A few years ago, the demise of the cookie was the chief worry on everyone’s mind. Marketers, agencies and publishers all struggled to imagine a future where they were able to continue delivering the seamless, connected experiences (that consumers have come to expect) in a world where the core technology supporting these strategies (the cookie) no longer existed.
In 2012 the IAB formed the Future of the Cookie Working Group to address these issues – adding to them, the context of consumer privacy, publisher control, and other principles.
In the “Privacy and Tracking in a Post-Cookie World” whitepaper, the group established five technology classes that described existing and emerging state management technologies, and evaluated their impact on consumers, publishers, and other industry participants. Thanks in part to the important work of this group, industry adoption and comfort with a variety of state management technologies, including the cookie, has become the norm.
As we look ahead to 2015 and the current discussion and needs of the market, two main streams of work remain. In response to this and our members’ needs, the IAB is sun setting the Future of the Cookie Working Group to tackle these two streams of work more efficiently:
1. Data
Now that buyers and sellers have become more familiar with cookie-replacement technologies, and many are choosing to create their own proprietary solutions, a larger business and process discussion about audience engagement and the usage of audience data has emerged. Where the need was previously to understand the available technology choices, now many in the market are focused on gaining clarity around the new techniques, and best practices, for use and control of audience data in this developing cross-platform landscape. Including, but not limited to, the use of audience identifiers – the IAB’s Data Council will be home to continued discussions and guidance for how we can all be good data stewards. This will undoubtedly include timely issues such as data quality, protection, control and using data to inform an overall digital strategy.
2. Technology
Understanding the available technology has been a core effort of the Future of the Cookie working group. With the IAB Tech Lab, we have a natural forum for continued evaluation of state management technologies, and the opportunity to bring together technical experts to develop resources and guidance for implementation.
The IAB Tech Lab spearheads the development of technical specifications, creates and maintains a code library to assist in rapid, cost-effective implementation of IAB specifications and guidelines, and establishes a test platform for companies to evaluate the compatibility of their technology solutions with IAB protocols.
As we move forward, these two groups will address the breadth of technologies that are available for understanding audience behavior and continue to provide guidance and leadership in those realms. So with that, we would like to extend a sincere and hearty “THANK YOU” to the more than 200 individuals, companies, members and non-members who contributed to the Future of the Cookie initiative. Also worth some praise are our stellar initial cast of co-chairs who truly contributed blood, sweat, and more acronyms than we can mention here:
- Jordan Mitchell, VP Product, Rubicon
- Amy Kuznicki, Associate Director, Verizon
- Susan Pierce, Engineering Manager, Google
- Matt Tengler, SVP Product, Millennial Media
- Phillip Smolin, SVP Market Solutions, TURN