Some 82% of Indian brands still rely heavily on third-party cookies; 61% of the cookie using Indian leaders say they view cookies as a ‘necessary evil’, even though they realise continued overreliance is a losing strategy for the long-term, according to a study recently released by Adobe. Also, some 96% of Indian leaders use Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), out of which 57% say they have already gained more direct relationships with customers, 46% have seen a rise in customer loyalty (46%), and 43% have seen an increase in the number and value of completed transactions, as per the study. New research also showed brands were not taking the necessary steps to evolve their data strategies, despite serious near and long-term impacts on their businesses. In India, where 405 brands were studied, the research showed that one in every two respondents (53%) agree that the ambiguity over cookie deprecation was causing an overall acceleration in the prioritisation for readiness for a cookieless world.
Although deprecation is on the horizon, 64% of Indian leaders still spend at least half of their marketing budgets on cookie-based activations – and 86% plan to increase spending on cookie-dependent activations this year. Most (87%) leaders in India still rely heavily on third-party cookies because they feel they are very effective and a quarter (29%) of respondents surveyed believe that they do not have the resources to evolve their strategy, as per the survey. Many Indian leaders expect the end of third-party cookies will hurt their businesses. Some 40% of them said it would “devastate” their businesses, 22% anticipate significant harm, and 24% predict a moderate negative impact. One in four respondents in India (29%) say they can’t get the resources to evolve their strategies.
Anindita Veluri, Marketing Director, Adobe India, said, “Third-party cookie landscape is moving towards becoming outdated soon. This calls for business leaders to diversify their strategies now and increase focus on first-party data to build more direct and personal relationships with customers based on the data willingly shared thereby fostering trust.”
