49% Of U.S. Consumers Receive The Wrong Marketing Messages From Retailers, Brands (mediapost.com)

Direct mail and digital ads are the ultimate power team. While compelling on their own, together they make a larger impact on the consumer, but this is increasingly difficult to achieve in the wake of the phasing out of third-party cookies. For years, direct marketers have run cross-channel marketing programs that use third-party cookies to track user behavior across websites – we all see those ads that seem to follow us around online. In response to European and CA privacy regulations, third-party cookies have largely already been phased out by most browsers (now only relevant 40% of the time), such as Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome, which will fully phase out cookies in 2023. So, if cookies are going away and direct marketers want to reach consumers at the same time across channels to lift and improve response, what do they do?

Just like brands, marketing evolves over the years. Fonts come in and out of style, headline treatments change, colorways in product and design evolve – but the best examples of both pay homage to where they came from, and aren’t afraid to return to it now and again. I recently stumbled across a catalog from 1986 that sent me down fast fashion memory lane, to revisit khaki-toned safari jackets and clothing stitched for adventure. Whether it’s in a mall, a stand-alone store, or online, the Banana Republic we know today looks a bit different than it did in the 1980’s, but the vestiges of the explorer style it started with still remain. Let’s revisit this catalog to see some surprising differences, unexpected similarities, and an illustration (quite literally) of how Banana Republic used to tell its story. We’ll examine the practical elements of their book and their brand, looking back at where they’ve been, and ahead, to what they can apply in the future. see much more at: https://www.jschmid.com/blog/catalog-critique-throwback-edition-banana-republic/

Google has officially begun to phase out third-party cookies by implementing a default browser feature called Tracking Protection. When activated, it will cut off a website’s access to third-party cookies. The browser feature began rolling out randomly to 1% of Chrome users globally today, marking the year’s first notable step toward privacy for consumers and third-party cookie deprecation for the industry. Marketers will adapt. “While it’s an adjustment for everyone, it’s actually a valuable move,” said Anthony Yell, Razorfish chief creative officer. “It might take some adjustment to communicate as effectively in a world with cookies, a world without cookies is a wonderful thing.”