Brand studies and panel-based methodologies are proving to be strong alternatives to third-party cookies. They are popular for a number of reasons, but not without their challenges, as this chapter explores.

Brand studies

After first-party data, according to Econsultancy’s Future of Marketing report, brand studies are the  second most popular option being used and considered as an alternative form of measurement by close to three-quarters (74%) of marketers.

Brand studies focus on understanding the impact of marketing on the long-term goals of a marketer, such as brand awareness, recall or affinity. They often work by creating two groups of people and measuring the difference in their responses, then attributing any shifts to the campaign. There are two main ways a brand study can be undertaken:

• Test and control. A test group sees the marketing while a control group does not, and both groups are surveyed to understand the impact of the campaign on levels of brand recall, awareness, likeability, etc.
• Pre and post. Before a campaign runs, respondents are surveyed about their attitudes to a brand. The survey is repeated after the campaign runs to measure any uplifts that may be attributed to the campaign.

Many publishers offer brand lift studies to help companies understand the value of their marketing activity with the publisher. For example, Meta offers its Brand Lift test,^[1] where brand polling and other brand awareness measurements are used to assess the value of running Meta ads and how well they perform independent of other marketing efforts. The approach works by selecting a representative sample of people eligible to a company’s advertising. The sample group is then randomly divided into test and holdout groups. Causal inference techniques are used to measure the impact of a company’s advertising within the sample group. Meta also has the capability of working with other partners to look at the impact of ads on offline sales.

Benefits and challenges of brand studies

Brand studies compare two distinct groups to each other – one that has seen the marketing message, and one that has not – and then credits any uplifts to the marketing. Third-party cookies are frequently used to create the groups. When a consumer sees the marketing on a website, a third-party cookie is dropped onto their browser, allowing marketers to create one group of people that have the cookie, and therefore saw the ad, and another group of those that do not, and therefore did not see the ad. Following this, the two groups can either be surveyed to measure differences in attitudes, or their behaviour could be tracked using cookies to measure if they went on to, for example, purchase or visit a website.

This has been a very useful and commonly used method of measurement, as brand studies can also be conducted as marketing campaigns are running to test the effectiveness of, for example, different creative or media placements.

However, with the decline in access to third-party cookies, creating two groups of people based on what they have seen and done on the internet will be far more challenging. However, it is still possible to create groups that are not based on third-party cookies by using other dividing variables, such as geography. Brand lift studies can also still be carried out with platform providers such as Google^[2] and Facebook.^[3]

Panel-based methodologies

A panel-based approach is one of the most traditional forms of measurement. Both brand studies and panels are enjoying a resurgence due to the technical and regulatory changes that are limiting other methods. Panels are created by research companies who recruit people to knowingly take part in their research. They are then rewarded for their time and data with money, vouchers or charitable donations.

Steven Silvers, EVP of Global Creative and Media Solutions at Kantar, explains: “The gradual removal of third-party cookies from the digital landscape means that methods of online ad effectiveness tracking need to evolve in a privacy-compliant way. Kantar’s panel-based approach uses cookieless and privacy-compliant methodologies, which give advertisers consistent and transparent measurement of advertising effectiveness across all platforms. Kantar’s panels leverage its consent-based and privacy-compliant Profiles Network of 100 million consumers globally.”

Having a panel of people who can be questioned or observed allows brands to measure their marketing in several different ways, which are outlined below.

Brand studies via panel

Panels offer a way for brand studies to be conducted without the use of third-party cookies using a test and control methodology, for example by:

• Isolating test and control cells based on claimed media consumption. For instance, if a campaign was run on a select number of websites, the marketer could ask respondents whether or not they visited those websites during the campaign period.
• Purposefully exposing a test cell to a campaign in the survey itself, to then be compared to a control cell that was shown a dummy campaign during the research.

Pre- and post-approaches can also still be conducted through panels, where respondents can be recruited via a panel before and after a campaign is run to assess its effectiveness.

Tracking via opted-in panels

Some research companies, publishers and retailers have built their capabilities from insights derived from panels for many years and argue this approach positions them very well to offer advertisers a way to measure in the long term.

By creating a panel of opted-in respondents who consent to their online activity being measured by downloading software to their devices in return for incentives, there is a way to measure effectiveness that complies with regulation and does not depend on third-party cookies. Kantar, as an example, has direct data integrations with a wide range of media companies and publishers which enables it to provide independent and privacy-compliant ad effectiveness measurement.

Benefits and challenges of panel-based methodologies

Privacy-compliant. Panels rely on groups of opted-in people that provide data through responses to surveys, rather than via their online behaviour being collected by third-party cookies, which means this remains a viable measurement method.

Consumer consent and incentive. Panels offer a clear way for consumers to opt in while offering them a good level of control over how their data is used. Panels are also one of the only approaches that offers some payback to the consumer for the use of their data.

Robust, ‘person-centric’ data. Panels offer a robust approach, which unlike cookies and IDs, look at people, not devices. Reputable panel owners go to great lengths to ensure quality respondents and legitimate data. Having representative data enables more accurate insights to be delivered.

Detailed insights and longitudinal data. Panels involve collecting data from the same group of panellists over an extended period of time. This enables researchers to track changes in consumption patterns, attitudes and behaviours.

Comparatively expensive. Recruiting respondents and maintaining good quality panels can be a very time- and resource-intensive.

Maintaining panel engagement. It can be challenging to retain panellists over time. To help overcome this, market research suppliers use incentives, survey design and panel engagement programmes to retain panellists.