AppNexus, LiveRamp™ – an Acxiom® company – and MediaMath today announced the launch of an open, technology industry consortium to make people-based marketing widely available within programmatic channels. The three companies have agreed to create a standard identity framework that enables buyers and sellers of programmatic digital advertising to create more relevant campaigns and improve consumer experience. Additional companies initially joining the consortium are Index Exchange, LiveIntent, OpenX, and Rocket Fuel.
According to Mike Ford, CEO of mobile data provider Skydeo, "Desktop data companies have a battle ahead not just competing with Facebook & Google for ad dollars but vs. the deterministic targeting of mobile. One mobile advertising ID is worth 600 cookies."
Mobile web ad network Yieldmo recently launched its own data targeting that provides mobile web & mobile app cross channel attribution.
"Today, 48 percent of all digital advertising dollars accrue to just two companies – Facebook and Google," said Brian O'Kelley, CEO of AppNexus. "That dynamic has placed considerable strain on the open internet companies that generate great journalism, film, music, social networking, and information. This consortium enables precision advertising comparable to that of Google and Facebook, and does so in a privacy-conscious manner. That means better outcomes for marketers, greater monetization for publishers, and more engaging content for consumers."
The current bidding process in programmatic channels relies on proprietary identifiers such as cookies, and thus often cannot translate consumer identity across buyers and sellers, or across devices. Adding identity resolution to programmatic advertising helps marketers to deliver more-relevant content and enhances the consumer experience.
"Marketers love the fact that LiveRamp allows them to unify the people-based marketing they do with the most popular publishers with marketing in other channels," said Travis May, President and General Manager of LiveRamp. "There's huge demand for leveraging a deterministic, omnichannel identifier in the bidstream, as marketers want to improve their interactions with consumers by linking data from customer files and offline channels – such as in-store purchases – to media exposure in programmatic channels. The creation of this consortium will accelerate the delivery of this value to marketers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem."
"Our clients are excited by the prospect of improved reach and precision in their marketing campaigns," said Michael Lamb, President of MediaMath. "And we are thrilled by the opportunity to establish the strong and consistent data protection policies that consumers deserve. Upgrading this foundational piece of the infrastructure puts us on solid footing, as programmatic grows to encompass all of digital."
Until now, the lack of a common, omnichannel, people-based identifier has created significant challenges for marketers, including the inability to coordinate campaigns across platforms, a lack of interoperability with the mobile web, and siloing across channels.
David Gosen, General Manager, Platform Solutions and SVP, International at Rocket Fuel, said, "This collaboration of businesses operating in the digital advertising space will contribute to more transparency and efficiency, which is great news for the internet and our industry. Vitally, it also creates greater relevance for the end consumer. At Rocket Fuel, we believe the future is about people, not devices, so partnering with others in the digital ecosystem to deliver this more widely is a positive move for all involved."
"This is a natural extension of our already-deep partnership with LiveRamp and its IdentityLink service," said LiveIntent Founder and CEO Matt Keiser. "For marketers that leverage LiveIntent's platform for people-based marketing, the consortium expands the reach of identity-informed campaigns. For publishing brands, the consortium provides access to new identity-informed demand, increasing the value of their inventory. Marketers want access to their target audiences where they are spending time, irrespective of browser or device. Inventory sellers need to be able to provide identity resolution to buyers for targeting, measurement, and attribution. This consortium delivers what people-based marketing needs: success at the intersection of marketing and advertising."
"Creating an open, people-based identifier across industry leaders is a major opportunity - this changes the programmatic landscape for the better, as it exposes unified methods of people-based buying to the open web," said Andrew Casale, President and CEO at Index Exchange. "We're extremely excited to be a part of this effort and believe it's another positive step towards greater transparency for the industry."
