After the Cookie, Kochava and LiveIntent Bet on First-Party Data

The ad-tech industry’s largest players have called time on third-party cookies, the historic common currency that has enabled online ad targeting and measurement for over 25 years, prompting an industrywide scramble to prepare for what's next. Confirmation of this seismic change came earlier this year when Google announced it will cease support of third-party cookies by 2022 in its dominant web browser Chrome. (The move emulated Apple’s intelligent tracking prevention in Safari, which began in March.) A similar scenario is playing out in the mobile app ecosystem, with access restrictions to mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) such as Google’s AdID and Apple’s IDFA starting to mount. So, independent players are now readying themselves for a brave new world. For instance, mobile analytics platform Kochava and marketing firm LiveIntent have announced an integration of their recently launched identity services, which they claim will allow advertisers to trade and track media space using first party data in a way that is privacy safe. The two companies will integrate Kochava IdentityLocker and IdentityLink with LiveIntent’s nonID to help ad-tech companies, marketers and publishers conduct media trades in a manner they have been used to but without the privacy risks posed by third-party data. LiveIntent’s nonID uses hashed email addresses, sourced through its partnership with more than 2,500 publishers, to help marketers reach an addressable audience of 290 million-plus. Meanwhile, Kochava’s IdentityLocker proposes a "tokenized" approach to audience identification that differs from using “static identifiers,” such as MAIDs, to enable audience targeting and performance measurement. Notably, IdentityLocker also allows ad-tech middlemen to onboard their first-party data in return for an identity token, which still enables them to connect with trading partners, such as publishers or media-buying agencies. In a press statement, Kochava CEO Charles Manning noted how the partnership with LiveIntent would enable “permission-based” activities the industry has grown used to, such as deterministic targeting. “Where so many saw a rift in the universe with all the changes this year, we knew it was a great opportunity to create a stronger ecosystem,” he added. Brian Silver, president of LiveIntent, went on to describe how his company’s nonID was designed to complement and enhance identity offerings, not compete with them. “We built our solution for everyone who has already invested time, money and resources into their own identity setup to see value out of that investment,” he added. “We’re steeling brands and publishers to thrive in a new era where first-party data dexterity is the key to success. With Kochava, we’ve built a bridge to the ecosystem for the first-party data that brands and publishers have worked so hard to acquire.”