Todd and Kelly break down the practical difference between zero-party data (what people willingly tell you) and first-party data (what you observe from owned interactions), and why the industry’s privacy shift has not eliminated tracking so much as it has made measurement more fragmented and harder to interpret.

They debate whether cookies will ever truly go away, why consumer behavior tends to default to convenience (even when privacy is a concern), and how “sleeping giants” with money and incentives will keep finding new ways to build audiences.

From there, they explore where synthetic personas fit in today: not as a magic replacement for real data, but as a way to pressure-test messaging, creative, and experiences before spending heavily.

Finally, they zoom out on the bigger measurement challenge: when direct attribution gets noisy, the next frontier is faster, more accessible pattern recognition and media mix-style modeling powered by AI, which can help marketers ask better questions, explore more hypotheses, and make more confident decisions across long, multi-touch journeys.

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Cold open: why data gets collected “one way or another”
(00:01:10) Intro banter, then diving into zero-party vs first-party data
(00:02:00) What is zero-party data, and where does it come from?
(00:05:10) Why it matters most for long decision journeys (healthcare, high-consideration)
(00:07:15) The real marketing challenge: multi-stage investment and ROI math
(00:09:00) Tracking, privacy, and why “accept all” is still the default behavior
(00:14:20) Synthetic personas: where it helps today (creative and message testing)
(00:20:40) Is targeting better or worse than 5–10 years ago?
(00:23:20) Why AI changes analytics: faster hypothesis testing and pattern discovery
(00:34:40) The risk: AI can scale bad assumptions as fast as good ones

Links and Resources:

Kelly Maguire on LinkedIn
Todd Juneau on LinkedIn
Vuja Dé Digital

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Cookies Aren't Dead. They Just Evolved.