Digital communication in 2024 is taking place in areas that most advisory articles overlook: audience measurement without third-party cookies, the European regulatory framework redefining advertising targeting, and the professionalization of influence. These three axes structure the concrete decisions we recommend to marketing teams this year.
Audience measurement without third-party cookies: building a hybrid strategy
The subject is no longer prospective. On July 4, 2024, the CNIL published a study in partnership with Télécom Paris concluding that no solution alone replaces the functions of third-party cookies. Advertisers, agencies, and regulators surveyed agree on one point: multiple components must be combined.
We observe that the best-prepared companies articulate at least three levers simultaneously:
- Contextual targeting, which associates advertising delivery with the content of the page rather than the user’s profile, and which regains strong relevance in a non-persistent identifier environment.
- First-party data collection through authenticated environments (customer accounts, newsletters, loyalty programs), the only truly owned audience knowledge source.
- Retail media and Privacy Sandbox-type solutions, which offer cohort mechanisms or aggregated targeting without exposing individual data.
The classic trap is to bet on only one of these components. A digital strategy that relies exclusively on contextual targeting loses retargeting capability. Conversely, building everything on first-party data assumes a volume of authenticated audience that few brands achieve. The effective approach in 2024 involves teams capable of calibrating these solutions according to the purchasing journey, not the latest trendy tool.
To structure this transition, specialized agencies assist advertisers in managing their digital communication, as whatsuptiger.fr does in the strategy and activation aspects.
Digital Services Act and targeted advertising: what the European regulation changes concretely
Since February 17, 2024, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is fully applicable across the European Union. Two prohibitions restructure advertising campaigns on major platforms: targeted advertising based on sensitive data is prohibited, and advertising targeting minors is banned.
For marketing teams, the operational consequence is direct. Audience segments built on health, political orientation, religion, or ethnic affiliation criteria become unusable. Campaigns targeting those under 18 must shift to non-targeted formats or pure contextual targeting.
Algorithmic recommendation and transparency
The DSA also requires very large platforms to offer a recommendation option not based on profiling. In practice, this means that an increasing share of users will see content ranked by non-personalized criteria (chronology, raw popularity). Brands that rely on algorithmic organic reach lose a visibility lever.
We recommend auditing your active campaigns on Meta, TikTok, and Google to identify audience segments that use sensitive data or target minor age groups. This compliance work, often delegated to legal teams, is actually part of daily media management.
Tracking pixels in emails: the CNIL recommendation to integrate now
The CNIL has published a specific recommendation on tracking pixels embedded in emails. These invisible pixels, which trigger a server call upon opening an email, collect data (timestamp, IP address, device) without explicit consent in most cases.
Email marketing remains the channel with the best reported return on investment, but its technical exploitation must evolve. The recommendation urges clear communication to the recipient about the presence of a pixel and obtaining compliant consent before any processing of personal data through this mechanism.
Consequences on open rates
Open rates calculated via pixels become mechanically less reliable. Apple Mail’s privacy filters, which preload images, already inflated the statistics. With stricter regulatory oversight, we recommend managing email performance based on click-through rates and conversion rates rather than open rates, which are becoming an increasingly less exploitable indicator.
Commercial influence and French legal framework: what applies to brands
The law of June 9, 2023, regulating commercial influence imposes transparency obligations that directly concern advertisers, not just creators. Any collaboration must be subject to a written contract, and mentions of commercial partnerships must be clear and unambiguous.
The Reech 2024 study confirms the professionalization of the sector. Brands working with content creators must ensure that their partners comply with legal obligations, or risk incurring their own liability. In practice, this means integrating mention requirements into the creator brief, validating publications before dissemination, and documenting each collaboration.
User-generated content and authenticity
User-generated content (UGC) remains a powerful lever for digital communication, provided that spontaneous UGC is distinguished from sponsored UGC. The latter falls under the commercial influence law as soon as any compensation exists, even if non-monetary. Ignoring this distinction exposes brands to sanctions and, more durably, to a loss of credibility with an audience increasingly attentive to misleading practices.
Digital communication in 2024 is won through technical and regulatory compliance as much as through creativity. Teams that master hybrid measurement, the DSA framework, email tracking constraints, and commercial influence rules have a concrete advantage: they do not have to urgently correct what they could have anticipated.
