CANNES – Given all the tension surrounding consumers’ and brands’ expectations about customer experience and personalization, LiveRamp is betting that privacy-first approaches will separate winners from losers, particularly in the data collaboration space.
“We see brand making privacy a competitive advantage because when the data is actually collected in a trustful manner, it will then inform relationship with the consumer and make it so much more of a stronger link between the brand and the consumer,” Frederick Stanichev, VP of Sales at LiveRamp, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
This focus on privacy comes as LiveRamp integrates AI across its data planning, segmentation, activation, and measurement workflows. The company aims to reduce time-to-value for customers while maintaining privacy guardrails throughout the process.
Building a “Cookie-less Identity Infrastructure”
Google’s varying shifts in degree regarding third-party cookie deprecation over the last two years hasn’t slowed LiveRamp’s push toward alternative identity solutions. The company has invested heavily in what Stanichev calls “cookie-less identity infrastructure.”
“We actually decided to make a significant investment in embedding a cookie-less identity infrastructure so that we actually can decrease the reliance for all brands and all publishers,” he explained. The goal is creating a non-cookie reliant identity framework that maximizes reach across devices and consumer interactions.
Data collaboration evolves
The use cases for data collaboration have expanded significantly beyond initial measurement applications. Where brands once used data collaboration primarily to gauge campaign effectiveness, they’re now employing it for long-term strategic partnerships.
“We see data collaboration moving to actually support long-term collaboration between the brand and the publisher or two brands together,” Stanichev said. These partnerships drive “customer experience, personalization, the right offering, the right promotion for the audience.”
The shift represents a fundamental expansion of data collaboration’s role. “It goes way beyond the initial advertising,” he noted. “Now we are actually starting to touch on five pieces… We look at the placement, price, product, packaging — all of that is actually informed now from data collaboration.”
AI democratizes insights
Artificial intelligence is making sophisticated data collaboration accessible to more decision-makers within organizations. Stanichev sees AI “democratizing the data collaboration output by actually making it easier for decision makers to actually go and get insights to make decisions on.”
This democratization could accelerate the already growing adoption of data collaboration tools across the industry, enabling faster and more informed marketing decisions.
The privacy-personalization balance
The traditional back-and-forth between personalization and privacy is increasingly a false dichotomy, according to Stanichev. Success depends on establishing trust through transparency.
“It’s all about that trustful relationship between the consumer and the brand,” he said. “When we’re talking about the data collection, it needs to be in guardrails and clear, transparent from the consumer — how it is collected, how is this actually going to be used for the different channels.”
This transparency extends to partner relationships. Brands need to understand how their partners collect and use data, establishing clear guidelines before activating campaigns or personalizing customer experiences.
Making privacy the default
LiveRamp’s approach embeds privacy considerations at every stage of the data lifecycle, from initial collection through personalization and activation. This comprehensive view reflects a shift in how the industry thinks about consumer data.
“Privacy being the competitive advantage — I think now is actually just reframing the entire relationship between a consumer and making it a requirement for a brand to actually have a strong position around how they do and handle privacy,” Stanichev added.
As AI capabilities expand and data collaboration use cases multiply, this privacy-first approach may determine which brands can build lasting consumer relationships in an increasingly data-driven marketplace. “It’s a really exciting future ahead of us,” Stanichev said.
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