Company Offers GDPR-Safe Solution for Brands and Agencies to Target Audiences with Relevant Messaging, Without the Use of Third-Party Data and Cookies

Grapeshot, the contextual intelligence platform that empowers brands to connect with consumers by unlocking the power of real-time context, announced its GDPR-safe solution for brands, agencies, and programmatic platforms, navigating the impending General Data Protection Regulation policies (GDPR). GDPR goes into effect on May 25, 2018, and is expected to render up to 75% of advertisers’ consumer marketing data obsolete.

One of the biggest threats advertisers face amidst new restrictions is the inability to use third-party data and cookies to reach European audiences at scale, without first obtaining proper opt-in from individuals. Because Grapeshot does not rely on cookie IDs or historical third-party data–and instead identifies and targets new audiences based on the relevance of the content they’re engaging with online in real-time–it will not only ensure that advertisers comply with the expected new regulatory rules, but that they maintain or exceed the reach of their existing campaigns.

Also Read: Is GDPR Really Changing Ad Tech?

While GDPR compliance is a clear immediate benefit of the Grapeshot solution, its value to advertisers far transcends GDPR-safety and avoiding potentially significant fines. It will allow advertisers to scale their efforts globally, targeting audiences and markets beyond Europe, with far more relevance than they had in the pre-GDPR landscape. The Grapeshot Contextual Intelligence engine currently operates in 48 countries, in over 33 languages, and is currently used by 7,000 brands and 920 agencies worldwide.

“GDPR is possibly the best thing that could happen to brands. It forces an entire industry to rethink its reliance on data and understand how valuable it is to focus on advertisers’ own first-party data and discover unknown audiences without a reliance on cookie opt-in. While this sudden and massive shift in how advertisers reach consumers digitally might initially be frightening to advertisers, Grapeshot’s solution will quickly and easily allow them to achieve GDPR-safety, and then scale responsibly and far more relevantly from there,” said John Snyder, CEO of Grapeshot.

Also Read: The One Value that Salesforce and GDPR have in Common 

Grapeshot has traditionally applied its contextual intelligence solution to highly customized brand safety, brand relevance and language-based audience targeting for advertisers. As GDPR forces advertisers to move away from the use of past data to inform present interactions with consumers, Grapeshot is in a unique position to help brands increase their momentum without cookie opt-ins, despite the seeming obstacles presented by GDPR. Without cookie opt-ins, advertisers can use real-time contextual relevance to sync a brand’s specific contextual targeting needs with the precise content each consumer is choosing to read or watch, in the moment as it happens.

GDPR will replace existing EU national data protection laws. Despite their European origins, they will have far-reaching, global implications for any business processing EU citizens’ personal data. At its core, GDPR will change how global businesses collect, manage and use consumers’ personally identifiable information, such as phone numbers, age, email, interests, location and more.

Recommended Read: The Clock is ticking – Are You Ready for GDPR?