Building a new ecosystem based on consumer trust and transparency requires the entire industry’s participation, from buy- and sell-side platforms to marketers and publishers. LiveRamp has worked over the past three years to establish a trusted ecosystem that supports sustainable solutions for advertisers. Find out more about LiveRamp partners who recently integrated authentication solutions that address the deprecation of third-party cookies and other device identifiers.
One-on-One with Namit Merchant from Media.net
Following Media.net’s recent integration with LiveRamp, we sat down with Namit Merchant, chief operating officer at Media.net, to discuss how we’re working together to revolutionize the digital advertising experience.
What does your company do?
Media.net is a global advertising technology company with a best-in-class contextual engine at its core. While our contextual tech has enabled billions of dollars in performance marketing for well over a decade, our next-generation ad exchange was launched in 2018 with two goals in mind: provide marketers with the most efficient path to maximize working media and find customers across programmatic supply, and enrich buying with innovative contextual targeting and insights to ultimately drive better business outcomes in a more relevant consumer advertising experience. Simply put: provide the best “how” for marketers to find their “who” at the right “when” in the right “where.”
What are you focusing on most in 2021 to drive growth?
We are focused on helping brands control the future of their media plans in advance of full cookie deprecation in 2022. Educating clients on the benefits of enhancing innovative addressability solutions with contextual relevance is one way we’re doing this. We are also continuing to provide insights to brands to help them understand how their target audiences are consuming content across the open web and how contextual strategies can help them reach new prospects and drive outcomes.
Describe your partnership with LiveRamp.
Media.net’s next-gen ad exchange has integrated with LiveRamp to empower brands with the ability to reach their high-value consumers in relevant environments at scale. Publishers and marketers deploying LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) can harness the transformative benefits of combining addressable with contextual targeting on Media.net’s exchange.
How has the integration with LiveRamp changed the work you are doing with your clients and partners?
LiveRamp enables us to offer our clients a unique enhancement to their existing addressable strategies. Programmatic buyers no longer have to choose between audience targeting and contextual targeting; they can now leverage the best of both worlds, with activation managed through a single, unified platform. Additionally, LiveRamp’s solution aligns with Media.net’s mission to help advertisers continue to deliver business outcomes in a post-cookie world.
What do you view as the key drivers of better customer experiences?
Customers don’t want to feel that they’re being “tracked,” so respecting privacy and maintaining regulatory compliance is vital to brand sentiment and trust. Additionally, independent research has shown that customers react more favorably to ads when viewed in relevant environments. For example, a person is more likely to engage with an ad for a new car when they are reading about content related to cars.
In your opinion, what challenges does the ecosystem need to solve most in 2021?
Establishing consumer-first, privacy-centric targeting solutions is the biggest challenge that many advertisers will need to face in 2021. In preparation of cookies being deprecated in 2022, brands should use this year to test new and alternative strategies to reach high-value audiences. These include contextual targeting as well as new authenticated identity solutions and a combination of both. Ultimately, as an industry, we need to move closer towards a sustainable value exchange with consumers while also creating a healthier overall advertising experience.
Partner Highlights
The Trade Desk
Brands across the U.S. and APAC can begin buying on RampIDs through The Trade Desk, providing increased addressable reach and media efficiencies and higher ROI. Read more about our partnership with The Trade Desk.
Amobee
Amobee is now leveraging RampIDs directly in their platform, providing advertisers with the ability to seamlessly activate their first- and third-party audiences on a people-based level. Travis Clinger recently sat down with Amobee to discuss the importance of prioritizing a people-based identity solution.
The Latest in Addressability
Our global goals
In 2021, we will be expanding our presence throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific, and entering the Latin American market. This furthers our commitment to building a fully interoperable and neutral infrastructure that delivers end-to-end addressability for the world’s top brands, agencies, and publishers, while respecting consumer trust.
The countdown to cookieless is on
The clock is ticking—it’s time for marketers to start transitioning away from third-party cookies and device-based identifiers. To set yourself up for success before entering the year’s gift-giving season, we put together a timeline, checklist, and additional resources to assist you in your journey to addressability.
Guidance on Google’s latest announcement
Google recently provided further clarification on their approach to targeted advertising. While they won’t integrate an identifier directly into their buy-side platform, the good news is that ATS embraces all of the ideas laid out by Google, emphasizing the importance of building consented, first-party relationships with consumers. Further, ATS connects publishers’ authenticated inventory to marketers for activation at scale. In addition, through tools such as ATS, Google will provide publishers the option to pass first-party IDs to their downstream exchanges and DSPs within Google Ads Manager. Explore the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions around the announcement, what this means for you, and our overall summary one week after the dust has settled.
