How to win when the cookie crumbles: Top takeaways from our LDF event

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We hosted our first ever Leeds Digital Festival event and packed the studio with marketers who wanted straight answers on life after third-party cookies. A big thank you to everyone who came for the chat (and the cookies).

Didn’t make the event? Here’s a short recap, minus the crumbs.

What do third-party cookies do (and what’s changed)?

Third-party cookies are small bits of code placed on a user’s browser by a website other than the one they’re visiting. They allow platforms and advertisers to follow people across different sites, build audience profiles, and connect ad exposure to conversions.

Driven by privacy concerns, regulation and platform changes, third-party tracking is being steadily dismantled. Browsers like Safari and Firefox already block them by default, and Chrome is moving towards a user-choice model.

At the same time, platforms like Meta and Google are pushing brands to rely on their APIs and closed ecosystems instead of legacy tracking methods.

Why is the cookie conversation important?

As always, marketers are under pressure to drive growth and efficiency, but with murkier signals, fragmented customer journeys and less loyalty to go around. Data is now the battleground.

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We’re being asked to do more with less. The brands who capture, understand, and use their own data effectively will hold the edge.

Gregg Turner

Performance Marketing Director

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What performance marketers need next

1) A smarter foundation

In a post-cookie world, data isn’t something you passively collect, it’s something you actively earn. That means shifting your focus to signals you can trust:

• First-party data: which can be captured through website behaviour, app activity, purchase history and email sign-ups, building a rich owned dataset.
• Zero-party data: information a customer willingly shares, through preference centres, surveys, polls on social, quizzes and other interactive content.

2) Collection methods built for privacy

With third-party cookies crumbling, the way you capture and connect data has to evolve. That means replacing leaky, browser-based tracking with methods designed to respect privacy while still giving you the clarity you need. The good news? The tools are already here, and they have the potential to give you better data than cookies ever did.

• Server-side tracking: sends conversion events directly from your server to ad platforms, which reduces data loss from blockers and browser limits.
• Conversion APIs: link your CRM, website and apps to platforms like Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn for cleaner signals, stronger ID matching and better optimisation.

3) Digital activations that earn attention

Digital activations are a great way to earn first and zero-party data at scale while giving your audience something genuinely engaging and rewarding in return. We shared four digital activation mechanics that consistently trade value for data:

• Real-world predictors for sports and pop-culture moments.
• Always-on quizzes that capture specific interests fast.
• Pot-luck experiences that steer users to the right message or offer.
• Skill-based games that reward mastery and keep people coming back.

Need more info? Find out more about our digital activation services.

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Channel by channel: a future-proof approach to a cookieless world

SEO: earn visibility, then trust

Search results pages are crowded with AI overviews, forums, video and shopping units. Treat SEO as the discovery backbone that captures intent and consented data at source. That authority and data then fuel paid and social, not just organic traffic numbers.

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Visibility is built first, but trust is earned later. SEO is the foundation other channels can build on.

Dave Whittrick

Head of SEO

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Social: build community insight on purpose

Zero-party data from polls, quizzes and comments identifies what your audience truly values. Feed those insights back into content and paid. The by-product is higher engagement and a community that tells you more about your brand.

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In a cookieless world, the brands that listen and act on what people share will win.

Yasmin Russell

Head of Social Media Marketing

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Paid media: let algorithms learn from better signals

Broad, algorithmic audiences perform when they’re trained on high-quality conversion data. Server-side signals and conversion APIs help platforms optimise toward real outcomes, while your first-party audience building keeps relevance high.

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Good data in, good results out. We’ve already seen cookieless campaigns outperform cookie-based setups.

James Elliman

Head of Paid

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A simple performance model for a cookieless world

Performance marketing today is all about connecting channels through the data you own, reaching the right people, creating content that resonates, and measuring impact with confidence.

Within that, each channel has a role to play:

• Social builds trust and gathers zero-party data
• SEO drives discovery and captures first-party data
• CRM nurtures and personalises
• Paid amplifies and scales using that data

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How to navigate a cookieless future 

Our speakers left the audience with three clear takeaways to shape smarter, more resilient strategies:

1. Engage audiences through trust and value
2. Collect first and zero-party data with purpose and consent
3. Use data to power content, optimise channels and drive performance