With Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies in 2025, advertisers are looking for new ways to reach high-quality digital audiences and achieve greater ROI. BNP Media — a media company that distributes B2B content across magazines, websites, webinars and events — helps advertisers target audiences by leveraging their greatest strength: first-party data.
BNP Media’s Digital Audience Profile (DAP) is an audience and media management technology platform that reports audience count, engagement metrics and demographics across channels for each brand. DAP recently received an AAM accreditation to provide advertisers with greater transparency and ensure its system met rigorous industry standards for information security and reporting.
As part of AAM’s Media Matters series, Nikki Smith, BNP’s chief operations officer, shares insights about the company’s mission to serve audiences and advertisers, how the AAM accreditation builds trust with their partners and the outlook for B2B media.
A Legacy of Innovation
BNP Media is a fourth-generation, family-run media company founded nearly a century ago to provide news to the electric refrigeration industry. It has since grown to one of the largest privately held B2B media and data companies in the U.S. with 34 brands, 31 live events and hundreds of online events and continuing education courses.
“We serve B2B audiences across various media channels and have a vast repository of first-party data,” Smith said. “We are committed to leveraging data in everything we do and serving advertisers better.”
BNP Media works to develop authentic content centered around communities that helps connect their audiences.
“We want to bring our audiences into a brand community and move away from a product-focused platform. We aim to advance our data capabilities to serve our audiences and advertisers better while adhering to rigorous and evolving privacy standards.”
Validated Data
Digital channels created opportunities to share audience data across BNP’s growing platforms. This led to the development of its Digital Audience Profile, which integrates data across all products to showcase the breadth and depth of BNP Media’s audience. To prove its commitment to transparent data, BNP Media decided to have its platform accredited by AAM.
“One goal was greater transparency and trust in our data,” Smith said. “We’ve worked hard to clean up our databases by removing inactive audience members and adhering to privacy best practices. The accreditation validates the quality of our audiences and builds trust with our advertising partners.”
“Not all data is created equal. Given the millions of data points processed to produce our Digital Audience Profile, third-party verification provides an added level of review and differentiates us from competitors. It offers valuable confirmation of our data practices.”
Since BNP Media achieved the accreditation, they’ve received positive feedback from their business partners about how robust and transparent the Digital Audience Profile solution is.
“Our advertisers can see our entire digital audience portfolio by going to our websites, which makes it easy for them to see where our audiences are. It's not just our audience numbers but how our audiences engage with different products across channels.”
The Importance of First-Party Data for B2B Media
Smith believes first-party audience data is critical to the success of B2B brands.
“That’s where a lot of our opportunities lie. More advertisers are looking for digital ROI and delivering on that need will keep us relevant.”
Third-party oversight of how that data is collected and updated is equally important.
"Considering that we process millions of data points to produce our DAPs, it's valuable to have that added level of review and helps to set us apart from the competition.”
Smith also recommends that other media companies participate in the accreditation process to increase transparency throughout the industry.
“The accreditation encourages clean, transparent data practices that promote quality audience building,” Smith said. “This leads to trust, and when advertising partners can trust our data, they gain an unparalleled opportunity to connect with their ideal customers.”
