{"id":45869,"date":"2025-08-21T07:42:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T11:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/?p=45869"},"modified":"2025-08-21T09:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:23:11","slug":"capitalize-on-first-party-data-like-platforms-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/blog\/2025\/08\/21\/capitalize-on-first-party-data-like-platforms-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalize on first party data (like platforms do)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-round orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F21%2Fcapitalize-on-first-party-data-like-platforms-do%2F&text=Capitalize%20on%20first%20party%20data%20%28like%20platforms%20do%29&via=DCNorg\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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background-color:#6364FF; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"75\" height=\"79\" viewBox=\"0 0 75 79\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M37.813-.025C32.462-.058 27.114.13 21.79.598c-8.544.621-17.214 5.58-20.203 13.931C-1.12 23.318.408 32.622.465 41.65c.375 7.316.943 14.78 3.392 21.73 4.365 9.465 14.781 14.537 24.782 15.385 7.64.698 15.761-.213 22.517-4.026a54.1 54.1 0 0 0 .01-6.232c-6.855 1.316-14.101 2.609-21.049 1.074-3.883-.88-6.876-4.237-7.25-8.215-1.53-3.988 3.78-.43 5.584-.883 9.048 1.224 18.282.776 27.303-.462 7.044-.837 14.26-4.788 16.65-11.833 2.263-6.135 1.215-12.79 1.698-19.177.06-3.84.09-7.692-.262-11.52C72.596 7.844 63.223.981 53.834.684a219.453 219.453 0 0 0-16.022-.71zm11.294 12.882c5.5-.067 10.801 4.143 11.67 9.653.338 1.48.471 3 .471 4.515v21.088h-8.357c-.07-7.588.153-15.182-.131-22.765-.587-4.368-7.04-5.747-9.672-2.397-2.422 3.04-1.47 7.155-1.67 10.735v6.392h-8.307c-.146-4.996.359-10.045-.404-15.002-1.108-4.218-7.809-5.565-10.094-1.666-1.685 3.046-.712 6.634-.976 9.936v14.767h-8.354c.109-8.165-.238-16.344.215-24.5.674-5.346 5.095-10.389 10.676-10.627 4.902-.739 10.103 2.038 12.053 6.631.375 1.435 1.76 1.932 1.994.084 1.844-3.704 5.501-6.739 9.785-6.771.367-.044.735-.068 1.101-.073z\"\/><defs><linearGradient id=\"paint0_linear_549_34\" x1=\"37.0692\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"37.0692\" y2=\"79\" gradientUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\"><stop stop-color=\"#6364FF\"\/><stop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#563ACC\"\/><\/linearGradient><\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<p>Two Thanksgivings ago, Amazon Prime streamed its first Black Friday NFL game, part of its groundbreaking exclusive deal for Thursday Night Football broadcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pundits from the broadcast and streaming industries were watching to see whether Amazon\u2019s servers could handle the load (no problem) or whether its production standards were up to snuff (mostly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing that caught my eye?<br><br>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geekwire.com\/2023\/we-watched-and-shopped-amazons-first-black-friday-nfl-broadcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">QR-codes embedded alongside some traditional 30-second commercials<\/a>. They explicitly invited viewers to whip out their phones and get early access to pre-holiday deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Amazon, of course. Without ever taking an eye off the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a single moment, Amazon crystallized the changes happening in advertising. They clearly demonstrated how first-party data owned by the tech platforms trumps the decades of experience of those of us in ad-supported media industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-buy-direct\">Buy direct<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If those QR codes don\u2019t make your blood run cold \u2013 well, they should. They\u2019re one more sign of the need for those of us in traditional media to get serious about understanding our audience members <em>as individuals<\/em> and build <em>direct relationships <\/em>with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAmazon&#8217;s real advantage is the depth of their first-party data,\u201d says Bill Day, former senior vice president of the media research firm Magid Associates. \u201cPrime Video accounts are directly tied into your Prime shopping account \u2013 a seamless integration from video exposure all the way to point of sale activation for endemic categories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words: Amazon knows who its audience members are (including credit-card numbers), where they live, what they buy. And they can connect them to a one-click purchase system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-viewers-are-buying\">Viewers are buying<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Up next, Day says: Moving beyond endemic categories to local advertisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazon even has a fancy product name \u2013 \u201cInteractive Video Ads\u201d \u2013 a combination of QR codes, remote-control cues and other triggers to allow viewers to research and buy advertisers\u2019 products without leaving the stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last Thanksgiving, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/business\/media\/2024\/nfl-amazon-black-friday-commericial-ad-cost-1234817640\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon sold out its Black Friday game inventory<\/a> four months ahead of the games. Even the Super Bowl rarely sells out that early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jay Marine, Amazon\u2019s global head of sports, pitched the IVAs thusly as this year\u2019s upfronts telling the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/digital\/amazon-prime-video-sports-upfront-preview-1236212484\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, \u201cWhat we\u2019re able to do, which excites advertisers, is deliver that live event scale, combined with the digital insights, combined with the Amazon shopping capabilities.\u201d He pointed out that \u201ca customer can go from watching the game to seeing an interactive advertisement that they can one-click \u2018buy,\u2019 and it\u2019s showing up at their door in a couple hours. \u2026 I think we\u2019re really positioned to deliver something that they can\u2019t find in the rest of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(He doesn\u2019t think. He knows. Can your media outlet do that? Didn\u2019t think so.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-individual-knowledge-and-data-is-power\">Individual knowledge, and data, is power<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not just Amazon, either. Every member of the so-called FAANG club knows more about individual audience members than we do. Meta understands consumers&#8217; content consumption on Facebook and Instagram. They also have deep insight into audience members\u2019 other browsing through their tracking pixel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alphabet can build a dossier based on a users Google Chrome browser history and YouTube viewing. Then they can deploy that data through the chunks of the programmatic ad ecosystem that it owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple has data from iPhones, its podcast platform and, increasingly, Apple TV+. Netflix knows what, when and where you watch video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, too many of us talk in broad demographic strokes: \u201cWe\u2019re No. 1 with women 25-54!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-know-your-audience-now\">Know your audience now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Regardless of our industry of origin \u2013 newspaper, broadcast, digital native \u2013 media companies are severely handicapped compared to the tech platforms, who have decades of first-party data and the expertise to use it effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what do we do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start with a serious commitment to gathering more of your own first-party data \u2013 from digital log files, from active outreach like quizzes and newsletters, through value exchanges with our audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We should think, too, about how we might revisit and refresh ideas the industry considered, and rejected, decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my favorites, from Ye Olden Days of the \u201890s: The legacy newspaper industry formed a consortium, the New Century Network, to build collective tools in the then-emerging technologies of the internet. One of those proposed answers was universal registration system (what today we would call a single-sign on attached to a data lake) that would aggregate identity and usage data across the major news sites of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mentor Owen Youngman \u2013 then a senior executive at Tribune Co., later a professor of digital media at Northwestern \u2013 loudly advocated for that system (and probably crafted most of the pitch). It was basically laughed out of the room by companies who believed their classified-ads monopoly was divinely granted and immortal. So, why worry about first-party data?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within a decade, Google effectively built out that model. Using tools like Gmail to get users into their ecosystem, then adding in data from search and Chrome to build a dominant position in the programmatic ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-de-faanging-the-internet\">De-FAANGing the internet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are glimmers of hope, though: The European Union is aggressively confronting the FAANG companies\u2019 data practices; even the U.S. Justice Department is showing some renewed vigor toward <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/blog\/2024\/09\/11\/the-monumental-stakes-of-the-google-ad-tech-trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-trust enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, we can\u2019t afford to complacently hope the regulators will solve all problems. Though we can hope those actions open a small window of opportunity. And it\u2019s time to figure out if your media organization is building the data and skills it needs to make the most it. