With a week under their collective belts to absorb Google’s surprising, but not shocking news, that it’s doing an about-face on deprecating
third-party cookies from its browsers, media agencies large and small are choosing to press ahead as if cookies are going away — especially
since they kind of are anyway.

Media agencies’ main message to clients is to focus on generating quality, usable first-party data that’s compliant, because privacy issues
are rendering cookies more and more useless.

A survey of several holding companies (including Dentsu, Omnicom, IPG and Stagwell) and independent media agencies reveals a variety of
suggested ways forward as well as caution around Google’s Privacy Sandbox — many agencies suggest continuing to work with other
alternatives in the identifier space.

NOVUS’ own Paul DeJarnatt, VP and head of Digital contributed his thoughts:

The decision by Google doesn’t exactly mean cookies are here to stay in the long run – “cookies’ days are still numbered,” said Paul
DeJarnatt, vp and head of digital at Novus. What is likely to stick are the efforts to move off of cookies and build on the established “good
habits,” he explained. These include other forms of targeting, like device graphs or opt-ins, as well as better first-party data usage.

“Now there are entire digital channels like CTV and streaming audio that do not rely on a cookie for targeting or measurement, making the
long-term prospect for cookies one of obsolescence in a multichannel, fragmented landscape,” DeJarnatt said.

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