January 17, 2023
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The world of marketing is in a bit of confusion right now, and it's really not its fault. We have all by now heard that third party cookies are set to be eliminated by Google, and given that two thirds of internet users are doing it on Chrome Browsers, that amounts to a de facto elimination of cookies entirely. Given the way we track engagement currently, this announcement had us all rushing to learn about FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), TOPICS, and ZKA (Zero Knowledge Advertising) before the whole thing changed in 2023.
It didn't. After all the rush, Google pushed back the elimination of third party cookies until 2025, has recently dropped FLoC altogether, and there's no news on TOPICS. Although, we deep dived on Google TOPICS last year, there's no point explaining FLoC here, as it's already gone, but the more general concept of ZKA is definitely worth a look. It may be coming a little more slowly (unless governments decide that personal privacy laws require it sooner), but it is coming, and we can use the extension of time to really build our knowledge and plan strategically, to respond, rather than react, to a significant shift.
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Consumer demands for privacy are firming up only a little more quickly than the regulatory landscape is evolving to protect us from invasive advertising. When you look at shoes on Amazon, then see an ad for them on Instagram, that's a third party cooking tracking you. They use them to see what you do online, and what sites you visit when you're not on our their website; helping them build detailed buyer personas and big data portraits of how to engage with their targets. Research has shown that they are, with the right info, now able to target a single user on Facebook.
Google obviously knows that this is becoming far less accepted. Google knows everything you see, except perhaps what exactly to replace these cookies with. Perhaps they should ask old uncle Yahoo or cousin Bing for some ideas on that one.
The Internet Advertising Bureau - a hugely influential body - recently called its members to greater action. They said the disappearance of cookies was a "slow motion train wreck" for which we are just not prepared, and watching Google make U-turn after U-turn on what might replace it, was making any coherent response very challenging. The IAB's head left us with the chilling remark that soon, those of us in marketing would soon be "operating by candlelight", and trying to find answers in the dark. Not good.
The name says it all here. A wide-ranging EU survey found that 51% of respondents felt only partial control over their online data, and 30% felt they had no control at all. PIMs are an attempt to help users manage and control their own data. The term itself is quite wide-ranging, including tools which help you manage your files such as Dropbox, but also includes the way you control your personal data footprint online.
Examples of PIMs are Nextcloud, Profila and MyData. The European Data Protection Supervisor body say that these "enable individuals to track back who has had access to their digital behavior.
Individuals are able to customize what categories of data they want to share and with whom". Note that Nextcloud has emerged from a fully organic-growth strategy, Mydata is a non-profit organization, Solid is the brainchild of MIT, and Profila has undergone a research project in partnership with the University Carlos III of Madrid.
Things are all flowing the same way, as we move from content consumers to content creators, centralized control to decentralized centers, Web 2 to Web 3, Internet to Metaverse, and we in Education Marketing best make sure we are ahead of the curve and not trailing in its wake.
While we do not yet know the specific tech or metrics through which we can build our campaigns of the future, we do know the general shape of things to come. Zero Knowledge Advertising (ZKA*) isn't advertising without any clue of how to do it. Peloton did that really well/badly when they released this ad campaign, that simultaneously shamed women into feeling that "thin" was akin to being accepted, and also made it look like her husband was a bit too creepy, and the whole thing seemed like an abusive relationship.
Instead, imagine this: you install an app on your phone or laptop. You configure that app to tell it how, when, how often you want to share your personal data, or even if you want to share anything at all. You come across a nice pair of sneakers that you love, and really vibe with the brand. So, you decide you want to engage and allow the brand to know you are there checking them out.
In return for allowing the brand to engage with you, you receive a reward. This could be a convertible digital token that has monetary value, maybe a little crypto, or it could be for example a discount on those sneakers. That is an example of ZKA, though it can work via a browser such as Brave as well as an app.
Basically, we are all pretty much used to seeing ads pop up, and some of us actually don't mind them when we see something that we'd actually like to click on. What we don't like is invasive ads, and the loss of our sense of privacy.
Around 65% of Generation Z have ad blockers downloaded and in use, and the mistrust is building year-on-year. Through ZKA concepts, brands are spending some of their marketing budget on these tokens, and actually paying users to engage.
The best part is, that though these brands will engage with your digital presence, they have no ways of knowing who the physical person is. This is unlike it is now, where you can be tracked to your Social Media profile, so your physical and digital persona is the same thing, and you can be identified. ZKA means you can separate these, choosing who gets to see the digital you, while the real you remains anonymous.
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ZKA is really just one outcome of the development of the wider tech known as Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP). ZKP is a way to anonymize transactions, in a way that is kind of like proving to someone that you know the answer to a question, without actually letting them know what that answer is.
Yes, ok, this might take some getting used to. But basically, through ZKP, users can for example pay for something, prove that they are who they say they are and have the right to pay with that card or crypto wallet, but in a way that cannot be tracked, and the user can't be identified. The verification is carried out on the user's native device (e.g. phone) and not on the server end, so the data stays with the user. It really is incredibly impressive.
You can see it too, right? Generation Alpha are on their way, already used to tokens, NFTs, in-game rewards and all the rest of it, and ZKA fits right in. This will be the way this new generation can be reached, and yet so many institutions in our sector are several steps behind with downloadable brochures, scattergun ads and using "gut instinct" over intelligent data, well-designed CRMs and smooth attribution models. If we haven't yet caught up with today, then we will be floored by it tomorrow.
As we mentioned before, ZKA is just part of a bigger shift that will become normalized in a very short time. The institution that survives into the 2030s is inviting students to engage, letting them control their content and data, embracing their peer to peer decision building, building open communities, and meeting them where they are.
So where are you? This can be overwhelming; believe us when we say we have felt it too. But look around you; our community is packed with resilient, brilliant, creative minds, supportive colleagues and change makers.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is here for you, to help you refine processes, refresh your brand engagement strategy, empower your team with training and new skills. Google has given us a little breathing room while they sort things out, so let's use the time wisely and prepare. It all starts with a conversation, so reach out and let's face the new generation of students with confidence.
*ZKA is also the airport code for Zacacoyuca in Mexico, which is a fun word to say. Try it!
