After Google said it would no longer deprecate third-party cookies earlier this summer, many in the ad industry collectively sighed at the four years of effort preparing for a future that would never happen.
But for restaurant and entertainment company Dave & Buster’s, preparing for the end of cookies helped it understand how flawed third-party data was as a source of information, said Dave & Buster’s digital marketing director Yvette Davis at ADWEEK’S annual Brandweek conference in Phoenix, Ariz.
Speaking at a session called “Data Redux: Putting Customers First,” sponsored by content management company Contentful, Davis questioned the accuracy of data based on third-party cookies. Working on platforms like Meta and Google, Davis said she had seen these problems first-hand when she’s tried to target more women than men, only to reach more men than women.
Regardless of the availability of third-party data in the future, Davis said Dave & Buster’s values first-party data the most and is working to increase that database.
She views third-party data as mostly supplemental: “We see third-party as helping us build out profile segments: what are the interests and affinities that we can add to our first-party data?”
First-party data is evolving the customer-brand relationship
Figuring out how to get customers to fork over first-party data, like their phone numbers or emails, is tough, and has become one of Davis’ biggest challenges.
This spring, Dave & Buster’s offered a promotion, asking customers to join D&B Rewards in exchange for 50% off food purchases. The campaign worked, doubling the company’s first-party database.
Yet, one attendee pointed out the potential risk that these promotions could degrade the brand, or make customers start to expect discounts.
Davis said careful messaging can solve this issue.
“I’m targeting you with this great value proposition,” she said, “I’m also reinforcing why my brand should matter to you.”
Contentful chief evangelist Nicole France, who was on the Brandweek panel with Davis, noted how a Major League Soccer team solved this problem with a different marketing strategy for price-sensitive customers compared to customers who were likely to attend all the games.
Understanding audience segments can help marketers avoid the trap of cheapening brand value by overly promoting, she said.
Promotions aren’t the only way for brands to glean more first-party data on customers: designing content to attract specific audience segments can also be effective. France pointed to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s dating simulator game with brand mascot Colonel Sanders, which debuted in 2019.
“The point is not so much that they did this thing that, bizarrely, somehow still fits within the brand character, but they understood that they were really going to be able to be able to go deep with a very specific audience,” France said.
