Criteo Spearheads Post-Cookie Innovation with the Launch of Contextual Targeting Connected to First-Party Commerce Data

Criteo , the global technology company powering the world’s marketers with trusted and impactful advertising, today announced a first of-its-kind product that connects first-party commerce data with real-time contextual signals, paving the way for marketers to continue to drive and measure incremental revenue in a post cookie world. Criteo’s contextual advertising solution is an important milestone in the company’s larger vision to become a Commerce Media Platform, a world-leading media activation platform that enables media monetization and powers global brands, agencies and retailers to optimize their sales and digital advertising returns.

Marketers are beginning to grapple with solutions to smartly reach audiences in a data-privacy minded way, and solutions like contextual advertising are making a comeback – but with new and improved technology like machine learning and artificial intelligence to better classify content on the open internet. Criteo’s leading innovation goes beyond content classification to make contextual advertising even more powerful for marketers by comparing a deep analysis of web pages, images and video to its wide range of first-party commerce data.

“As we look at the current landscape of retail to find new ways to communicate and connect with our customer, we’ve begun testing new innovations like Criteo’s contextual solution,” said Paula Knight, Senior Director of Brand Marketing at INTERMIX. “Contextual advertising has come a long way, and the ability to tie context with first-party data to drive marketing performance is an exciting development that helps us understand what content best resonates with our customer.”

Through Criteo’s contextual solution, marketers will be able to drive commerce outcomes in real-time by engaging audiences in content that is proven effective in influencing shopping mindsets across Criteo’s extensive First-Party Media Network of over 5,000 direct, premium publishers and major SSPs across 100+ regions. This solution will also offer consumers personalized experiences through product recommendations based on cookie-free contextual signals.

“Our contextual solution significantly raises the bar – and allows marketers to combine traditional contextual targeting with commerce data – uncovering the relationship between content and buying behaviors to further drive revenue and accurately measure the impact of their contextual campaigns in cookie-free media,” said Todd Parsons, Chief Product Officer at Criteo. “It’s all thanks to the massive amount of first-party commerce data safely housed in Criteo’s Shopper Graph.”

Criteo’s contextual solution starts with a deep understanding of an advertiser’s first-party data, analyzing the most recent purchases from existing consumers. Thanks to intelligent machine learning powered by Criteo’s AI Engine, Criteo is then able to pick up on the publisher URLs and contextual categories that have the highest affinities with these consumers. By indexing every publisher URL across its vast media network with both contextual and commerce signals, Criteo can display personalized product recommendations without relying on third-party cookies. The result is better audience reach among those who have high potential to purchase in the future, and the opportunity to adapt in real-time to varying purchasing cycles and seasonal buying trends that are uncovered over the year.

Criteo contextual targeting is now in limited availability for customers in select markets, including the U.S., U.K., Germany and France. Criteo intends to generally release the solution in the second half of the year.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including with respect to the future availability of solution and its ability to meet the needs of customers, and other statements that are not historical facts and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: failure related to our technology and our ability to innovate and respond to changes in technology, uncertainty regarding the scope and impact of the recent outbreak of COVID-19 on our employees, operations, revenue and cash flows, uncertainty regarding our ability to access a consistent supply of internet display advertising inventory and expand access to such inventory, investments in new business opportunities and the timing of these investments, whether the projected benefits of acquisitions materialize as expected, uncertainty regarding international growth and expansion, the impact of competition, uncertainty regarding legislative, regulatory or self-regulatory developments regarding data privacy matters and the impact of efforts by other participants in our industry to comply therewith, the impact of consumer resistance to the collection and sharing of data, our ability to access data through third parties, failure to enhance our brand cost-effectively, recent growth rates not being indicative of future growth, our ability to manage growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, our ability to grow our base of clients, and the financial impact of maximizing Revenue ex-TAC, as well as risks related to future opportunities and plans, including the uncertainty of expected future financial performance and results and those risks detailed from time-to-time under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in the Company’s SEC filings and reports, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 26, 2021, and in subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as well as future filings and reports by the Company. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events, changes in expectations or otherwise.