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With the loss of third-party cookies, publishers and advertisers alike have had to seek out new strategies for audience targeting. This article breaks down how The Globe and Mail’s commercial data optimization team is leveraging data collaboration and Clean Room Technology to bring success to advertisers, using the recent VIA Rail campaign as a case study.

The first-party data foundation

For over a decade, The Globe and Mail has focused on quality journalism as opposed to chasing after clicks and traffic, which has allowed them to develop a robust first-party data strategy built on trust with their audience.

This approach has provided better insights into reader preferences, ultimately ensuring they can connect people to more relevant advertising. While this balanced value exchange with readers is a crucial part of a strong data strategy, The Globe wanted to do more.

Building a strong data strategy

As part of deepening its data capabilities, The Globe and Mail has refocused on strengthening its data warehouse. In this process, they partnered with Optable, a data collaboration and Clean Room Technology provider. While data collaboration is not a catch-all solution, it is an important extension of an already existing data strategy, and particularly important to creating meaningful opportunities for brands to connect with their readers.

“Our team is very obsessive about the relationship that readers have with ads, and how we’re able to help advertisers connect with receptive readers and audiences,” Kabil Rahaman, the Head of Data Optimization at The Globe and Mail, emphasized.

A recipe for success

Achieving success involves collaborations, from a first-party data strategy to agreement from key stakeholders and someone willing to take clear accountability for the program’s outcomes.

When measuring impact, The Globe looks beyond pure revenue metrics. “To gain a more comprehensive understanding, we look at our interactions with partners and the discussions we have,” Rahaman explained. “These conversations are a valuable starting point for measuring revenue opportunities and tracking our progress.”

VIA Rail: theory in action

Rahaman broke down how The Globe’s team uses a test and learn approach grounded in curiosity, aimed at validating an assumption or theory for a partner.

“It’s a highly collaborative process designed to produce structured tests to address business challenges,” he said.

In the case of VIA Rail, they aimed to determine whether The Globe and Mail’s data enriched with VIA Rail’s first-party data would perform better than solely using The Globe’s data. They also wanted to create a campaign to generate awareness and encourage planning for people’s next trip with VIA Rail.

The ABC Testing Approach: VIA Rail case study

The Globe conducted an ABC test to compare three different targeting approaches.

Tactic A: Content targeting based on customer insights

For Tactic A, they targeted on-site content on The Globe and Mail’s website based on audience insights from matching VIA Rail’s customer data with Globe readers. The results indicated that VIA Rail customers engaged more in Personal Finance, Business Opinion, and Investing. These insights were then leveraged to strategically allocate VIA Rail’s advertising dollars to target these high-performing content sections.

Tactic B: Look-alike audience for new customer acquisition

For Tactic B, they created a look-alike audience of Globe readers who shared similar characteristics to VIA Rail’s existing customers, even if they haven’t travelled with VIA Rail before. By leveraging these lookalike models, they could identify and reach potential new customers with similar domestic travel interests, expanding beyond their direct matches.

Rahaman sees particular value in this approach, even when audience matches are small: “As an optimistic person, I believe that a low audience match provides an opportunity for customer growth and acquisition.” This perspective transforms what could be seen as a limitation into a strategic opportunity to reach new customers.

Tactic C: Control group baseline

Finally, for Tactic C, they used The Globe’s existing domestic traveller audience as a control group to compare the performance of Tactics A and B. This control approach aligns with Rahaman’s philosophy of testing different tactics against a publisher’s first-party audience “to determine if there’s a lift or difference in how the publisher defines their own audience compared to how you would match.”

Impressive results and future plans

Soleil Adler, Data Optimization Manager at The Globe and Mail, spoke about the outstanding success of the program:

“With VIA Rail, we have seen a 3.4 times increase in reach. We are continuing to use these tactics in new campaigns and conducting frequent data matches to improve our data strategy as we move forward.”

While the campaign demonstrated exciting results, they intend to continue to improve their capabilities. Moving forward, they plan on matching ad exposure with ticket sales to identify people who purchased a ticket after being exposed to an ad on The Globe. They also plan to create use cases that specifically avoid targeting existing ticket purchasers.

Summary

Data collaborations will only become more critical as the world moves away from third-party cookies. The Globe and Mail’s partnership with Optable and the impressive results from their campaign with VIA Rail demonstrate that a strategic, test-driven approach to first-party data collaboration can deliver significant advantages for publishers and advertisers while maintaining reader trust in a cookieless future.

Click here to learn more about how The Globe’s data solutions can help your business.