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-about-the-author\">About the author<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tom Davidson is the Bellisario professor of practice in media innovation at Penn State University. He was a longtime reporter turned media executive and product developer at Tribune Co., PBS and Gannett.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-round orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F21%2Fcapitalize-on-first-party-data-like-platforms-do%2F&text=Capitalize%20on%20first%20party%20data%20%28like%20platforms%20do%29&via=DCNorg\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#000; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path fill=\"#000\" d=\"M14.258 10.152L23.176 0h-2.113l-7.747 8.813L7.133 0H0l9.352 13.328L0 23.973h2.113l8.176-9.309 6.531 9.309h7.133zm-2.895 3.293l-.949-1.328L2.875 1.56h3.246l6.086 8.523.945 1.328 7.91 11.078h-3.246zm0 0\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button linkedin shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#1488bf\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F21%2Fcapitalize-on-first-party-data-like-platforms-do%2F\" title=\"Share on LinkedIn\" aria-label=\"Share on LinkedIn\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#0077b5; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 27 32\"><path fill=\"#0077b5\" d=\"M6.2 11.2v17.7h-5.9v-17.7h5.9zM6.6 5.7q0 1.3-0.9 2.2t-2.4 0.9h0q-1.5 0-2.4-0.9t-0.9-2.2 0.9-2.2 2.4-0.9 2.4 0.9 0.9 2.2zM27.4 18.7v10.1h-5.9v-9.5q0-1.9-0.7-2.9t-2.3-1.1q-1.1 0-1.9 0.6t-1.2 1.5q-0.2 0.5-0.2 1.4v9.9h-5.9q0-7.1 0-11.6t0-5.3l0-0.9h5.9v2.6h0q0.4-0.6 0.7-1t1-0.9 1.6-0.8 2-0.3q3 0 4.9 2t1.9 6z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button mastodon shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#563ACC\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s2f.kytta.dev\/?text=Capitalize%20on%20first%20party%20data%20%28like%20platforms%20do%29 https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F21%2Fcapitalize-on-first-party-data-like-platforms-do%2F\" title=\"Share on Mastodon\" aria-label=\"Share on Mastodon\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#6364FF; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"75\" height=\"79\" viewBox=\"0 0 75 79\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M37.813-.025C32.462-.058 27.114.13 21.79.598c-8.544.621-17.214 5.58-20.203 13.931C-1.12 23.318.408 32.622.465 41.65c.375 7.316.943 14.78 3.392 21.73 4.365 9.465 14.781 14.537 24.782 15.385 7.64.698 15.761-.213 22.517-4.026a54.1 54.1 0 0 0 .01-6.232c-6.855 1.316-14.101 2.609-21.049 1.074-3.883-.88-6.876-4.237-7.25-8.215-1.53-3.988 3.78-.43 5.584-.883 9.048 1.224 18.282.776 27.303-.462 7.044-.837 14.26-4.788 16.65-11.833 2.263-6.135 1.215-12.79 1.698-19.177.06-3.84.09-7.692-.262-11.52C72.596 7.844 63.223.981 53.834.684a219.453 219.453 0 0 0-16.022-.71zm11.294 12.882c5.5-.067 10.801 4.143 11.67 9.653.338 1.48.471 3 .471 4.515v21.088h-8.357c-.07-7.588.153-15.182-.131-22.765-.587-4.368-7.04-5.747-9.672-2.397-2.422 3.04-1.47 7.155-1.67 10.735v6.392h-8.307c-.146-4.996.359-10.045-.404-15.002-1.108-4.218-7.809-5.565-10.094-1.666-1.685 3.046-.712 6.634-.976 9.936v14.767h-8.354c.109-8.165-.238-16.344.215-24.5.674-5.346 5.095-10.389 10.676-10.627 4.902-.739 10.103 2.038 12.053 6.631.375 1.435 1.76 1.932 1.994.084 1.844-3.704 5.501-6.739 9.785-6.771.367-.044.735-.068 1.101-.073z\"\/><defs><linearGradient id=\"paint0_linear_549_34\" x1=\"37.0692\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"37.0692\" y2=\"79\" gradientUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\"><stop stop-color=\"#6364FF\"\/><stop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#563ACC\"\/><\/linearGradient><\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Thanksgivings ago, Amazon Prime streamed its first Black Friday NFL game, part of its groundbreaking exclusive deal for Thursday Night Football broadcasts. Pundits from the broadcast and streaming industries&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4589,"featured_media":45874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4399,3041,11],"tags":[25,164,1957],"coauthors":[5016],"class_list":["post-45869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-featured-post","category-revenue","tag-data","tag-digital-advertising","tag-video-advertising"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Capitalize on first party data (like platforms do) - Digital Content Next<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Big tech has constructed a first-party data machine to understand individuals and profit. 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