“The first challenge of the GDPR is organisational”

Olivier Boutin, Digital Operations Director, Lagardère Active
Jérémy Guérineau, Head of Tracking and Tag Management, Lagardère Active

Managing consent in the GDPR era: a revolution or evolution for news publishers?

OB – The GDPR was announced far enough in advance that everyone could plan ahead and thus avoid a revolution. On the other hand, the chapter on consent management in the advertising ecosystem was much more sudden and required a lot more agility to achieve compliance quickly. IAB’s efforts to introduce a common protocol for all stakeholders was a life-saving initiative that enabled a harmonious and well-mapped out deployment. However, compared to the GDPR deadlines, it came a bit late, which meant we had to act quickly and rely on the reactivity and efficiency of our TMS partners to be ready in time. In essence, it is a bit too early to see the impact of prior consent on the advertising ecosystem, but regardless, it’s still an extra responsibility for publishers as it’s us who have to collect it and guarantee compliance…

How can we sum up the operational challenge(s) that the GDPR presents? What are your main preoccupations in these circumstances?

OB – The first challenge is organisational: you must explain to everyone – editorial team, sales division, HR, technical staff – what the GDPR implies. The whole production apparatus must master all the GDPR’s obligations. The second challenge comes from our scale: our couple dozen sites and almost eighty applications meant we had to comply with the GDPR across this entire digital ecosystem.

What is your view on the solution offered by Commanders Act?

JG – The fact that we could rely on one single TMS (Tag Management System) was what allowed us to comply with the GDPR across all our sites. By having everything in one place, we could quickly roll out the necessary mechanisms on a mass scale. Especially since with Commanders Act, it is rather easy to juggle between the various types of messages (banners, footers, etc.). Without this agility and ability to cover all our areas with one single tool, the work would definitely have been ten times harder.