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By Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - France's Publicis said
on Thursday it has partnered with U.S. tech ad firm The Trade
Desk to offer an alternative to consumer ad trackers,
whose gradual removal online puts swathes of the advertising
industry at risk.
The Trade Desk will add access to consumer profiles held by
Publicis' data unit Epsilon to its platform so that buyers of
digital ads can better target potential end-clients, Publicis
said.
In return, Publicis' clients that already rely on Epsilon's
data will have access to The Trade Desk's platform for their
digital ad campaigns, the world's third-biggest advertising
group said.
The move comes amid a global trend toward the disappearance
of trackers online, also known as cookies. They are at the
foundation of the web and have for decades enabled online ads.
Yet privacy activists say companies that develop online ad
technology abuse cookies by tracking users across many websites
and letting brands use the data to target ads.
Apple has removed third-party cookies from its
browser Safari.
Alphabet's Google followed suit by pledging that
it will phase out technology in its Chrome browser that lets
other companies track users' web browsing.
This shift compelled advertisers and traditional holding ad
groups such as Publicis to rethink their data strategies.
Publicis bought Epsilon for about $4 billion two years ago.
The unit says it has 250 million detailed consumer profiles in
the United States and Europe.
The Trade Desk operates a demand-side platform (DSP), a key
element in the complex automated advertising chain online that
allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage
multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one
platform.
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; editing by Jason Neely)
