• by Heather O’Shea , March 11, 2024

As the media and marketing landscape continues to evolve, one thing remains constant: the importance of understanding our audience.

Over time, as media consumption habits changed and more media budgets moved to digital marketing, so did our research and measurement strategies. The allure of digital platforms and their promise of real-time measurement led to a rapid shift in research priorities and marketing KPIs, driven by an unprecedented ability to measure performance.

Cookies as a tracking mechanism were transformative in this environment. We found ourselves able to measure and optimize campaigns in ways we never could before. Yet, amid this transition, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was being lost. The focus had shifted from understanding our audience to purely measuring their actions in the moment. If we’re just rushing toward optimizing for clicks and immediate conversions, there is a tendency to overlook why people are making decisions and taking action, and not gain a robust understanding of consumer psychology and behaviors.

Overall, this puts brands at risk of becoming mere commodities in a crowded marketplace. This has been a factor in the erosion of brand loyalty. We’re missing many opportunities if we’re not placing value on brand building and audience understanding.

In this cookie-driven ecosystem, marketers are spending the majority of their budget on in-the-moment conversions, putting a huge amount of effort into measuring the campaigns live, optimizing toward the click, delivering ads and doing as much granular measurement as possible. All this is meant to lead to a purchase in the moment, but in many cases, this happens among those who were likely to convert anyway -- spending money and time that may not have been needed in the first place.

Despite these shortcomings, marketers have come to rely on cookies for much of their decision-making. With their pending demise, it’s time for a major pivot. I maintain we need to focus more on other research strategies that will deliver deep consumer understanding. This doesn’t mean we need to go back to the way that insights were done before the advent of digital measurement, but instead use all the new tools and techniques at our fingertips to help us explore audience behaviors, sentiment and values -- gaining insights that can help tailor outreach.

Some examples include:

• Digitally enabled segmentation to develop and reach target audiences
• Mobile ethnographies to longitudinally understand media habits
• In-context experimental design to evaluate ads in a controlled environment

For marketers, a post-cookie world is going to be more about connection, as contextual advertising and content, great experiences, and building relationships become our new “cookies.” People will still want personalization and tailored interactions with brands, and turning to more consumer-focused market research can help brands continue to provide this. As the industry continues to evolve, integrating research strategies beyond measurement will be key to driving long-term success.