Mercedes-Benz Switzerland successfully pilots first-party data campaign
Mercedes-Benz Switzerland is responding to the future cookie-free advertising landscape and has implemented a first-party data campaign together with OMG, the Matto Group and various Swiss publishers. According to the company, the campaign achieved a 19% higher performance with 33% fewer clicks and impressions than the same campaign with intent cookie data.
Targeting advertising measures to specific customer segments is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in view of the imminent abolition of cookies. Mercedes-Benz Switzerland has acted proactively and uses first-party data from the third-party provider Matto-Group to be able to reach the target group without cookies. Initiated by Patrick Bossart, Head of Marketing & Communications at Mercedes-Benz Switzerland, Nannette Passberg, Chief Client Officer at OMG, and Matto-Group as a partner for first-party data, the first test campaign was rolled out to Swiss publishers in November and December.
Data matching for the target groups
The campaign was designed to prove that first-party data, specifically socio-demographic data from Matto Group, in conjunction with Swiss publishers brings at least as many users to the site as the intent cookie data that will no longer be available in the future. To this end, the publishers' email addresses were matched with first-party data from Matto Group to create contact classes without cookies and optimize reach.
The campaign had one main goal: to prove that the use of first-party data from Matto-Group brings valuable clicks to the site that perform at least as well as intent data.
Convincing result
The results of the campaign impressed all participating partners: with 33% fewer impressions, the campaign with Matto-Group data led to 19% more on-site engagements, 10% more users and 5% more visits than the campaign with intent data. "The results speak for themselves: the test campaign impressively demonstrated that it is possible to minimize wastage even without cookies," says Bossart. Matthias Thomann from Matto Group emphasizes the strategic importance of the new targeting: "The use of our first-party data not only offers an attractive alternative to cookie-intent data, we have shown with Mercedes-Benz that the ROI of a campaign with our first-party data is significantly higher. Our customers benefit from a significantly higher advertising impact per advertising franc."
