By Robert Carson, Head of Platform and Effectiveness Practice – Audience and Identity – KINESSO UK&I
2024 was a pivotal year for the advertising industry. After years of resistance, Google finally relented on its plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome.
While the direct ban is off the table, the consumer opt-in model will effectively spell the end for these cookies. Coupled with the increasing popularity of ad-blockers and privacy-focused browsers, the future of third-party cookies appears bleak.
What does this mean for brands?
A continued focus on testing, refining, and optimising their data and tech strategies is essential for brands. Data Clean Rooms, Data Cloud Solutions, and Customer Data Platforms are gaining traction as critical components of the post-cookie advertising ecosystem.
While these solutions offer valuable capabilities, they alone, individually or collectively, are not a silver bullet and would be a sum of the parts. To effectively measure and optimise media campaigns in a third-party cookie-less future, brands should also be investing in server-side MarTech solutions such as Server-side Tag Management, Server-side Web Analytics, Mobile SDK, Conversion APIs, and, if/where possible, Identity solutions.
However, not all brands are equal. All have varying degrees of first-party data collection, the types of first-party data they can use, and where and how it can be used for media purposes. To unlock the full potential of these solutions, brands must prioritise transparency and offer greater value exchanges to consumers. By encouraging consumers to share their first-party data, brands can gain deeper insights, improve measurement, and deliver more personalised experiences.
By Sophie Hazan, Head of Experience content, KINESSO UK&I
Brands will be in pursuit of authenticity
How many trends did we get to in 2024? There was the one with inflatable things bouncing down Oxford Street, there was the gen Z scripting on TikTok, there was the general use of AI for creating content, there was more general playing around with AI, and filters. And that’s all assuming your site passed unscathed through Google’s algorithm updates.
It was a tiring year for marketers.
But good news. In 2025, brands just need to be real. They need to be authentic. It’s both a prediction and a plea.
Please, keep following trends if they resonate with your audience. And keep using AI to act as a springboard for ideas. And keep doing clever things with AI image generators to bring life to stories and ideas.
But make sure people know it’s you. Invest time and resource in creativity and tell your brand’s story.
Towards the tail end of 2024, Louis Vuitton made scaffold sheeting beautiful. No, really. The luxury fashion house is renovating its flagship store in New York City, and rather than have some scruffy white plastic flapping around for a year, they chose instead to make it look like a stack of iconic Louis Vuitton suitcases. Only Louis Vuitton could do that.
A few days later, Jaguar unveiled its new Copy Nothing branding. Completely different to anything the brand’s done before – and setting itself apart in its sector – it courted both praise and anger. But it was authentic without apology. Only Jaguar dared to do that.
So, whatever you do in 2025, be authentic. Create campaigns and content that only you could do. Because only you can be you.
