help target your most valuable audiences including
contextual advertising, cohort-based advertising, and device graphs.

With these tools, marketers do not need the invasive, granular tracking that
cookies have so notoriously enabled to make smart investment decisions.
Embracing the increased restrictions on cookies as a clear signal from your
customers for a less invasive digital experience shows them that you understand
their concerns and want to earn their trust. 

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS: BEST PRACTICES IN THE POST-COOKIE WORLD

To successfully navigate the post-cookie era, marketers should consider the
following best practices:

 1. Utilize first-party data and consent management platforms to collect and
    store user information in a compliant, transparent manner.
 2. Explore alternative methods and technologies, such as contextual
    advertising, cohort-based advertising, and device graphs, to effectively
    measure and target audiences.
 3. Embrace a customer-centric and value-driven approach to marketing that
    focuses on building trust and loyalty with users, rather than relying on
    intrusive and irrelevant ads. 

Don’t tackle it alone, seek expert help. Refine your strategy and update your
implementation rapidly by getting assistance from trusted digital marketing
agencies like Acronym, which specializes in digital intelligence.

Article top image credit:

stock.adobe.com/Pcess609




MCDONALD’S US CMO ON BRAND’S FIRST-PARTY DATA TRANSFORMATION

Once a laggard, the chain is now operating at a CRM level of sophistication,
Tariq Hassan said.

By: Peter Adams • Published Oct. 11, 2023

McDonald’s has seen a marketing resurgence in the past few years, partnering
with a cadre of pop culture icons and courting favor with young consumer groups
that once spurned its fast food. Helping drive the transformation behind the
scenes is a bigger prioritization of first-party data, an area where the Golden
Arches owner previously lagged. Key to McDonald’s success on the data front has
been the brand’s app and a MyMcDonald’s rewards program introduced in 2020,
assets it now views as instrumental to growth.

“We really only moved into the space of putting ourselves in the position to
have power over first-party data ... when we launched the MyMcDonald’s rewards
program. We had an app, but the reality was the app was, at its earliest, a
display menu,” said Tariq Hassan, chief marketing and customer experience
officer at McDonald’s USA, at an event hosted by the Digital Place-Based
Advertising Association (DPAA) in October 2023. The DPAA is a trade group for
the out-of-home advertising industry and the discussion was moderated by Barry
Frey, its president and CEO. 

McDonald’s debut of its loyalty offering in 2020 aligned with a rediscovery of
its marketing mojo through efforts like a Famous Orders platform revolving
around the preferred meals of celebrities including Travis Scott and Mariah
Carey. More on-trend campaigns served as a course correction from a period of
directing too much energy toward “haters” — fast food is nothing if not a
combative category — and transactional ploys like limited-time offers, said
Hassan.

“We were trying to buy our way back and we all know what that story looks like,”
said Hassan. “But Famous Orders gave us our swagger back.”

The executive, who joined McDonald’s from PetCo, admitted that the QSR was a
latecomer to realizing the potential of first-party data but now operates with
the sophistication of a customer relationship management platform. That
evolution has provided a major chip in winning over Gen Z, the golden goose for
many QSRs that spent years fighting to attract health-conscious millennials. 

“In a digital-first youth market, data is a currency. It’s a form of language,”
said Hassan. “If we can use it the right way to create value, you’re going to
create deeper relationships.”

The mandate around data acquisition has been aided by McDonald’s massive scale
and name recognition. Roughly 90% of U.S. consumers set foot in a McDonald’s at
least once per year, according to estimates shared by Hassan, while nearly 60%
do so on a quarterly basis. The McDonald’s app was downloaded 40 million times
in 2022, and the brand’s total “contactable” user base today is north of 60
million, per Hassan.

“The level of data that we’re now playing with [when wedding first- and
third-party data] has fundamentally changed the way we think about the
business,” said Hassan. 


TAPPING INTO CULTURE

Implementing big changes in organizational thinking can be complex for a company
as sprawling as McDonald’s. The brand has a vast network of franchisees who have
traditionally focused on areas like driving daily transactions. A wider data
purview means McDonald’s is putting more attention toward lifetime customer
value and spending on cost per acquisition.

“For our franchisees, that is a seismic shift,” said Hassan. The marketing chief
described his work with franchisees — who can be a combative bunch — as the
“congressional part” of his career.  

“At the end of the day, I spend a percentage of all of our operators’ money,”
added Hassan. “I’m accountable to that ... It’s a great responsibility.” 

