Making data sharing accessible in the changing media industry

Snowflake’s new Media Data Cloud is reshaping the way the industry approaches data sharing technology.

What does data sharing look like in a cookieless world? It’s a question that has plagued marketing departments and business leaders across various industries ever since Google announced it would eliminate the use of third-party cookies by 2023.

A convergence of factors has led to this shift in data regulations, from concerned conversations on social media to the rebranding of companies addressing privacy issues. Organizations are beginning to react to the public’s consumption of media and acknowledge an inability to compete without combining forces, resulting in publisher acquisitions and other business adjustments to prepare for the future of media buying.

For many, the step toward user privacy and stricter data regulations is long overdue. Businesses, on the other hand, are faced with the need to pivot, ultimately finding a solution that can replace the value of third-party cookies without infringing on privacy laws or dramatically increasing acquisition costs.

“We’re entering a future where data laws and governance are much more sophisticated,” says Arya Sundar, a sales executive at Slalom. By developing scalable methodologies, data companies must provide tools for organizations to collaborate and compete without exposing Personal Identifiable Information (PII).

Additionally, the proliferation of media and fragmentation of audiences makes it more difficult for organizations to pull together data sets in a timely and privacy-compliant way. “There needs to be a technology product or solution where competing companies with shared interests can securely share data with each other for mutually beneficial purposes,” Sundar says. “We want to equip publishers, advertisers, and ad-tech companies that are trying to leverage first-party data with that capability.”

The future of data sharing technology

In October 2021, Snowflake announced the launch of the Media Data Cloud, enabling media and entertainment companies to collaborate using powerful data sharing technology. By taking a proactive approach to the new standards surrounding privacy and governance, the Media Data Cloud allows companies to share insights without sharing PII.

“We’re moving from a world where you get to target individuals to a world where you’re targeting similar groups of users,” says Umair Mesiya, one of our senior data and analytics consultants. This means advertisers will need to find ways to access attribution percentages without sharing specific, personal data.

Using Snowflake’s Data Clean Room capabilities, Slalom is enabling companies to monetize and maintain control of their data in a privacy-compliant, post-cookie world, all within the Snowflake environment.

“With the Snowflake Media Data Cloud, there’s no need to go through an intermediary,” says Mesiya. “You get to set the terms and enforce your own compliance, which makes it very powerful.”

A proactive solution to exposing data

In the media industry where reactivity is the norm, being proactive requires addressing the fundamental concerns amongst advertisers, marketers, and media companies surrounding PII and first-party data.

Beyond monetizing data and giving companies the ability to compete without exposing PII, the Media Data Cloud’s ability to aggregate massive amounts of data can influence a company’s scalability. By simply automating reporting, monitoring for duplicate processes, and making sure data is accurate, companies can become more strategic and increase their value to clients while reducing frustration amongst employees and internal teams.

“Everybody wins when organizations have these types of tools and implementations at their disposal,” says Sundar. “Teams can rely on the data and build new product offerings, which enables job security for people and allows them to break out of silos.”

This means building technology—such as Snowflake’s Data Clean Rooms—that solve for possible points of failure for security breaches while utilizing best-of-breed encryption methodologies and security functions. Within the Data Clean Room, data never leaves a company’s secured environment.

As a company specializing in strategy, technology, and business transformation, much of our role here at Slalom is to determine why, when, and how those security functions will evolve and work. It’s important for companies to know and acknowledge why they’re transforming their business, what they’re trying to proactively address, and how they ultimately want to get ahead so that Slalom can implement the right technical solutions.

“Slalom is very good about bringing the right technologies to the table and customizing the approach to the need of the client,” says Sundar. “The gravity of all these decisions is on the user experience. If you bring better value to the end user, you get better engagement down the line.”

From ideation to enablement

Accelerating advertising revenue, providing differentiated advertising technology, and acquiring and retaining subscribers are a few of the primary use cases within the Media Data Cloud.

For example, utilizing Snowflake’s tools, Slalom has already enabled an industry leading telecommunications company to unify privacy compliant data across 9.7 million households, 12.5 million subscription devices and 2.7 million smart TVs, representing approximately 32 billion hours of consumed content.

Other industry leaders already using Media Data Cloud include Horizon Media, Warner Music Group, OpenX, Pinterest, and The Trade Desk. Among the first was Disney Advertising Sales—the organization responsible for advertising and integrated marketing solutions across The Walt Disney Company’s brands. Using the Media Data Cloud, it launched a new Clean Room solution that informs customers about the benefits of engaging with its data assets and leveraging its in-house advanced modeling capabilities for deeper insights and broader reach.

“Tying data back to content is extremely powerful,” Sundar says. “All of the use cases we talk about within media and entertainment—whether it be dynamic creative optimization or looking at which media execution performs best with which audiences—are ultimately about bringing content and data closer together.”

At Slalom, we leverage a people, process, and technology perspective to meet clients wherever they are in the maturity curve. For organizations that are ready to embrace this type of data sharing technology, starting with a workshop is key. From roadmaps to maturity assessments, there are actionable steps that organizations can take to reach a place where they’re data literate, automated, and privacy secure.

 “Slalom is the perfect company to navigate this conversation with because we have very strong resources, deep industry experience and incredible technology partners,” Sundar says. “It’s time to modernize the way we work.”