As one of the first movers in the Swiss market, Goldbach, together with the Swiss technology company Decentriq and using its Data Clean Room technology, has designed a cookieless alternative solution for Advertising targeting. After almost two years of successful collaboration, we spoke with Juan Baron (JB), Director Business Development & Strategy at Decentriq and Ines Feltscher (IF), Data Product Consultant at Goldbach neXT, about Data Onboarding and the most important learnings from the first campaigns.

Mr. Baron, Ms. Feltscher, why do you think Data Onboarding is an answer to the Cookieless Future?

JB: It’s all about Data quality. The elimination of third-party cookies makes it more difficult for brands to target audiences and track campaign performance. However, marketing professionals have long been skeptical, because if you rely on third-party cookies, there is no real relationship with the customer. With Data Onboarding using Data Clean Rooms, on the other hand, brands can use real customer Data to carry out higher-quality and more effective targeting – and all in full compliance with data protection standards. This also includes second-party Data from providers with existing customer relationships, who can also participate in the Data Clean Room.

IF: Goldbach has been proactively preparing for the elimination of third-party cookies for several years. In addition to contextual targeting solutions, we attach great importance to the use of first-party Data. Thanks to Data onboarding and Data Clean Room technology, we can combine this with valuable insights from our Advertising clients, thus ensuring and increasing the efficiency of our targeting solutions in the long term. In addition, Goldbach, as a marketer, is part of the OneID initiative, the publisher-wide Advertising ID for Switzerland.

Let’s get practical: What prerequisites must a customer have who is interested in Data Onboarding?

JB: Brands must have a robust CRM program in order to contribute first-party Data at all. This is typically the case in medium to large companies. If companies such as consumer goods manufacturers do not have sufficient first-party Data, this can be obtained via Data partners with their own customer relationships, in this case retailers.

IF: Our Advertising clients are generally very careful to protect the privacy of their customers and to comply with the highest data protection standards. Thanks to Decentriq’s data protection guarantee, data protection officers in companies generally see no danger and have always approved Data Onboarding with Goldbach.

Are there certain industries that are better suited for Data Onboarding than others?

JB: There are no restrictions regarding the industry – we have worked with automotive companies, e-commerce companies and consumer goods brands, but also with heavily regulated industries such as banks, insurance companies and telecommunications. We even had a collaboration with the VBS: Thanks to the use of Microsoft Azure Confidential Computing in our Data Clean Rooms, we can prove that sensitive Data remains completely private.

IF: Data Onboarding is still quite new for our customers. We are currently in the process of introducing the solution in various industries and are therefore focusing on the best practices for the specific needs in order to be able to guarantee a tailor-made offer.

What successes have Goldbach and Decentriq already achieved with Data Onboarding?

IF: Fifteen major brands have carried out around 20 campaigns with Data Onboarding via us. These include some of the largest financial service providers and automotive companies that advertise in Switzerland. We have also involved several global agencies in the campaigns. In terms of performance, we were able to observe almost a doubling of engagement rates and increases in conversion rates of over 50%. For example, for a customer from the banking sector, the click rate more than doubled, page views increased by almost 30%, while the cost-per-view was roughly halved.

JB: Overall, we are seeing that a closer Data relationship benefits both brands and publishers. Brands benefit because their campaign performance is significantly improved – they can finally be sure that they are reaching the right people by using their first-party Data. And when they see how their Data is represented in the publisher universe, they gain new information about their own customers, their behavior and their inclinations. Publishers, especially premium publisher marketers like Goldbach, benefit because they have real relationships with their readers. These relationships have been built up over many decades through quality journalism, which can now be even more effective through better target group segmentation. So we clearly expect positive effects for everyone involved.

What have been the most important learnings from the collaboration so far?

JB: The most important finding is that using first-party Data in this way is something completely new – for brands and agencies as well as for the publishers themselves. Similar to a muscle that you didn’t know about before and now have to build up. Goldbach has gained a lot of experience after more than a year of Data Onboarding, which is now being applied. A great finding for us was that the performance exceeds expectations: We have observed an increase of 30 to 60% in the most important target values on the brand side compared to classic targeting approaches. Even better results are conceivable through learnings and optimization of follow-up campaigns.

IF: Specifically with regard to the campaign setup, we have found that Data Onboarding campaigns sometimes require a different approach than classic targeting campaigns. Data Onboarding makes it possible to define highly specific target groups based on product or brand interest, so we have to be careful not to restrict delivery too much. In the first phase of a campaign, flexibility is essential, for example with regard to campaign formats, placements and duration. This flexibility makes it possible to effectively optimize and refine strategies. In order to achieve the best results, open and transparent cooperation between the customer, agency, Decentriq and Goldbach is also crucial.

What can we expect in the future?

IF: We have now completed the test phase and it has been shown that the use of first-party Data really works. Our goal for the future is therefore to continue to optimize Data Onboarding and simplify it to such an extent that it becomes a solution that can be used with minimal effort.

JB: Overall, we want to build a platform that helps a brand run campaigns with its own first-party Data. The greater the added value we can create through first-party Data matching, insights, activation and measurement, the better. That is our goal. Specifically, this could mean expanding the platform to include Data from trusted partners and thus developing even richer insights for targeting.

Then we are excited to see what else is to come. Thank you very much for the interview.