While the data-driven pivot has a lot of moving parts, McDonald’s has been on a
winning streak. Heading into October 2023, the chain experienced 83 consecutive
weeks of comparable growth and traffic growth, a new record, Hassan said.
McDonald’s U.S. comp sales were up 10.3% in the second quarter of 2023, a bump
aided by viral marketing like a nostalgia-themed celebration of mascot Grimace’s
birthday. 

Despite the momentum, Hassan noted that his organization has opened itself up to
addressing failure head-on as it looks to preserve a lead in cultural marketing.
The brand has started hosting quarterly celebrations of what the CMO termed
“amazing almosts,” concepts that didn’t quite get over the finish line or meet
internal expectations, to develop a startup mentality and learn to quickly
pivot.  

“It’s about putting the right objectives in place, collaborating, approaching it
the right way and then having sound reasons why you didn’t achieve it,” said
Hassan. “How do you start to bring a pivot mindset into a corporate culture,
that it then begets success?” 

Article top image credit: Brandon Bell via Getty Images


HOW POP-TARTS BITES HONES ITS MESSAGING WITH DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS

A pilot with VidMob helped refine Facebook and Instagram ads to drive stronger
ad recall and engagement rates.

By: Peter Adams • Published Nov. 13, 2023

Pop-Tarts Bites, the snack-sized version of the popular toaster pastry, is
striking a finer balance between emotionally led and functional messaging with
help from data-driven solutions. The brand, launched in 2018, enlisted the help
of partner VidMob for an effort that ran on Meta’s Instagram and Facebook and
sought to uncover what types of ads resonated best with three different consumer
groups — existing buyers, lapsed ones and new customers — at various stages of
the marketing funnel. 

Like many legacy CPG marketers, Pop-Tarts Bites is attempting to refine its
approach to performance marketing to draw a clearer line between online ads and
buying behavior, as brand-building is less of an issue for established names in
the category. At the same time, the brand is trying to unlock its next big
audience in Gen Z, eyeing technology as a way to deliver the needed level of
personalization to engage the young cohort. 

“We have many brands in our portfolio that have great awareness and unaided
awareness,” said Nicole Vinson, vice president of global digital, media and
omni-shopper experience at Kellanova, the snacking company that was formed when
the Kellogg Company formally split into two businesses in October 2023.

“You’ve got to start to think about … balancing the short and long term of your
investments and how you’re driving that conversion because it’s not all just
about awareness and it’s not all about purchase,” added Vinson. “There is a
middle [ground] in there.”


STAYING HYGIENIC

Pop-Tarts Bites’ collaboration with VidMob was less of a comprehensive overhaul
of the brand’s strategy than an attempt at conducting a bit of marketing
hygiene, assuring its best practices aligned with ever-changing platform
mandates to create what Vinson described as an “iterative feedback loop.”
Insights gleaned from the VidMob pilot could then be scaled and potentially
adopted by other offerings in the Kellanova portfolio. Kellanova’s snack
portfolio includes Cheez-It, Eggo, Rice Krispies Treats and Pringles. 

“Every program, every campaign, every piece of creative, ideally, would start to
go through a similar process,” said Vinson. “It’s not that we’re trying to get
to a paint-by-numbers … It’s to really understand what pieces of creative are
working the hardest to drive that business outcome.”

The tweaks to Pop-Tarts Bites’ ads, which appeared in Instagram Feeds and
Stories and Facebook In-Feed placements between April and June 2023, were
relatively subtle but made a difference results-wise. One ad was tested with an
emotional theme, promoting Pop-Tarts Bites as a morning snack with a “grab your
bites” call to action (CTA). The same image with a more functional message
centered on flavor and texture, including an emphasis on the pastry product’s
“soft-baked” quality and a sharper “Get snackin’ today!” CTA, delivered superior
ad recall, engagement rates and in-view impressions. The company declined to
share more specific results.

“Once you identify an insight, it’s about then validating that and putting it
back into the ecosystem again,” said Vinson. “It definitely met the expectations
and it helped to give us more data to support the hypotheses that we had. The
whole idea behind data-driven marketing is that you’re using the data to remove
the subjectivity.”


EYE ON AI

Pop-Tarts Bites’ experiment with VidMob aligns with Kellanova’s ongoing bets
around data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, areas that have
boomed in the wake of ChatGPT and as marketers face down the deprecation of
third-party cookies. AI and ML helped the companies better isolate and assess
specific elements of the Pop-Tart Bites’ advertisements, including the CTAs, to
provide “optimal treatments,” according to Vinson. 

