Clean-Room Tie-up Points to Power of Second-Party Data

This week, customer data platform ActionIQ and data clean-room platform InfoSum announced a partnership combining the CDP's customer suite of tools ActionIQ CX Hub with InfoSum's Secure Data Clean Room. The announcement is another signal of the potential for data clean rooms as brands and publishers figure out audience targeting. Through this partnership, brands and publishers can access a privacy-centric environment to use first-party data from partners without relying on third-party cookies. “The simplest way to put this is, it's another brand’s first-party data—and you're partnering directly with that brand,” said Justin DeBrabant, svp of product at ActionIQ. For example, if Home Depot were to launch an app and wanted to target customers interested in technology, it might partner with Best Buy to tap into more insights about its existing customers, (the clean-room technology identifies overlaps in audiences). Through this collaboration, Home Depot gets more information about its customers who shop at Best Buy and can serve targeted ads to them. Data Clean Rooms Are Gaining Pace but Scalability Remains the Hurdle “The goal is a better understanding of a [company’s] customers and augmenting their first-party data, but by asking another company and using their data to answer questions that you couldn't on your own,” DeBrabant told Adweek. Data clean-room technology is just one solution to how brands and publishers are trying to figure out audience targeting after third-party cookies disappear. The tech has been gaining pace this year—InfoSum alone has tripled its business this year compared with last—but, for publishers, there's a variety of different solutions to choose from and marketers have been slower to make the transition. The power of second party When we talk about first-party data, it’s data that brands collect directly from their customers, which is usually authenticated and potentially anonymous. A CDP like ActionIQ, which has clients including The New York Times, News Corp, Pandora, Shopify and Condé Nast, essentially collects all those different sources of data throughout an organization—which could be spread across different systems and technologies—and combines them into a singular customer profile. Marketers then have access to these profile insights that help them build audiences around that data and discover new things about their customers. However, first-party data is not always the most complete. With cookies no longer being an option, “brands are looking to boost their first-party data strategy but also looking for other ways to augment their first-party data,” said DeBrabant. “And that's where second-party data comes in.” [Walled gardens] are the ones winning with the death of third-party cookies.Justin DeBrabant, svp of product at ActionIQ Second-party data partnerships are nothing new—an audio publisher could use audience data from a news publisher to target audio ads to them—for instance. Historically, the fear of that data being potentially compromised from partnering with another company has been offputting. But with more secure solutions around—and the race to understand more about audiences gaining pace—second-party data partnerships are increasingly attractive. With this partnership, the idea is to encourage brands to take their first-party data and collaborate with different brands in clean-room bunkers, where the data rests in privacy-secure clean rooms without being sharing. More customers lead to more revenue This partnership requires both parties to bring their own set of customers who are willing to collaborate with the other to enhance their data set. The impact of the collaboration in terms of revenue will depend on the increase in customers on both sides, according to the COO of InfoSum, Lauren Wetzel. But a long-term measure of success will hinge on how well brands can understand and target their customers, likely measured through metrics such as reach, while pushing to “understand what metrics are driving the value of that,” DeBrabant added. Teaming up against monopolies While brands struggle to have a full understanding of their consumer, it's not the same for big walled gardens, like Google and Meta, said DeBrabant. Brands have the power to divert more of their ad spend away from walled gardens by bolstering their first-party data stores and striking second-party data partnerships. “[Walled gardens] are valuable because they have a much more complete view of the consumer and can target them within that walled garden so effectively," he added. "They are the ones winning with the death of third-party cookies." Streaming Platforms Could Be Your First-Party Data Solution

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Clean-Room Partnership Points to the Power of Second-Party Data

Infosum and ActionIQ deal gives brands an opportunity to take spend back from walled gardens

Trishla Ostwal

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Trishla Ostwal