First-party data strategy: how to build a data asset through better experiences

Third-party cookies have been dying for years. Most brands know this. But many are still behaving as if it is someone else's problem, something for the tech team or the media agency to solve.

That is the wrong frame. A first-party data strategy is not a technical problem. It is a design problem. And the brands that are getting it right are building very differently from the rest.

They are not building data capture forms. They are building experiences people want to participate in. Experiences where sharing information feels natural because something of value comes back. That is the only sustainable model for owned customer data.

Why most brands get this wrong

The classic approach looks like this: landing page, form, sign-up, discount. It sometimes works. But the data it produces is thin. You know someone has an email address. You know almost nothing about their preferences, behaviours, or intent.

That is not enough to drive relevant communication. If your CRM runs on that thin layer, personalisation does not work. You end up sending bulk email with a first name inserted and calling it segmentation.

Rich first-party data comes from interaction. When someone makes choices, plays a game, selects content, answers questions, or discovers products, they leave signals about who they are. Those signals are what make a CRM genuinely useful.

At Livewall, we have seen this pattern repeatedly across campaigns for brands like Decathlon, HEMA, and Just Eat Takeaway. The brands that walked away with the most usable data had built experiences people wanted to participate in. The data was a by-product of the value, not the goal in itself.

The three layers of a first-party data strategy

1. Identity data

This is the baseline: who is this person? Name, email, location. You collect this at registration. On its own, it is not especially interesting. But without it, you have nothing to attach the rest to.

2. Profile data

This is where it gets useful. What does this person like? Which sport do they play? What categories do they shop? What music do they listen to? Profile data gives context to the identity. You build it through interactive campaigns, quizzes, gamification mechanics, product discovery flows, and preference choices.

3. Behavioural data

This is the richest layer. How does someone actually behave in your campaign, on your platform, inside your app? What do they click? Which steps do they skip? At what point do they drop off? Behavioural data tells you things people would never voluntarily enter into a form.

A strong first-party data strategy builds all three. And the key principle is consistent: for every layer, you offer something in return for the data you are asking for.

Experiences as data engines

The best first-party data projects we build at Livewall do not feel like data collection to the user at all. They feel like play, discovery, or reward.

The HEMA Stapelgek loyalty activation is a clear example. Customers played a game inside the HEMA app that was directly tied to purchases and loyalty points. Every interaction captured behavioural data. HEMA learned which product categories drove engagement, which moments triggered activity, and how different reward structures performed. All of it first-party data, earned by giving something back.

The same logic applied to Wehkamp Wanna Have Days: a gamified seasonal campaign where customers returned daily to unlock digital cards with discounts and prizes. Every visitor left a rich behavioural trail. Which days they came, which cards they opened first, what they clicked on next. That is the kind of insight advertising pixels can never replicate.

Consent is not an obstacle. It is an opportunity.

A lot of marketers treat consent requirements as friction. Something to minimise or design around. But if you build the experience correctly, that changes.

When someone has just spent ten minutes playing a game, built a personal sports profile, or discovered a product collection they love, asking for permission is natural. The value is visible. The relationship is already there. Consent feels like a reasonable next step, not an interruption.

Our first-party data mechanics are built around earning consent, not forcing it. The opt-in moment sits deliberately inside the experience, at the point where engagement is highest. That produces better opt-in rates and higher-quality profiles.

And it compounds: when your personalisation improves because the data is rich, people notice. Relevant communication is the strongest reason someone gives consent again next time.

From data collection to data activation

Building a data asset is step one. Activating it is step two. And that is where a lot of brands stall. They have data, but they do not use it well.

The connection between your first-party data and your CRM system needs to be tight. Not just technically, but logically: which data triggers which communication? If someone indicated in a Decathlon game that they run, when do they receive a relevant offer for running shoes? How much time passes between the interaction and the follow-up?

A strong loyalty programme design connects data collection directly to activation scenarios. Not as separate workstreams, but as one integrated system.

At Livewall, we always start from the same question: what do we want to know about this person, and what are we going to do with it? Those two questions determine the design of the experience. The data you collect has to serve the communication that follows. Otherwise, you are just building storage.