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DDV Mediengruppe is one of the leading publishing houses in Saxony, Germany. Initially a traditional newspaper, the company now offers a wide range of digital media formats and employs around 1,200 people.
The organization is a multifaceted media group with strong areas such as Media, Logistics, Communications, Marketing, Leisure, and Tourism. DDV Technik is part of the DDV Mediengruppe and manages typesetting and image processing, as well as online advertising services.
Sebastian Finke, Head of WordPress within DDV Technik, explains how DDV Mediengruppe leverages consent as a media group by using a cookie wall provider and Didomi’s Global Privacy UX solutions
Challenge: Bringing 70 media websites to compliance with limited traffic loss
DDV Mediengruppe has to manage the compliance of its 70 high-traffic websites.
In the past, the organization struggled to find an up-and-running Consent Management Platform (CMP) that offered qualitative support and regular updates on privacy regulation changes. In addition, they faced problems with vendors that operate outside of IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), and the analytics of their previous CMP provider did not seem 100% reliable.
The challenge was to find a robust and reliable CMP to collect and manage user consent across all their websites. As data privacy is not always easy to master, Sebastian sought an intuitive and easy-to-use CMP to enable his team and users to understand and leverage it.
“Data Privacy is a difficult topic which can be tricky to explain. It can become difficult being the only one in charge of it, even more so if you can’t rely on a strong solution.”
- Sebastian Finke, Head of WordPress at DDV Technik
As a news publisher, with advertising being one of their main sources of revenue, being compliant and respecting data privacy is becoming an increasingly challenging issue.
Solution: Combining Didomi’s CMP with a cookie wall
Sebastian decided to switch to a European CMP solution provider to support DDV with their compliance challenges. He needed a solution that could be quickly implemented and offered a fully GDPR-compliant cookie banner. After considering his options and comparing vendors on the market, he implemented Didomi’s CMP to benefit from a smooth and fast integration.
The privacy landscape moves fast, and Didomi’s Support Team made sure to help DDV deploy a banner in accordance with the latest German regulations. Sebastian appreciates Didomi's efficient and proactive Support and Customer Success, which helps his teams solve whatever obstacles they encounter.
“We benefited from the support available for whatever we needed. Whenever I have a question, I get an answer; otherwise, I get hints on how to possibly solve it.”
- Sebastian Finke, Head of WordPress at DDV Technik
Like many media companies, DDV’s business model partly depends on advertising monetization. Obtaining high opt-in rates is key to remaining profitable. This is why DDV decided to implement Didomi’s CMP in combination with “Content Pass”, a cookie wall provider from Germany.
Cookie walls, also referred to as “tracking walls” or “PUR Model” (in Germany), describe a process in which the user has the choice to either use a service or website for free, including the processing of personal data and personalized advertising or to subscribe to a cookie and advertising-free access for a monthly fee. The combination of the two solutions, CMP and cookie wall, went smoothly. Thanks to Didomi’s clear and well-detailed documentation, the project was finalized quickly.
Let’s take DDV’s Saechsische.de website as an example. When entering the website for the first time, users are given two choices to access the website: accepting all cookies and trackers or denying them and subscribing to tracking and advertising-free access for a monthly fee of 2.99 Euros.
For DDV’s readers, this method provides transparency, giving them a better idea of what data is tracked and why.
Results: A higher opt-in rate and reinforced trust in the solution
Combining the CMP with a cookie wall helped DDV increase its opt-in rate by 10%. On Saechsische.de, for example, DDV now achieves an opt-in rate of 99%, significantly higher than the average opt-in rate of 85% in Germany.
For Sebastian, one of the most critical points they solved with Didomi is that it is an EU-based CMP provider, which reduces a lot of pressure and risk compared to a North American competitor.
More specifically, because of the fast support, DDV saved a lot of time and resources and solved issues faster.
“At DDV, we care a lot about standards and reliable solutions. Didomi is delivering all this and that is why we will use Didomi as our go-to CMP for almost all our websites.”
- Sebastian Finke, Head of WordPress at DDV Technik
Want to know more about how to use Didomi's Global Privacy UX solutions for publishers? Visit our dedicated page.
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