Written by Tim Danton for Techfinitive.
Crunch time is coming for marketers. Google started restricting third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users from 4 January 2024, with a complete phase out proposed during Q3. That means savvy marketing leaders such as Sarah Whitfield, CMO at Covatic, are already planning for big changes.
“This [move by Google], combined with tightening legislation and increasingly diverse audiences, means that effective ad targeting is getting increasingly complicated,” she said, when looking ahead to what the rest of 2024 has to offer. “I expect widespread trialling and adoption of alternative targeting solutions that address these concerns while still preserving users’ online privacy.”
However, Sarah explains, that’s where AI can step up. “AI has also enabled advertisers to develop alternative targeting solutions that don’t rely on identifiers,” she said. “Instead, large volumes of data are analysed by AI tools to identify relevant characteristics in anonymous users, to fuel privacy-centric, targeted advertising.”
All of this is a long way from when Sarah moved into her first marketing role in the late 1990s. During a storied career, she has held many notable leadership roles — including VP of Marketing, Europe, at AOL & The Huffington Post, VP of Global Marketing Programmes & Corporate Communications at Outbrain, and VP of Global Marketing at Pearson.
In her current role as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Covatic, she is responsible for developing and executing marketing strategies that place the company on the global stage as a pioneer in the AdTech industry. Through this insight-packed interview, you’ll get an idea of how.
Crunch time is coming for marketers. Google started restricting third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users from 4 January 2024, with a complete phase out proposed during Q3. That means savvy marketing leaders such as Sarah Whitfield, CMO at Covatic, are already planning for big changes.
“This [move by Google], combined with tightening legislation and increasingly diverse audiences, means that effective ad targeting is getting increasingly complicated,” she said, when looking ahead to what the rest of 2024 has to offer. “I expect widespread trialling and adoption of alternative targeting solutions that address these concerns while still preserving users’ online privacy.”
However, Sarah explains, that’s where AI can step up. “AI has also enabled advertisers to develop alternative targeting solutions that don’t rely on identifiers,” she said. “Instead, large volumes of data are analysed by AI tools to identify relevant characteristics in anonymous users, to fuel privacy-centric, targeted advertising.”
All of this is a long way from when Sarah moved into her first marketing role in the late 1990s. During a storied career, she has held many notable leadership roles — including VP of Marketing, Europe, at AOL & The Huffington Post, VP of Global Marketing Programmes & Corporate Communications at Outbrain, and VP of Global Marketing at Pearson.
In her current role as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Covatic, she is responsible for developing and executing marketing strategies that place the company on the global stage as a pioneer in the AdTech industry. Through this insight-packed interview, you’ll get an idea of how.