Just a few weeks ago, Google walked back its plans to deprecate third-party cookies in
Chrome. After four years of moving deadlines (and lots of articles about next steps!), it became clear
that the proposed approach wasn’t working for advertisers or consumers.
Monetization was down in cookieless tests with Google, so advertisers were
getting less fidelity; and the shift in control from third parties to Google
wasn’t seen as all that great for consumer privacy. So while Google’s
move was frustrating, it was, in fact, the right thing to do. What’s more, the
cookieless cliff threat forced industry leaders to expand their thinking and
technology capabilities to be better marketers in a privacy-first world. This
ongoing conversation put a spotlight on personalized marketing, and just
because the deadline pressure is off doesn’t mean travel marketers should take
their foot off the “less cookies” gas. 

Do
consumers really care about cookies?

Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies
was done under the banner of privacy, which makes sense given that 68% of consumers are concerned about the
amount of data companies collect. However, the reality is that privacy is not
their top priority. A whopping 71% of consumers expect personalization, and
that personalization can only happen using collected data. While consumers
certainly care about privacy, what they really want is value for their
information and transparency about how companies are using it.

Most consumers are savvy enough to know that
marketers are collecting information about them with every click of the mouse,
and many are fine being marketed to — even with cookies. That’s why some
consumers are consciously choosing to opt-in to cookies on brand websites. They
know full well that this will allow the company to deliver a better, more
relevant experience. In the end, collecting information can be a win-win: Customers are happy when their information is used responsibly, and fast-growing
companies are driving 40% more of their revenue with
personalization.

To give consumers the personalization they
want, marketers can create an integrated data strategy that includes — but
doesn’t rely on — cookies. Just because Google has shelved third-party cookie
deprecation doesn’t mean marketers should get too comfortable relying on them.
So what can travel industry marketers rely on?

Navigating
a “less cookies” world

First, regardless of what Google has decided,
it’s important that travel marketers stay the course to rely less on cookies.
Over the past four years, the industry has made a lot of progress with how it
uses data, targeting and more — and it’s been clear for a while that it’s not
going back to a cookie-centric AdTech world. Currently, 67% of adults in the United States turn off cookies or website
tracking, which means marketers have to continue finding other ways to reach
potential travelers.

Now more than ever it’s important to keep
investing in new solutions that evolve with changing customer
expectations — which includes focusing on first-party data and opt-in
relationships with customers. By expanding multi-ID strategies that include
first-party opt-in channels, marketers can develop and target relevant
audiences with relevant ads. From there, they can continue to expand beyond
traditional AdTech channels and approaches to be looking at content, context
and one-to-one marketing channels like metasearch, text and email. 

To accurately target consumers on those
channels, marketers must continue to focus on creating first-party profiles of
all guests with as much opt-in information as possible, including phone
numbers, email addresses and physical addresses. Technology partners need this
information to connect online IDs, whether that’s hashed emails to build
audiences on Meta or connecting to mobile ad IDs to target with video. Third-party cookies can play a supporting role here, but they’re only valuable when
tied to the other online IDs that have more fidelity.

In addition to pushing forward with existing
cookieless strategies, marketers must also expand investments in cloud-based
travel tech and marketing technology. Hotels and attractions are migrating from on-premises property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale systems (POS) to
cloud-based PMS/POS, allowing marketers to easily connect the dots between data
sources versus legacy tech with data in silos. By integrating customer relationship management (CRM), mobile and
other guest experience tools in the cloud, marketers can enable real-time
integration with their travel tech systems rather than doing batch uploads. 

Here’s an example: A hotelier can learn a lot
about a guest during a three-day stay, and data collected on-site is most
valuable when the guest is still on the property. But if that data isn’t
uploaded to other critical systems for days, it’s too late to make things
right. With cloud-based technology, if a guest is dissatisfied with the air
conditioning unit in the room, real-time integrations ensure the client’s
feedback connects directly into a housekeeping app to alert staff so they can
make the repair — and save the hotel from a negative review.

A cookieless world may not be as close as it
was, and many people will kick back and relax. However Google, or any other
browser, can choose to deprecate third-party cookies at any time. More
importantly, a personalized, multi-tech approach is more effective and allows
marketers to tailor campaigns to meet ever-changing traveler expectations. Smart marketers who keep driving to improve
their data, processes and tech platforms to engage travelers with less cookies
will gain more in a “less cookies” world.