This first-party identity spine becomes the foundation for every marketing and advertising decision. Instead of relying on an external provider to tell you who your customers are, you control your identity strategy internally.

Selectively supplement with third-party identity—without vendor lock-in

Once a strong first-party identity graph is in place, third-party identity solutions can still provide value—but as a complement, not the foundation. They can still serve as valuable enhancements, helping to extend reach, fill identity gaps, and improve match rates in specific use cases where first-party data alone isn’t enough.

Third-party identity can drive value in many ways:

• Scaling audience reach beyond your first-party footprint (e.g., a retailer extending its loyalty data for offsite media campaigns).
• Bridging identity gaps in fragmented ecosystems (e.g., CTV campaigns where cross-device matching is difficult or relies on datasets you do not capture, like household IP addresses).
• Improving match rates for data clean rooms and measurement solutions (e.g., resolving gaps between your data and a publisher or partner).

Instead of centering their identity strategy around third-party identity vendors, brands should choose a configurable approach that allows them to own and activate on their first-party identity spine and supplement identity only where it makes sense:

• Retailers can use their first-party identity spine for personalization and lifecycle marketing—but tap into The Trade Desk’s Unified ID for offsite advertising. 
• Enterprise advertisers can integrate directly with Google, Meta, and Amazon to improve first-party match rates—without depending on external identity graphs. This can unlock easy use cases such as audience suppression and look-alike modeling.
• Brands can retain flexibility to choose the right partner for each specific use case—whether for CTV, measurement, or cross-publisher targeting.

This modularity enables enterprises to minimize costs by only supplementing with third-party data where they need it, and minimizes risk by enabling them to quickly swap out identity providers if their needs change or regulatory changes demand it.

The winning strategy: first-party-first

Publicis’ Lotame acquisition makes sense in the short term—it strengthens their data assets, gives them an identity moat for cookieless environments, and allows them to remain competitive against tech platforms that own more of the ad supply chain. But for enterprise advertisers, the smarter long-term play isn’t to buy into someone else’s identity solution—it’s to own their own.

The brands that take control of their identity strategy today won’t have to rely on external vendor solutions tomorrow. They’ll be in the driver’s seat—with full flexibility, cost efficiency, and independence in an AI-first world.