If Google’s cookie phase out ever happens, here’s how Rankin Carroll, Mars’ chief brand officer would look in a cookie-less world

It seems that Google’s plan, which asks Chrome users to opt-in to cookie-based tracking, is similar to Apple’s App Tracing Transparency (ATT), a move made a few years ago. Marketers have known for a long time that this was coming. As the future of third party cookies remains ambiguous, brand and marketing executives, such as Rankin Carroll (global chief brand officer at Mars Snacking), have begun to look for partnerships and leverage artificial intelligence in order to fill the gaps. Carroll stated on a recent Digiday Podcast that “we had what we had and it was the standard for the industry.” “As we move past that, we’re focusing on innovation.”

Carroll explained Mars’ plans for scaling its first-party data across M&Ms, Snickers, and other brands. He also discussed the role partnerships played in scaling these plans. Carroll also discussed Mars’ Super Bowl stunt, and the company’s plans for acquiring the Kellanova snack brand family.

Here’s a few highlights of the conversation, which were edited for clarity and length.

AI, alternative data points,

[We’re] In this regard, we can do much more using alternative data, which is often stronger than third party data, as we are able to scan an even wider range of data sets. We can correlate and make distinctions in that. We’re able to correlate and make distinctions within that. We are happy with this progress.

M&Ms data from first parties

The M&Ms brand is our main source of data from first parties and we do a lot on [direct-to-consumer]. Eighty percent of the first-party data [data] we have comes from this brand. This has its limitations, but it’s a good place to start. We can enrich it and combine it with other signals and signals we have picked up. It’s a fascinating place to look and we’re trying to expand that trove of data. Nearly 80% of our first-party information comes from M&M’s, but that data is really about our fans. This helps us to better understand our fans, tailoring for them more effectively and enhancing the offerings we provide them. We partnered with Spotify to match our first-party data against Spotify playlists, and then found areas where there was a high indexing between the data we received from Spotify and our first-party. This led us to a set of insights about how we could execute better, and we were able to scale it.

Collaboration at scale

We will start implementing these ideas in 2025. It begins with M&Ms, again based on first-party data. We’re also starting to understand Snickers’ first-party data. Here’s where partnerships become really interesting. Snickers and the NFL have a partnership, and the conversation has changed dramatically. It’s a conversation driven by data. We’re having different conversations where we are only as good as the mutual benefit of our collaboration. This opens up our minds to a data driven conversation. What is it about the exchange of data which allows us to create collaborative experience that is so much more valuable for the consumer? Does it deserve their time and money? But that’s the way we will scale.

https://digiday.com/?p=568416