The Amp community looks back on the previous 12 months with an eye toward predicting the year ahead. Last year at this time, perhaps the only thing We the People could collectively agree on was the wish to say “good riddance” to the previous 12 months. Less than a week into the new year, 2021 effectively replied, “Hold my beer.”

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Before we bid adieu to 2021, we asked the Amp community to take a look at the trends that characterized this year and to predict what will define the next one.

The cookieless future is unwritten (Richard Yao, UM)

Technology will obviously continue to evolve, but 2021 brought with it some of the growing pains of making tech more ethical. Among the rougher parts of the year was “the tension between the tightening data privacy settings and the new targeting solutions” of trying to restructure platforms to eliminate third-party cookies, according to Richard Yao, manager of strategy and content at IPG Media Lab (the innovation arm of UM agency) “With no consensus of a replacement solution for third-party cookies in sight, the ad industry was stuck in this awkward transition period from identity-based targeting to interest- or topic-based solutions.”

Read the full article on Ad Age.