• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 13, 2024

Experts who have worked at Verizon, IBM, Adobe, Dentsu X, Barney's, Global Data Bank and other firms have been recruited to serve on startup data-compliance technology firm Compliant's advisory board to support brands in the transition from browser cookies to other forms of targeting.

Compliant, which is led by former Unilever, Facebook, and P&G executives, is creating a company board of advisors.

Its members will provide the digital media industry with insights on the types of tools required to gain consumer trust, campaign performance and data compliance as the industry shifts from cookie-based targeting and measurement to new data signals and ad-tech solutions.

The startup has aspirations to support brands to the next phase of targeting, but that is a lofty goal. 

Compliant Indexes show how the data flows around media that is bought and sold -- allowing advertisers, agencies and publishers to better understand the company’s vulnerability and resilience based on data and compliance.

Jamie Barnard, CEO and co-founder of Compliant, calls the work this group will do “one of the most, if not the most” important digital media standards for the coming decade. The organization works with other groups such as the World Federation of Advertising (WFA), and the Association of Digital Advertisers (ANA) in the U.S.

“You have to find a way to make compliance pay,” Barnard said. “If you can find a way to improve media performance while being more compliant, you have a much better chance for the industry to embrace the change needed.”

The company's board will address "seismic changes" in the industry, which is looking for new identifiers for ad targeting. Some believe they will eventually find this in emerging technology such as artificial intelligence, but for now it will support companies like Google that are attempting to build out tools such as Privacy Sandbox. Apple has already rolled out its version, along with Mozilla Firefox.

“Few people have a clear view on how the industry will emerge,” he said. “It’s easy to be paralyzed by the complexity and uncertainty.”  

Like an airplane waiting to take flight, Barnard said the industry has run out of “tarmac” -- in the sense that once cookies are fully deprecated, it must take a new direction as it enters a new era of advertising. Companies will have no other option than to build privacy-safe solutions.

"I've heard that today only 30% of the open web is addressable," he said. 

The Compliant group aims to assist advertisers, agencies, and publishers to ease the transition that monitors the flow of data tied to media bought and sold when shifting to new solutions to drive increased return on investment (ROI).

Overall, Barnard has an optimistic view about the end of cookies. Much of what's wrong with online advertising will disappear and force companies to do business in what the industry says is "a privacy safe way." 

• Oleg Bershadsky, former COO at Integral Ad Science
• Caroline Campbell, partner at LEO DIX and former Verizon Media senior vice president of communications
• John deTar, president at Global Data Bank
• Martin Gilliard, CEO at Arteli and former CIO at Barney’s
• Ryan Jamboretz, former president at Smartly.io
• Allie Kline, partner at LEO DIX and former CMO at Verizon Media
• Jason Lohr, director at Adobe
• Beth Mach, former CCO at True Car and former president at Dentsu X
• Sarah Ripmaster, senior vice president at Innovid and former head of sales and technology at IBM
• Stewart Room, technology and media leader at DWF, and president of UK National Association of Data Protection Officers, European Data Protection Board
• Andrew Snyder, former operating partner at TCG and senior vice president at Meredith
• Tom Triscari, CEO at Lemonade Projects