“All of this is about [getting] to more personalized types of messaging so that
we can better connect with our consumers so that they can feel unique, they’re
individual — we’re not talking to them as if they’re one homogenous group,” said
Vinson. “This is where personalization comes into play. It’s not that we’re
trying to get to one-to-one [marketing].” 

Kellanova is also attempting to build a stronger bridge with Gen Z consumers, a
notoriously picky group. That demographic represented some of the new customers
that Pop-Tarts Bites was vying to gain a deeper understanding of through the
VidMob pilot and refinements to its messaging. 

“Gen Z is another audience group that we can’t ignore. We can’t talk to every
group the same,” said Vinson. “You can drive mass reach but then you also need
to blend that with personalization and really understanding your different
audience cohorts.”

Article top image credit: Permission granted by Pop-Tarts



DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING INVESTMENTS TO TOP $36B IN 2024, REPORT FINDS

The death of the cookie and rise of connected commerce offer signs marketers are
getting serious about switching up strategy.

By: Peter Adams • Published Jan. 22, 2024

Spending on marketing and advertising in the U.S. will grow 10.7% in 2024 to
reach $570 billion, according to the 18th annual forecast from consultancy
Winterberry Group. The growth rate is more than double what was seen in 2023, a
period weighed down by macro pressures. Investments in political advertising,
connected TV (CTV) and connected commerce, an umbrella term that includes retail
media, will boost the industry in 2024. 

Winterberry Group is aligned with other forecasters in believing 2024 will be a
more vibrant year for ad spending than 2023 while noting that robust top-line
growth does not tell the full story. Case in point: the upcoming election cycle,
which will provide a boon for media owners, including in the beleaguered offline
arena, but give consumer brands pause as they look to avoid getting tangled up
in divisive rhetoric and focus instead on more targeted efforts. 

The upshot is that creativity will be impacted in the months ahead, echoing a
staid 2023, while local advertising prices could rise in a cluttered environment
for inboxes and airtime. The consultancy expects political ad spending to reach
$17 billion in 2024, accounting for roughly 30% of total growth during the year.
Tailwinds from political campaigns also mask that underlying growth trends are
stabilizing after a wild few pandemic years.   

Many key channels are undergoing transformation that will bring ups and downs
for brands and publishers alike. The live sports space, one of the last “moats”
around linear TV, is jumping to the streaming arena, as evidenced by Amazon’s
deal with regional operator Diamond Sports Group. CTV spending is expected to
grow over 30% YoY in 2024 to hit $33.1 billion as advertisers chase emerging
opportunities and a proliferation of ad-supported options. 

Networks will respond to these shifts by taking a more disciplined approach to
dealmaking, bundling linear and digital buys together and providing better
audience-targeting tools, according to Winterberry Group. Blurring lines between
linear and digital will still deliver measurement headaches, with more than half
(53%) of surveyed TV advertisers citing a lack of common metrics across channels
as a top challenge. Pains stemming from data silos were a prevalent theme in
Winterberry Group’s findings. 

Amid the death of the cookie, marketers will run experiments with alternatives
like first-party identity solutions, per the report, resulting in a boom for the
data-driven marketing segment. Obsessions with generative artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will be another theme even as
consumer appetites are an open question.

Attempts to tackle cookie deprecation will buoy data-driven marketing but could
divide marketers’ attention from fraud, waste and transparency problems. One
rising juggernaut is connected commerce, a bucket that encompasses retail media
networks. A larger profile for the channel comes with increased complexity
around measurement and media buying, a pain point that could be solved by
investments in areas like ML and AI, per Winterberry Group.  

“Investment in data-driven channels will flourish in 2024, with spending on
data, data services and data infrastructure predicted to top $36 billion —
representing a 13.9% increase from last year,” said Bruce Biegel, Winterberry
Group’s senior managing partner, in a statement attached to the report. “We
believe the market is poised to reclaim much of the growth momentum that’s been
lacking for much of the last year.” 

The chase to realize marketing use cases for shiny generative AI tech could also
outstrip consumer interest and clash with governance concerns around personal
data handling. Just half (51%) of surveyed consumers have tried out software
like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, suggesting media hype is ahead of adoption,
with Winterberry Group eyeing 2026 as a more likely window for proper
acceleration for the category.

Article top image credit: natrot via Getty Images


THIRD-PARTY DATA LOSS COULD BE PROBLEMATIC FOR SMBS: HERE’S WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY

Nearly 90% of small and medium-sized marketers are concerned about losing
third-party data access, per UpCity.

