The Cookie Curveball: a summary of the key themes discussed at IAB UK’s event

“Lots has been written, talked and posted” following Google’s announcement that it is removing the 2025 third-party cookie deadline on Chrome, explained IAB UK’s CMO James Chandler, opening the event. “This afternoon is about getting you some detailed perspectives from across the industry - giving you a sense of how people are reacting to the news and how they are responding - as well as hearing from Google.” He encouraged delegates to feedback their views on Google’s proposal to the CMA by 12 August - the IAB has outlined how it will be feeding back here.

Gaby Jenkins (Partner Manager, Privacy Sandbox Partnerships, Google), started with a recap of the key points in Google’s announcement about offering users the choice as to whether third-party cookies are used. She explained that “one of the things that doesn’t change is the goals of Privacy Sandbox - to improve privacy on the web”. Google is currently in discussions with regulators and Jenkins said she would come back to the industry with more information once it is available.  

Here’s a summary of the discussion that followed:  

More clarity is needed  

“When is all this going to happen?” is one of the questions that the Privacy Sandbox team has been hearing the most according to Jenkins. While she couldn’t go into more detail about when the changes outlined in Google’s blog post will come into effect - pointing to ongoing conversations with regulators - she said that Google would provide more clarity around timelines as soon as possible.  

What do the industry think? Matt McIntyre, (SVP Product Strategy, Choreograph, GroupM) said that it’s “pretty safe to say it’s not going to happen in Q4 [2024], but as soon as we hit 2025 we need to have a plan for our clients in how we address three use cases” - reaching existing customers, reaching new customers and effectively measuring campaigns.  

Cadi Jones (SVP, Europe at Index Exchange) summed up the industry's position: “We’re hungry for a lot more clarification”.  A prime example, pointed out by Mattia Fosci (Founder and CEO, Anonymised), is that Privacy Sandbox used to talk about cross-side tracking but the blog post just talks about third-party cookies: “Is it still looking at alternative IDs as part of the measures that will be turned off? What it looks like, what will be allowed… the sooner we have clarity, the better it will be for everyone.” 
 

Work to date hasn’t been a waste 

While frustration was voiced by our industry speakers - alongside calls for more detail on Google’s plans - there was also an overwhelming sense that the work that has so far been done in this space has not been a waste. “We’re already on the right path, we have to adapt to a multi-signal world” is the message that Choregraph has been taking to its clients, explained McIntyre, adding that they’re encouraging clients to adapt even faster now.  

Cath Waller, (MD, Advertising, Immediate Media) pointed out how publishers have ploughed a lot of their limited resources into preparing for the cookie deadline, but “we carry on regardless and nothing changes for us”. Despite the quality content and first-party data publishers have, Waller said that the concern remains that the continued presence of third-party cookies in some form could put publishers on the back-foot “because people take the easy option… look at the facts, much of the open web isn’t addressable via third party cookies but people are fine with it.”  

Privacy Sandbox strongest on measurement  

A number of the speakers said that their testing of Privacy Sandbox has seen the strongest results when it comes to measurement. Debbi Rosenthal (Head Of Solutions, MiQ Digital) said that while there have been “positive outcomes on the measurement side, there is definite room for improvement on targeting.” Scale was also an issue that came up more than once, with Shailley Singh (EVP Product and COO EVP Product, IAB Tech Lab) pointing out how the scale that Privacy Sandbox can deliver works in its favour and its measurement capabilities are “pretty good”. However, he also said that the industry “can’t rely on capabilities that are supplied by one platform… they can be taken away at any time. [IAB Tech Lab] have been discussing how we take more control as an industry.”   

Representing Google’s stance as outlined in its blog post, Jenkins reiterated that the goals of Privacy Sandbox remain the same - to ultimately improve privacy on the web. In a similar vein of continuation, Index Exchange’s Jones said that “[we’ve] seen clients still really leaning into Privacy Sandbox… there’s no reason to stop testing.” A number of speakers said that the upside to the continuation of third-party cookies on Chrome was that it will provide a useful test-bed by which to compare the results of alternative solutions.  

What’s next?  

Other than timing, the question that Google has been getting the most is “what will this user choice look like?” Jenkins said. She couldn’t give further details at this point but said she would come back to the industry - including to a question from IAB CEO Jon Mew about whether Google would be willing to work in consultation with the industry on the consent mechanism. The industry speakers were in no doubt about how important the positioning of that user choice messaging will be, with Immediate’s Waller outlining the challenge facing publishers will be to “get them to re-consent to a first-party relationship…  which is not just about being targeted with ads”. 

A point of consensus was that third-party cookies aren’t making a comeback. With estimates putting 80% of the open web outside of their reach, it was widely agreed that third-party cookies are only a part of the picture, with alternative strategies needed to create a holistic view of audiences. “If you’re only using cookies, you’re missing out on huge swathes of the population - huge volume of supply and a huge volume of the total addressable audience”, Index Exchange's Jones explained. However, areas remain where cookies are still heavily leant on, such as for effective retargeting.  

Ultimately, more detail is needed on how Google’s new path forward will work in practice in order to understand how it stands to impact the open web and whether a similar situation to Apple’s IDFA is inevitable. As Immediate’s Waller said: “We all have questions about what that interface is going to look like… as an industry, how are we going to come together to put privacy at the heart of what we do but have an open web going forwards?”