As the world of digital marketing and advertising prepares itself for a cookie-less world, first-party data is getting prominence among marketers. They are now more closely looking at the customer journey, navigating various touch points in the quest to connect them, so that they can offer the most relevant and impactful solutions to their customers. And that’s where the future of commerce now lies.

To tap onto this golden opportunity, global tech company Criteo has been expanding its first-party data solutions and commerce media platform to help marketers and media owners embrace the cookie-less future of digital marketing, which is also going to be more regulation-compliant. In fact, last year, Criteo revealed its new branding and a tagline “The Future is Wide Open” as a global company that powers the world’s marketers and media owners with trusted and impactful advertising.

On Digital Growth in India

Digital is showing an accelerated growth across the country – whether it comes to content or commerce, says Singh. “From online shopping to digital transactions – all the ecosystems are evolving well. Video is going great and so is the OTT space. The on-demand consumption is growing and people are watching long-form content on their mobile phones. And 66 per cent of content consumption is in local languages.”

According to Singh, this is also creating an extended need for marketers to have the right tech partners on board to catch these pools of customers. “The AdEx on digital is only growing. We are seeing ad volumes on commerce platforms increasing. And to tap into this opportunity, there is great scope of growth for tech partners like us to help brands and publishers make the right use of their rich first-party data.”

Singh is quite bullish about the growth of CTV in India, as well. “It is an emerging space and in a very nascent stage in India but it is only going to grow. With on-demand consumption getting more and more popular, advertising will follow. Companies like Samsung are already creating premium inventory on their smart TVs. I think media planning is going to evolve as the medium grows.”

On New Brand Identity & Presence In Indian Market

Criteo is a vibrant global platform working with over 20,000 marketers and thousands of media owners around the globe to activate the world’s largest set of commerce data to drive better commerce outcomes and sees huge growth potential in India as well.

“Criteo is placed really well when it comes to its tech capabilities, open internet solutions, and can drive full-funnel KPIs. We are still expanding our business model in India but it remains one of the key markets for us for the sheer potential of growth it holds,” Singh noted.  

On being asked about the new brand identity as a commerce media platform and what it stands for, Singh replied, “The internet is changing with growing privacy regulations and hence commerce will evolve too. As third-party data will go bleak in the coming days, our commerce-focused first-party data solutions paired with AI can help marketers to deliver better results and give consumers better shopping experiences that they control with trusted marketers and media owners. The new brand identity reflects our vision of a future where the open internet will open enormous marketplace opportunities outside of Amazon.”

Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform has a network of thousands of publishers and more than 22,000 brands and retailers. “We use that network to create the world's largest open commerce dataset, including shopping preferences from 685M daily active users. We target and buy 4B+ ad impressions per day.”

On Importance of First-Party Data and Criteo’s Role

As cookies will go obsolete and stronger compliances will come to the fore, first-party data and its relevant use will help advertisers reach the right customers at the right place and at the right time. Criteo’s first-party data solutions help marketers and media owners to enrich and grow their first-party dataset by connecting cross-domain and identifiers to build richer customer profiles. It also gives them full control to manage their data's usage in Criteo’s network.

Singh further shared, “We offer features and outputs, including a shopper graph and buyer index, with an intuitive AI Engine that understands buying journeys and powers predictive bidding, product recommendations, and dynamic creative optimization. As one of the few platforms with significant assets on both the demand and supply side, we're able to remove steps in the current process that create data and revenue loss for marketers and media owners.”

He wrapped up the discussion by stating that with these solutions and the positive market intent, the world of open internet is going to be quite big in the coming years and tech partners will play a key role in any brand’s organic growth.