Last week InfoSum hosted our publishing industry breakfast. The event was attended by approximately 30 representatives of the UK’s largest media owners and focused on how they can unlock the value of first-party data in a cookieless world. 

The keynote presentation was given by Alex Wright from Channel 4 who gave those in attendance an overview of how Channel 4’s plans to make their 22 million registered users available for brands to match their first-party data against to power targeted advertising campaigns. 

Alex shared her thoughts on the importance of both brands and publishers knowing their customers. 

Alex was joined by Camila Child from Telegraph Media Group, Faisal Karmali from Warner Media and Colin Grieves from Experian, each of whom provided their unique insight into how businesses might plan to use their first-party data in a cookieless world. Camila discussed the target set by Telegraph Media Group to increase their subscribers to 10 million by 2023 to provide a larger ’known’ addressable audience to brands, while Faisal provided an interesting insight into how Warner Media is looking at the post-cookie world and the value that resides in their extensive first-party data sources across their various properties. 

On the subject of identity, there was a discussion around the different approaches to identity, with one publisher stating “it doesn’t feel right for one company to own identity”, and in fact, every brand and publisher should own their own identity. But it will be equally important that these parties find privacy-safe and secure ways to work collaboratively as closer relationships between brand and publisher will be key to future success.

With Experian working exclusively in first-party data, Colin discussed the importance of brands, media owners and their media agencies finding ways to collaborate across these valuable data sources and how Experian can help support these strategic alliances.

‍