Dive Brief:

• Albertsons will be the first marketer to use a new “clean room” data privacy tool established by social media platform Pinterest in partnership with LiveRamp Data Hub, according to information shared with Marketing Dive. 
• The clean room will allow the grocery chain to link its first-party data with Pinterest’s platform data in a secure environment where each party’s sales and campaign data is not visible to the other.
• As a pilot, Albertsons plans on using the software to measure the success of a winter healthy eating campaign, via metrics such as return on ad spend. The move by Pinterest follows a growing trend of implementing clean rooms as brands prepare for the deprecation of third-party cookies.

Dive Insight:

Pinterest’s clean room offering highlights privacy as a key attribute, with personally identifiable sales and campaign data not visible to either the platform or its ad partners. LiveRamp’s technology is also configurable, where both parties can limit how much their data is shared, joined or accessed, among other privacy controls.

The move towards clean rooms and enhancing first-party data capabilities comes as Google announced plans to phase out third-party cookies as soon as 2024. Privacy has become a matter of top concern, for both consumers and marketers, and clean rooms not only allow for accuracy, but also privacy.

The need for solutions that safely connect various sources of first- and third-party data has also risen in importance as retail media networks flourish. Executives at Albertsons Media Collective, the first marketer to tap the Pinterest-LiveRamp collaboration, stressed the importance of data privacy and how a clean room solution can affect other marketing priorities. 

“While our initial test pilot focuses on enabling closed-loop measurement, this partnership will ultimately provide our team a more holistic view of our customers’ digital footprint to unlock more advanced measurement capabilities, like incrementality and [multi touch attribution], down the road,” said Kristi Argyilan, senior vice president of retail media, Albertsons Media Collective, in a statement.

Clean rooms have become an increasingly popular feature by advertisers, with companies such as Disney, Amazon and Walgreens introducing them. As Pinterest expands its advertising capabilities to keep up with rivals,  introducing a clean room is one way the platform can help brand partners improve the measurement of their campaigns.

“As the industry evolves, we will remain proactive with solutions that add value for marketers while maintaining trust with consumers,” said Bill Watkins, chief revenue officer at Pinterest, in a statement.