The advertising industry, with the first tranche of reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 introduced this year, is in limbo as it awaits the next round of recommendations.
Even the top CMOs in the country don't feel prepared industry experts said onstage at AdNews Brisbane L!VE.
Companies are currently looking to external partners and their marketing agencies on what they can do as adland approaches the incoming legislations.
Not even the most sophisticated companies have all that expertise in house, says Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) director of policy and regulatory affairs Megan McEwin.
"They are talking to external experts about how they build their data, how they get the reach and how they do the measurement without cookies," McEwin said.
"It's so complicated and so confusing, I don't think any of our members feel like they're really on top of it yet."
Understanding the data that companies have and how it is stored is essential right now, Blis regional director ANZ Elias Psarologas said.
"If they haven't already, companies need to get rid of all the data they can't justify having on the books," McEwin said.
These reforms are essential as while Australia got very frightened by the Optus hack, there's also numerous hacks from other bodies and corporations that never get broadcasted.
Audience 360 head of sales Moritz Von Sanden said there's no way around these incoming reforms.
"Brands will have to be transparent, honest and have to work with partners," Von Sanden said.
"I have lots of conversations with my agency friends and we joke about now we are lawyers part time because of how complex things are getting.
"Stay away from sympathetic AI based modeling and all those kind of things when looking at the privacy legislation - instead look at fundamentals of the business."
The death of cookies has been an ongoing conversation, first announced in 2020, that has a bit of fatigue, Quantcast commercial director ANZ Daniel O’Connor said.
"But it doesn't take away the fact that it's super important, the internet is going to be cookieless and most of it is now anyways," O’Connor said.
"So if you're a brand or an agency ignoring more than half of the open internet, why would you not want to be speaking to them?"
AdNews would like to thank co-curators Brisbane Advertising Association and Brisbane Advertising and Design Club.
AdNews would also like to thank supporting partners Audience 360, Blis, Nine and Quantcast alongside associate partners QIC, Listnr and MIQ for making the event possible.
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