Essence of Email Weekly - It's the end of cookies... or not?

Rewind: In January 2020, Google announced the depreciation of third-party cookies, the files websites use to remember preferences and track online activity. Their initial plan was to do it by 2022 but last June, they announced that they are aiming to make the switch and adopt new technology in the second half of 2023.

However, now, they are again delaying the plan and they are targeting the second half of 2024.

According to Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Privacy Sandbox, "The most consistent feedback we've received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome. This feedback aligns with our commitment to the CMA to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox provides effective, privacy-preserving technologies and the industry has sufficient time to adopt these new solutions."

As a result, they will expand the testing for the Privacy Sandbox APIs before Google disables third-party cookies in Chrome.

Additional deets: Privacy Sandbox proposes using an in-browser algorithm, called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), which will be able to analyze a user's activity and generate a "privacy-preserving" ID. This ID can be used by marketers for targeting. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation described it as "the opposite of privacy-preserving technology."

Additionally, Google will release a trial of its Privacy Sandbox to "millions" of Chrome users beginning in August and it will gradually increase the trial population throughout 2023. Users who won't be interested in participating will be offered an opt-out option.

For more deets, check out this article.



SMS MARKETING


Is it too early to start prepping for the holiday season? Not really!


Source: Giphy
Last year, consumers started doing their holiday shopping as early as October in order to avoid shipping delays and product shortages. With 42% more shoppers worldwide and 37% more in the US who are planning to buy gifts earlier, chances are that we will see a similar trend this year.

Some consumers are even taking advantage of big summer sales to get ahead on their shopping. What does this mean for marketers and brands? It is never too early to start prepping for the holiday season and start optimizing your email and SMS programs!

Attentive released a guide that can be used as a checklist for making sure that your SMS program is ready for the holiday season. We're giving you a sneak peek of some of the steps mentioned:

• Focus on growing your SMS list

• Turn on triggered journeys

• Add transactional text messages to the mix

• A/B Testing your SMS campaigns to refine your strategy

• Set the expectations that subscribers can text you directly.

They also included some tips and ideas that can help you with your planning, as well as the best practices related to your holiday SMS program. But since there are quite a few, we highly recommend heading over to their page and checking them out yourself! And remember, when it comes to BF/CM season, it's never too early to start preparing! ????



EMAIL DESIGN INSPO


It's beer o'clock!


Source: MailDesigner365
Did you know that the first Friday of every August is considered to be International Beer Day? This is an amazing opportunity for restaurants and bars all over the world to send a reminder to their customers and invite them over for a beer (or two ????)

TGI Fridays sent a simple but very effective email to their subscribers with a very interesting visual for all beer lovers worldwide. This just shows us how powerful imagery can be and the well-known saying "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Cheers! ????