First-party data is at the top of the marketer’s wish list this holiday season. But actually having the systems, structures and privacy compliance procedures in place to enable transactions with first-party data is another story. Michael Lampert, director of global marketing data strategy and CRM Lead at Mondelez, took the stage at Adweek’s NexTech Summit to detail how the company embarked on its first-party data collection journey and how it’s evolved into a significant growth engine. 

Embracing life without cookies 

According to Lampert, Mondelez decided a few years ago it didn’t want to be involved in third-party cookie targeting and started working on a strategy to find a new way to target consumers. 

“We spent the last five years and multiple millions of dollars building out an ecosystem that allowed us to not be reliant on cookies,” he said. “So for us, if the cookie went away tomorrow, it wouldn’t make any difference.” 

The power of the value exchange 

Lampert said Mondelez takes the value exchange part of its first-party data strategy seriously. 

“With that raising of the hand comes great responsibility,” he said. “If someone comes to us and says, ‘my name is ___, and I’d like a relationship with the Oreo brand,’ now the expectation is that we have to deliver something of consistent value while maintaining a complete and irreversible respect for their privacy.” 

According to Lampert, being able to provide consumers with things they consider valuable starts with tangible use cases and consumer platforms that are based on insights.

“It’s figuring out, for example, in a country like Brazil that has multiple Mondelez brands, do you want to have 10 different websites for each one of the different brands or one website for all? You have to figure out what is the insight that says, ‘the platform for Oreo in Brazil is going to be family.’”

According to Mondelez, you can’t be a brand that has any value exchange with consumers if you don’t respect their privacy. He encourages marketers to embrace consumer privacy instead of fighting it or wishing it away. 

“Any industry and every brand must—and should have been—preparing for an environment that acknowledges that privacy and regulation are not the enemy of personalization but what this must be built around.”