By: Sara Karlovitch • Published Dec. 22, 2023

As third-party cookies fall out of favor, advertisers have been seeking
alternative methods of ad targeting. Such efforts have resulted in the emergence
of retail media networks that rely on troves of shopper data, along with other
solutions oriented around first-party data. However, while larger brands can
leverage these emerging tools to their advantage, the same isn’t always true for
small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Nearly 90% of SMBs are worried about
losing access to third-party data, according to a study by UpCity.

Breaking out the numbers further, 89% of businesses with 100 or more employees
and 82% of businesses with fewer than 100 employees hold such concerns. With
Google beginning to phase out cookies and increased legislative scrutiny
surrounding consumer data acquisition in general, the sense of pressure is
amplifying quickly and will be a key discussion point in going forward.

The survey of 300 SMB marketing analytics professionals was conducted using
Pollfish in October 2023. Survey respondents were screened according to their
role in overseeing analytics and data management. 


SMALL BUSINESS, BIG DATA

There are many reasons why SMBs have turned to data collection and analysis,
according to UpCity. Seventy percent of survey respondents reported using data
for more targeted campaigns and 59% reported using data to improve market
forecasting. Over half of participants (57%) use data for more defined market
segmentation while 36% do so for improved attribution modeling and 34% for
better A/B testing. 

Return-on-investment (ROI) was ranked at the top of the most important types of
data for SMBs, with 47% of survey respondents indicating this is the case. In
second place was customer lifetime value at 36%, followed by customer
acquisition cost at 34%. Conversion rate was of importance to 31% of
respondents, website traffic volume to 29% and engagement metrics to 28%,
according to the report. 

While data brings benefits, it also brings heavy costs. Thirteen percent of SMBs
report investing $901 or more in first-party data per month, compared to just
10% of SMBs who invested that amount in third-party data. 

First-party data is more likely to yield a higher return when compared to
third-party data. Sixty percent of SMBs see an ROI of $30 or more per dollar
spent with first-party data, compared to 50% getting a similar return for
third-party data. Third-party data was also more likely to deliver an ROI per
dollar spent of $0 or less, with 10% of respondents seeing this with third-party
data compared to just 2% for first-party data.


COLLECTION STARTS NOW

While first-party data has a clear advantage over third-party data, its use and
collection can be costly. Smaller companies may have a harder time accessing
consumers as the shift to first-party data continues. However, SMBs cannot wait
to invest in first-party data, according to the UpCity report. 



Digital marketing agencies may prove a lifeline for SMB marketers in the coming
years. Ninety-two percent of respondents who utilize third-party data report
looking to digital marketing agencies for support, with 56% already doing so and
36% planning on doing so in the next year. 

Data sharing also provides a valuable opportunity for SMB marketers. While on
their own SMBs cannot match the data power of massive corporations, data sharing
can help amplify their abilities. Forty-seven percent of SMBs already share
their data with other SMBs and an additional 34% plan on doing so. 

Software and consultants remain another option for data help, with 61% of SMBs
already investing in software and another 32% planning on doing so in the next
year. Over half (47%) of respondents have already hired a freelance marketing
agency or consultant and 42% plan on doing so in the next year.

Article top image credit: LumiNola via Getty Images



WHAT TACO BELL AND DOORDASH LEARNED ABOUT LOYALTY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Taco Bell Chief Digital Officer Dane Mathews and DoorDash CMO Kofi
Amoo-Gottfried dug into building brand trust at Advertising Week New York.

By: Chris Kelly • Published Oct. 20, 2023

A number of discussions at Advertising Week’s 2023 New York conference, which
was held from Oct. 16-19, revolved around how marketers can build consumer trust
and loyalty for their brands. DoorDash CMO Kofi Amoo-Gottfried at a Thursday
session reminded attendees that such strategies are more difficult than many
imagine.

“It’s a bit of a highfalutin notion, the idea that people can be loyal to a
brand, but people are not loyal to their partners,” Amoo-Gottfried said to
chuckles from attendees. “We will never be in a position where someone is 100%
loyal all the time. But how do you earn more and more of their business?”

The DoorDash executive’s position was echoed by fellow panelist Dane Mathews,
Taco Bell’s chief digital officer, who noted how even a brand like Taco Bell
that has strong consumer preference must work to maintain it in a highly
competitive QSR landscape.

