A Marketer’s Checklist for Forging Sustainable Data Partnerships in an Era of Rapid Change

Data-driven marketing professionals have long understood that change is the only constant within their industry. However, even with this expectation in place, 2024 has been a turbulent year. Between the departure of major data providers from the advertising industry and tremendous shifts in privacy regulations and policies (including Google’s reversal on its plans to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome), industry playbooks are constantly being rewritten in real time. 

For marketers, the result can be an overwhelming sense of insecurity. However, with the right planning and partners, shifts within the industry need not stop marketers in their tracks.  

Now, more than ever, it’s essential for brands and agencies to be vetting their data and technology partners based not just on the value that they can deliver today, but also their track records within the industry and overall reliability as long-term partners.  

Here’s the checklist that modern marketers should be using when seeking sustainable data and technology partners:

A High-Quality and Privacy-Centric Core 

In vetting data and technology partners today, marketers need to go straight to the core of these organizations: What kind of data and insights power the company and its solutions, and does the company prioritize consumer privacy and ethical data practices? More importantly, are there third parties in the marketplace that can attest to this quality and compliance?  

Eyeota’s data has been independently audited to provide confidence and reassurance to buyers of its quality and compliance. Key certifications include:  

• The IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency Label, which is intended to help marketers evaluate the quality of the audience data that they buy, including who provided the data, what audience segments are in datasets, how the segments were constructed, and the original sources of the information. 

• Neutronian, which provides a certification of quality and a compliance rating of audience data that includes everything buyers need to know about a dataset before using it, such as sourcing, transparency, dataset characteristics, methodology and processing. 

An ID-Agnostic Approach 

Even though Google has backed off its plans to actively deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome, the need for our industry to move past legacy identifiers has become clear. These days, marketers need data partners who are committed to sustainable, ID-agnostic approaches that will enable marketers and their campaigns to pivot as needed alongside marketplace shifts.  

At Eyeota, our approach and technology are not beholden to third-party cookies, which will continue to decline in relevance. Rather, the following identifiers provide the foundation for our solutions:  

• First-party data: We work directly with publishers to tap into their high-quality first-party data in a privacy-compliant way.  

• Mobile IDs: Mobile IDs are expected to keep working the same way as they do today and will expand to cover OTT, connected TV, and other environments. 

• Hashed emails: We work with publishers to use HEMs they’ve collected from registrations, and we work with partners providing HEM matching services, enabling us to extend audience targeting to social channels. 

• Universal IDs: Eyeota integrates with companies that have created identifiers to universally recognize and share information on users without cookies (e.g., RampID). 

• Contextual data: Eyeota has embraced contextual solutions in the market. These solutions provide a cookieless alternative for targeting (e.g., Comscore Predictive Audiences). 

• IP and CTV IDs: IP IDs provide a data point that can be tied to household or business-level online activity. IPs can also correspond to connected TVs. 

Omnichannel Capabilities 

Consumers continue to spend more and more of their media time in environments where cookies are either no longer relevant or have never been relevant, including emerging audio, DOOH, social, and CTV channels. As a result, marketers must seek out data and technology partners with robust omnichannel capabilities to stay competitive. These partners provide a unified view of customer interactions across various platforms—such as social media, email, mobile, and in-store—allowing for seamless and consistent customer experiences.  

At Eyeota, by delivering audience data powered by multiple identifiers, we ensure that brands can continue to reach users who have opted in and out of cookies on Chrome. We also extend that reach to users on cookieless browsers, including Safari and Firefox, and cookieless channels, such as audio, CTV, digital out-of-home, mobile, and social. Powered by our proprietary ID-agnostic technology, our solutions enable the seamless delivery of omnichannel targeting, enhancing reach, scale, and precision. 

A History of Adapting to Change 

In an ever-changing data landscape, the importance of experience and longevity cannot be overstated. Marketers must seek out partners that have established track records of helping their clients navigate major marketplace shifts, including transformative regulations like GDPR and CCPA.  

At Dun & Bradstreet and Eyeota, we have almost two centuries of experience in helping clients to grow and thrive. Founded in 1841, Dun & Bradstreet acquired Eyeota in 2021. Together, we power global, qualified, holistic audience targeting solutions for today’s marketers. Notably, in 2023, Dun & Bradstreet and Eyeota announced the global activation of the D-U-N-S® number for digital targeting, emphasizing our commitment to leveraging our combined organizational strength for the continued benefit of our clients.  

A Global Presence 

Regardless of the size of an organization, today’s businesses exist in a global reality. For global enterprises and growth-minded companies, it’s important to seek out partners that have experience in the most important markets around the world. These partners offer the expertise and infrastructure to navigate diverse markets, ensuring that businesses can effectively reach and engage audiences worldwide. A global presence enables access to a broader range of data, providing deeper insights into regional consumer behaviors and preferences. Additionally, such partners are adept at managing compliance with international regulations, reducing the risk of legal challenges.  

At Dun & Bradstreet and Eyeota, we offer global B2B and B2C audience solutions, across the Americans, Asia, EMEA, and Australia and New Zealand. As a globally established partner, we can help companies scale their operations, insights, personalization, and targeting more efficiently. 

Flexibility by Design 

Finally, as marketers vet potential data and technology providers for sustainability, it’s important to seek data and technology partners that are flexible by design. Such partners can adapt to changing market conditions, emerging technologies, and evolving customer preferences, ensuring that marketing strategies remain effective and relevant. Importantly, these partners should provide a wide array of solutions and models to fit an organization’s specific needs and use cases.  

 At Dun & Bradstreet and Eyeota, we help clients level up their digital marketing by combining B2B consumer traits with B2C personas to identify, reach, and engage desired audiences. Beyond our syndicated offerings, we also offer custom and ABM audience targeting. The benefits of ABM and custom targeting include:  

• Higher ROI via a best-fit audience engagement strategy that avoids waste 

• Hyper-targeted engagement that drives upper-funnel awareness by identifying key accounts in the interest and consideration phase 

• Shortened sales cycles, thanks to performance-focused engagement of in-market audiences at the point of renewal 

• Optimization of brand loyalty and market share by pinpointing audiences interacting with competitive brands 

Partnerships Built to Last 

At Dun & Bradstreet and Eyeota, we’re focused on helping clients build and drive sustainable growth strategies, regardless of any curveballs the market might throw their way.  

Dun & Bradstreet is a global company that specializes in providing commercial data, analytics, and insights to businesses. Dun & Bradstreet has the world’s largest repository of business data, known as the Data Cloud, and is the creator of the D-U-N-S®, the unique identifying global standard for business identification.  

Eyeota fuses qualified user identifiers to create robust audience profiles that help brands to identify, reach, and engage their best customers in digital environments. Eyeota is the world’s largest provider of audience solutions for insights, personalization, and omnichannel targeting. 

Interested in building a sustainable marketing strategy with ID-agnostic audience data? Connect with our Data Desk team today!👇