New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME) will transition away from third-party cookies in a market-first partnership for New Zealand.

The publisher of the New Zealand Herald has partnered with leading data connectivity platform LiveRamp to deliver advertisers a better alternative to third-party cookies.

Through NZME's LiveRamp's integration, which is available for activation today, advertisers and media agencies are now able to directly match their audience with NZME's growing and engaged authenticated audience without the need for third-party cookies.

LiveRamp is a proven technology and in the United States their clients have seen their ROAS (return on advertising spend) performing better compared to the same audience built on cookies.

LiveRamp's Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) allows publishers to connect authenticated inventory directly with advertiser demand — all while respecting consumer privacy. The solution requires a transparent value exchange, where consumers receive better, more valuable content and experiences, in exchange for a first-party authentication.

NZME's transition to ATS comes ahead of a phase out of third-party cookies on Chrome in early 2023, as recently announced by Google, in an attempt to improve data protection and privacy for users.

Charlotte Bell, NZME Head of Digital Revenue, said now more than ever customers focused on values such as trust and consumer privacy.

"The digital marketing landscape is becoming increasingly complex and now more than ever, it's vital that marketers utilise solutions for customers that have a focus on trust, consumer privacy and a mutual value exchange between individuals, advertisers and publishers.

"At NZME our Ad Technology and Data Analytics teams develop data-led solutions in partnership with advertisers and agencies, to create personalised and effective campaigns.

"By leading the market with this LiveRamp integration, we can assure our customers that we have a sustainable solution for them to continue to segment and connect NZME's valuable audiences in a safe, scalable and addressable way – without a reliance on third-party cookies or device identifiers," Bell said.

LiveRamp's director of addressability Louise Exton said ATS puts consumer transparency and control above all else.

"[ATS] champions the importance of a first-party data strategy, enabling a direct connection between a publisher's authenticated first-party data and marketer demand. Further, an authenticated audience has the benefit of immediate yield improvement, allowing publishers to better compete with walled gardens.

"ATS also brings control to the publishers – control over their own data and control over which ecosystem partners they want to work with. The move to authentication can transform a business amidst major industry shifts."

Andy Wylie, Head of Data and Analytics at NZME, highlighted the partnership as one of a number of exciting developments planned for 2021.

"It's a great addition to NZME's tech stack ... that will further enable NZME to help marketers outperform their competitors in a cookieless world," he said.

"ATS provides an excellent alternative to cookies by identifying audiences and giving those audiences control over how their data is handled. ATS works with logged in, authenticated audiences, maximising addressability on the open web."

nzherald.co.nz was named website of the year and app of the year at the 2021 Voyager Awards.