“There are lots of entities … trying to get better at it and trying to shave
away that preference. You’re always trying to optimize, you’re trying to get
better at it and it has nothing to do with what you’re doing today,” Mathews
said. “You need to hold on to how you exist [now], but you need to strive and
find new ways to drive engagement.”


TAPPING ‘DISCRETE AUDIENCES’

Both DoorDash and Taco Bell have worked to drive engagement through subscription
services with the DashPass and Taco Lover’s Pass, respectively. DashPass gives
DoorDash a sense of its most loyal users’ engagement habits, while the Taco
Lover’s Pass seeks to drive greater frequency from an audience that already has
high frequency.

“Product innovation needs to be really tied, not to broad-based audiences, but
to discrete audiences that you’re trying to grow specific, defined behaviors out
of,” Mathews explained. “The metrics show where and how to do that.”

DoorDash measures loyalty in a number of ways, with retention and frequency as
key metrics. For Taco Bell, consumer behavior is most telling. As an example,
Mathews noted that the brand sees devotees, internally dubbed “Purple
Knights,” who help other consumers learn about new Taco Bell products at launch
on social media.

“We look at the sphere of loyalty beyond just purchases,” the exec said. “It’s
about, how do you rep the brand and how do you rep other consumers that want to
be engaged with the brand?”

Central to establishing brand loyalty is trust. Amoo-Gottfried noted two
dimensions of trust: doing the job for which you’ve been chosen by a consumer
and being aligned with a business purpose and how it operates. For most
consumers, the latter is secondary to the former. 

“Do I care about your highfalutin purpose? Turns out people don’t — they care
about me doing the thing they hired me for,” the exec said.


COMING TOGETHER FOR TACO TUESDAY

Taco Bell and DoorDash formalized their relationship in November 2022 when the
chain added delivery to its rewards app. But at first, the relationship between
companies was simply transactional, Amoo-Gottfried noted.

“We [wanted] to figure out how to get it to a different place,” he said. “How do
you build more engagement? How do you build more trust and get to the place
where we’re both deeply invested in growing each other’s businesses?”

The companies had a major opportunity to do so as part of Taco Bell’s efforts in
2023 to “liberate” the phrase “Taco Tuesday,” which had been trademarked by
Cheyenne, Wyoming-based chain Taco John’s for years. Taco Bell’s campaign, which
included an online petition and spots with LeBron James, was born out of the
“ridiculousness of the whole situation” wherein mom-and-pop taquerias would
sometimes receive cease-and-desist letters for using the phrase “Taco
Tuesday,” Mathews explained.

Taco John’s later abandoned the trademark and launched a marketing push of its
own, which Taco Bell soon followed with an effort that saw it pick up the tab on
taco orders placed with participating Mexican food vendors through DoorDash. The
companies pooled $5 million to comp taco orders on Sept. 12 to mark the
occasion.

“The surest, fastest way to celebrate it was through delivery. If we wanted to
reach the taqueros, if we wanted to amplify and celebrate their ability to use
Taco Tuesday, the most simplified, straightforward platform to do that with was
DoorDash,” Mathews said.

The collaboration was an unusual one, with Taco Bell pushing consumers toward
mom-and-pop taquerias via DoorDash, and required unorthodox work behind the
scenes. Taco Bell drove the effort via its customer relationship management
platform, and the brands set up a war room to monitor how consumers responded to
make sure local taco spots weren’t overwhelmed by the effort. Both executives
are proud of what the Taco Tuesday push means for their brands.

“We believe it’s a way for the category and taco culture to continue to thrive
in a burger world,” Mathews said.

Meanwhile, Amoo-Gottfried borrowed a term, #TombstoneGoals, from Taco Bell CEO
Sean Tresvant to describe the partnership.

“The things that we do together have to be the types of things that can go on
our tombstones,” he said.

Article top image credit: Courtesy of AWNewYork





INSIDE THE LATEST DATA MARKETING STRATEGIES

For the past few years, the data landscape has faced significant upheaval. To
address these challenges, brands and other stakeholders are experimenting with
numerous ways to engage online consumers while not running afoul of privacy
concerns.

INCLUDED IN THIS TRENDLINE

 * How generative AI could solve the cookie deprecation puzzle in 2024
 * McDonald’s US CMO on brand’s first-party data transformation
 * How Pop-Tarts Bites hones its messaging with data-driven insights

Our Trendlines go deep on the biggest trends. These special reports, produced by
our team of award-winning journalists, help business leaders understand how
their industries are changing.
Davide Savenije Editor-in-Chief at Industry Dive.