💾 GADM Under the Microscope

In Today's Issue

• Cookies, Crown Jewels, and Reasonable Concerns

• Done With You Universal Analytics Backup

• Target Acquired!

• Google-Centric Focus

• Learning AI made easy

• Storytelling Takes the Stage at the Super Bowl

• Super Bowl Ads

Google is betting on its logged-in user base to replace third-party cookies: A Q&A with Goodway Group’s Rober Webster and Anonymised’s Mattia Fosci

Keeping up with all things cookie depreciation is like attempting to dance the Macarena on a tightrope strung between two hot air balloons. It’s a precarious endeavor, and just when you think you’ve nailed the moves, you’re soaring off into uncharted airspace.

To help sort us keep our footing, Digiday contacted Rob Webster, global vp of strategy at digital marketing consultancy CvE, and Mattia Fosci, CEO of privacy-focused ad tech platform Anonymised. 

They’ve helped make sense of Google Ads Data Manager (GADM), which is being made available in Google Ads later this year.

But first, let’s peel back the layers on what GADM actually is: According to Google, it’s supposed to make sharing your first-party customer data (the stuff that’s like the crown jewels of marketing — online and offline sales, plus personal tidbits like names, email addresses, phone numbers and even home addresses) with Google’s platform a breeze.

Google then takes this treasure trove of data, stirs it into their own media data and mixes it up with Google log-in info, like a mad scientist brewing a potion. The result? They use it to target ads and measure campaign attribution like a digital sorcerer.

It’s worth asking whether Google is dismantling the traditional power source of cookies while concurrently pushing targeting and measurement options dependent on its first-party data, to create a landscape where only they (and other giants running closed platforms) can fully capitalize on this paradigm shift.

This is Google data backup opportunity you asked for!

We recently surveyed 150 of our newsletter subscribers, and 88% of respondents have not backed up their Universal Analytics data. Even though that data will be deleted in a few months.

Of those who responded, 83% want to back up their data but haven’t found the right solution.

That’s why we have created a new workshop and support series called Universal Analytics Backup Academy, which allows you to back up your data in the most cost-effective and time-efficient way possible.

Learn more about the UA Backup Academy here.

🎯 The idea is the bullet, data is the gun

There’s a data backlash going on. Sometimes it’s expressed quietly, but in rooms full of influence, it’s often loud. And the complaint is always the same: data imposes rules on advertising and it stifles the imagination.

This is true, but the answer isn’t to throw data away. It’s to evolve the way data is being used. Data shouldn’t be used to dictate, instruct, or generate ideas. Coming up with good ideas is a job for people.

🏈 How AI Showed Up in Ads During Super Bowl This Year

“Despite heightened interest and anticipation for AI in marketing and advertising, there’s a notable scarcity of actual AI-led ads this year,” said Graham Page, global managing director of media analytics, Affectiva. 

“Many advertisers, although heavily experimenting with AI, may not currently view the Super Bowl as the ideal testing ground due to potential unexpected errors. This scarcity contrasts with the undeniable fact that AI is being used in ways that are less obvious to viewers throughout the Super Bowl.”

📜‘Constitution of the internet’ comes into force

In Ireland, lawyer Sinéad Taaffe described the new Digital Services Bill 2023 as “the constitution of the internet”, which signifies its transformative nature. It ends the era of self-regulation by internet providers and makes illegal online what is illegal offline.

The bill, which provides for the implementation in Ireland of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), passed its final stages in the Oireachtas earlier last week. The DSA introduces obligations spanning content moderation, recommender systems, online advertising, and ‘dark patterns’, with a key focus on the better protection of minors, she said.

• What's the best strategy to have a Google Ad appear top of results every time?- Ok Language on Reddit

• 10 Creative Valentine's Day ideas this year - 

• This is one of many reasons why marketers focus so much on the various Google platforms - JJ the marketing guy on X

• Yes I am a social media manager! - Jeremy on X

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It’s getting harder for commercials to score with consumers

Super Bowl ads this year, which sold out by early November 2023, were dominated by food and beverage brands. These products appeal to a broad target audience.

At a cost of up to US$7 million for a 30-second spot – the same as last year – this brief stint on the big stage didn’t come cheap. 

And that’s before taking into account the cost to create the ads themselves. All together, one spot can cost companies more than $20 million. What are these advertisers hoping to gain, and is it worth it? For some, it clearly can be.

To start, consider that the most effective ads – those that stand out above the crowd – are visible long before the game begins and for weeks and even years afterward. That coverage also continues after the game, with polls and feature stories ranking which ads worked and which didn’t as Monday morning advertising quarterbacks weigh in. Some of the best Super Bowl ads even take on a life of their own that lasts long after they first ran.

Marketers know TikTok and other social sites are better platforms for delivering messages to targeted demographics. Still, in today’s fractured media landscape, the Super Bowl is a rare event with truly mass appeal: More than 60% of Americans tuned into last year’s game, according to the NFL. That’s a lot of eyeballs.

Today's marketing executives recognize that Super Bowl TV commercials work best when they promote mass market products – through humor, use of animals, nostalgia and celebrities – as well as social causes that resonate with consumers. Linking a brand with memorable and creative storytelling is also an effective way to boost overall brand visibility.

• The 6 most talked-about ads from Super Bowl 2024-"Tom West on Marketing Beat

• Brands shell out big bucks for Super Bowl ads- CNN

• Death of Cookies & What It Means For Facebook Ads- Ben Heath on YouTube

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