When I first learned about the efforts to "decarbonize" MadTech, I thought it was just another buzzy idea that lacked substance. I have always considered budget waste, but I never considered other kinds of waste. For example, the waste created by the sheer number of technologies available for marketers that duplicate efforts or waste cycles. Most of us don't even use 60% of our MarTech stack – a waste – but we still need to be able to operate it – another waste. Turns out, marketing and especially advertising has a large carbon footprint. And it might get worse before it gets better.
The evolution of third-party cookies as an identifier dictates that brands patch together from various available identity solutions. This means the inevitable increase in disparate vendor brands will need to be added to manage them. Reducing the number of vendors you work with can decrease the need for travel and reduce associated carbon emissions. But more consequential is that many MarTech tools and platforms are hosted in data centers that require significant amounts of energy to operate. By reducing the number of tools and platforms you use, you can decrease the overall energy consumption associated with your marketing operations. Large MarTech stacks also often involve the processing of large volumes of data, which can be resource-intensive in terms of computing power and energy consumption. Simplifying your stack can reduce the amount of data processing required.
Instead of further bloating the MarTech stack with additional tools to bridge the cookie gap, we should be using AI to reduce the number of technologies within it and/or find alternatives that are interoperable. Doing so will help achieve what third-party cookies couldn’t: relevance with respect for consumer privacy in our customer engagements, with a side helping of sustainability.
How Pega optimizes customer profiles
With the Infinity ‘23 release, Pega Customer Decision Hub™ now offers even more features to help brands capture that 360-degree view while minimizing the number of technologies you need to activate it properly. For example:
- Enhanced identity features let organizations ingest disparate identifiers into Customer Decision Hub and merge them to enhance the customer profile.
- Increase consumer protection with Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) – The BYOK approach allows customers to generate and manage their own encryption keys, giving them full control over data encryption and key lifecycle management. This helps organizations prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and adhere to internal policies and external regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA. The BYOK approach is utilized widely across the Pega Customer Decision Hub, from enabling access to encrypted fields when creating strategies in the strategy canvas to encrypting customer information when importing and exporting data or handling sensitive information in outbound channels.
- Activate personas and decisioning strategies across paid channels – With Paid Media Manager, organizations can activate their decisioning strategies across paid channels like Meta and Google properties for more accurate customer acquisition.
In a world increasingly aware of the environmental impact of every industry, the realization that marketing operations contribute significantly to carbon emissions has prompted a much-needed shift in perspective. While the notion of "decarbonizing" MadTech might have initially seemed like a mere buzzword, it's now evident that we must take concrete steps to reduce waste – both in terms of resources and energy. Beyond the obvious impacts on the environment within marketing, like travel, events, and awards, the excessive proliferation of marketing technologies creates a substantial carbon footprint.
The transition away from third-party cookies as identifiers provokes an urge to look for additional vendors to solve the resulting challenges. However, there is a smarter, more sustainable way forward. By harnessing AI to optimize various aspects of the MadTech ecosystem and streamline our stacks, we can not only enhance customer engagement and make our internal teams more productive, but also reduce our carbon footprint.
Download this ebook to learn more about how brands are utilizing AI-powered decisioning to decrease acquisition costs, maximize customer retention, and drive revenue growth while trending away from third-party cookies.