Havas and Baiada tout double-digit user engagement uplift off ID-based campaign

Havas Media Australia is claiming its new cookie-less programmatic advertising solution has delivered a 16 per cent uplift in user engagement for client, Baiada Group, against a cookie-less alternative.

The agency worked with Baiada Group, owner of the Lilydale poultry brand, to trial an identity-based programmatic activation using its proprietary audience planning platform, Converged. The solution uses iD5 universal identifiers to activate against targeted audiences. In the case of Baiada, the approach took in first-party data with consent from the FMCG’s website.

A Universal ID provides a single identifier for recognising an anonymised user across the digital ecosystem and is designed so participant players can recognise and pass on this identity across the advertising supply chain.

Matching for the media buy was undertaken in partnership with MediaMath and prioritised premium publisher inventory available on News Corp, Nine.com.au, The Guardian, Business Insider and Taste.

According to Havas Media, the campaign drove a 16 per cent uplift in user engagement compared to a cookie-less alternative. The agency said it was also able to activate audiences within browsers that have already blocked third-party cookies, such as Safari and Firefox, improving the campaign’s reach by 5.35 per cent. Notably, within the Safari browser, engagement rates improved 19x compared to traditional cookie-based prospecting strategy.

Baiada Group head of marketing, Yash Gandhi, said the pilot has built confidence within his team that it’s gearing up for a cookie-less future.

“While we have implemented this test on a relatively small scale, we believe the learnings will have a profound impact on the way we approach digital moving forward,” he said.

Essentially, what this means from a marketing POV is that it’s more effective and efficient way to reach target audiences and engage with them, Gandhi told CMO.

“The end-to-end identity-based solution exceeded our expectations by overcoming two market challenges. First, by creating a cost-efficient advantage for Lilydale with ‘identity’ used at the heart of end-to-end programmatic buying,” he explained. “Second, by leveraging our first mover advantage across all browsers, we managed to successfully capture competitor market share and drive increased engagement, too."

Havas Media head of data solutions and adtech, Kevin Fernandes, emphasised the agency’s test-and-learn strategy in the face of the eventual demise of third-party cookies, now set for the end of 2024.

“With or without cookies, there is incredible value in a brand's first-party data, and we ensure this knowledge share is happening all the time,” he said. “We’ve now got some extra time with Google’s recent announcement, but what excites me is working with our brand partners who are keen to lean in and test what future solutions exist.

“Yash and his team used this to learn more about their audiences and data. They also used a progressive and single view of a consumer based on identity to target them across the open Internet. I’m confident this will start further conversations across the other identity solutions and hopefully move towards an industry standard around targeting and measurement.”

Havas Media rolled out Converged in mid-2021. It’s underpinned by SaaS platform, Mediarithmics, which comes with a number of APIs to integrate with DSPs, DMPs and identity solutions. In the example of the Baiada pilot, the agency used MediaMath as a DSP, building a connector to ensure a real-time match on identity was achieved when an iD5 Lilydale user was seen across the publishers participating in the media activation.  

Fernandes explained the initial client approach with Converged was to test relevancy and accuracy of data against Google and Facebook to ensure efficiency of the solution.  

“Progressively, this then with Baiada meant us building a secure first-party data home, which could house every 1PD touchpoint for the brand,” he continued. He added Baiada is an Australian and Havas global-first pilot.  

Fernandes said Havas is now working with other clients across categories who are looking at consolidating and knowing more about their audiences and willing to trial identity solutions to reach them.  

“This is a live, ongoing and a scalable opportunity across Havas and other clients,” he said. “The platform is used by some clients to sense-check which categories or content pillars they need to form sponsorships with because this is where their target audience is indexing high. Our approach is to develop strategic partnerships rather than acquire as we believe providing brands across different categories relevant options as well as the ability to BYO data is the way forward.”

Don’t miss out on the wealth of insight and content provided by CMO A/NZ and sign up to our weekly CMO Digest newsletters and information services here.  

You can also follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page