APPLE PRIVACY EDUCATION
This project represents the culmination of nearly 6 months of research, interviews, experiments, and writing to present what was, at the time, the most concise playbook for advertisers on iOS. The changes Apple introduced in iOS 14.5 (delayed from iOS 14) changed everything for advertisers in mobile, both web and in-app. Targeting, attribution, and tracking were all turned upside down overnight. More than any other changes, these changes have changed the mobile industry forever.
Privacy is actually one of my favourite topics and something I keep up with intellectually and professionally. As a consumer, I believe strongly in the need for privacy protection, as a marketer, I understand the value exchange of data for content and entertainment. It’s not a black-and-white issue, and I truly enjoy educating others on the importance of both platform and regulatory compliance.
Expand the sections below to see details and download the reports.
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Prepared for developers and advertisers prior to the launch of iOS 14.5, this report was AdColony’s 2nd most-downloaded piece of content for 2020 and 2021, only eclipsed by our “big book of data” reports. It continued to receive consistent downloads on DigitalTurbine.com, highlighting its relevance and quality.
It was also translated into Korean and Japanese by my APAC Marketing Manager.
(Due to file size, the page is hosted via my personal Google Drive)
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This report, prepared for a strategic account client and later adapted for general use, covered some of the critical differences between marketing to Android users vs iOS users in the wake of Apple’s changes, and Google announced changes to their privacy sandbox (which tend to be delayed frequently).
(Due to file size, the page is hosted via my personal Google Drive)
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Six months is a long time in tech and in mobile. The first six months post iOS 14.5 saw massive changes, saw Meta’s revenue crater, Snap stumble, and Twitter give up and start trying to sell itself.
I guided the content team to develop a set of learnings and important takeaways for advertisers who might not live and breathe privacy issues in the same way I do.
Due to design resource constraints, I leveraged other members of the marketing team and we collaborated on the design. It’s not perfect, but it presents the information well. Good designers are invaluable.
(Due to file size, the page is hosted via my personal Google Drive)
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Prior to Apple’s initial delay of AppTrackingTransparency in late 2020, I worked with adtech privacy attorney and expert Alan Chapell, Forbes contributor John Koetsier, and AdColony’s EVP of Global publishing and senior product manager to create a webinar to educate developers about the what, why, and how of the changes, having judged Apple’s own education a bit deficient when it comes to getting things done.
We ran this webinar twice, once for North America and Europe, and once for Asia.
Following the webinar, SDK integrations of AdColony’s latest SDK integrations grew from 20% of our network to over 45%.
The webinar was promoted across social, newsletters, and employee advocacy platforms.
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Sales teams need materials! While ebooks, webinars, and blog posts are all good, sales teams need materials to leave behind and email out.
Working with product, my strategy director and I developed this one sheeter using templates provided by design. This enabled us to update it regularly as Apple changed integration instructions, and provided further clarification.
Unfortunately, the QR code no longer works following the acquisition of AdColony by Digital Turbine in 2021.
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In addition to the larger pieces of content, shorter blog posts explaining various facts of Apple’s privacy changes were a key driver in traffic to AdColony’s blog, and in lead generation.
AdColony was the leading ad network when it came to privacy-safe demand for developers, and compliant supply for advertisers. Showcasing our expertise in regular blog content, shared via newsletters, social, and employee advocacy platforms, helped us weather a storm that hit major players extremely hard.
Unfortunately, most of these blog posts are no longer available following the shutdown of AdColony’s own blog in 2021. Due to their age (mobile industry moves fast!) they did not clear the SEO activity bar to be moved to the DT blog.
One that did move over was iOS 14 for Developers: Asking for Permission.
