Here are just a few of our takeaways from the morning discussion…

1. The deprecation of the third-party cookie really will bring seismic changes to digital advertising and, whilst there’s been plenty of discussion about this being the right time for publishers to take back control of their first party data, collaboration between publishers is a necessary and meaningful way to achieve this. Publishers need to act now and collaboration will help to navigate the future both in terms of sharing learnings from testing suggested tech solutions and in creating a buyer-centric scale that enables advertisers and agencies ease of access to quality, engaged audiences.
2. The key to successful co-opetition is to have a shared vision of growth – this is true of the partners in the Ozone Project and exemplified by the success of the Bauer – News UK collaboration on Octave. Shared goals can lead to successful collaboration even between strongly competitive publishing businesses – we learned how Haymarket Automotive and Autovia have leveraged the strength of their combined data to build a compelling proposition for advertisers, enabling them to monetise their first party data with new advertisers and off their own platform, whilst still competing in other areas of their commercial operations.
3. It’s in the interests of the whole digital publishing sector to ensure that independent, community-based, or minority-led publishing businesses are supported through collaboration. We heard from Rhiannon Davies, driving force behind The Scottish Beacon, how this collective of independent local and community-based news publishers are sharing knowledge and creating a greater impact through collaborative journalism. Ritesh Gohil, Head of Digital, Partner with Mindshare Worldwide, suggested that stronger collaboration between established publishing businesses and emerging, minority-owned publishers would facilitate stronger investment from the buy-side.
4. There was recognition that the various industry bodies need to lead the way on collaboration and recognition that this was happening. Jon Westbrook, Co founder and COO of the Independent Publisher Alliance welcomed the opportunities for knowledge-sharing provided by the AOP as smaller independent publishers, many of whom have only achieved revenues through programmatic, plan for the cookie-less future. Jules Kendrick, Managing Director UK & Europe of TAG [Trustworthy Accountability Group] shared how they are ensuring that current approaches to brand safety don’t throw up unnecessary barriers to DE&I or smaller publishers, introducing free certification. The AOP is setting up opportunities for collaborative testing of alternative ID solutions.
5. There are reasons to be positive and positivity is a driver of successful co-opetition and collaboration. Whilst there can be practical hurdles to jump over to launch collaborative projects [legalities, privacy compliance, etc] there was consensus in the room that the leap was worth taking. It offers the opportunity to strengthen the position and increase the voice of all premium publishers, who’s reader-first approach and highly engaged audiences will then be recognised for the value it delivers.

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