Last week at RampUp, I had numerous conversations with industry leaders around the key challenges facing our industry today. These leaders believe the opportunities to transform data into exceptional experiences and knowledge for the good of all have never been greater or more available. To enable this, we are committed to supporting an open, vibrant, and competitive ecosystem. We believe in a level playing field for all and transparency and control for businesses and consumers.
Our mission
We are committed to neutrality. We are Switzerland – and that’s why we continue to do everything possible to develop a trusted, neutral solution for the entire ecosystem. We aren’t biased toward one constituency over another; we believe that the benefits of data should accrue to everyone: businesses, agencies, platforms, publishers, and – importantly – the consumers they all serve. I’m incredibly proud of our announcement last week, making our IdentityLink graph available at no charge to every activation platform via IdentityLink for Real-Time Bidding (RTB). This was a key milestone for the entire industry, worldwide, as we continue to push to level the playing field around identity and ensure a competitive ecosystem.
Why free? It’s simple. More than ever, the industry needs a common and open standard for accurate identity resolution. Without this – the playing field will continue to tilt toward the digital giants or fall into fragmented disarray.
There’s been a lot of excitement around our offering, and we’d like to highlight a few important points:
Identity isn’t just about online marketing, it’s an enterprise requirement
Enterprise identity is essential for creating better consumer experiences across all interactions – call centers, point-of-sale, in-store interactions, website personalization, and of course, the advertising ecosystem where brands engage customers on publisher content. The same technology used for all of these experiences should also be available in programmatic – where marketers are bidding for publisher inventory on a real-time basis. IdentityLink for RTB seamlessly connects customers’ experiences, online and offline, with the messages they see and allows marketers to deliver better experiences, publishers to generate higher yields, and consumers to enjoy greater relevance.
People-based identity graphs are the gold standard of marketing
The digital advertising ecosystem isn’t operating as effectively as we all believe it could. There are too many fragmented and confusing identifiers – cookie, device, and IP-based – which leads to confusing consumer experiences and siloed enterprise data. In order to deliver what marketers need – omnichannel enterprise identity – the industry must upgrade its infrastructure to people-based identifiers. Through this, consumers also enjoy much better experiences and greater control. With IdentityLink for RTB, marketers on the open internet can now buy ad inventory and sequence consumer messages across devices with an accuracy and precision that has been impossible to date in a privacy-conscious manner.
Consumer privacy is paramount
The state of digital advertising today can be dizzying for consumers, as it is so difficult for them to express their preferences across hundreds of websites where advertising technology vendors provide siloed options. Consumers deserve better, both in the U.S. and worldwide, and IdentityLink for RTB is a critical step to offering a more universal option for consumers to manage their experiences. We offer one opt-out, persistent across all of a consumer’s devices, and believe this capability is a foundational step for marketers, publishers, and platforms as they move down the path of making data activation more meaningful for consumers.
Scale matters – and LiveRamp is the omnichannel scale leader
For the industry and all of its citizens to generate the best outcomes, scale does matter. We intend to ensure that everyone benefits from our diverse network of global partners. LiveRamp created the category and continues to lead; we work with a global network of publishers, all of the largest agency holding companies, hundreds of platforms, and thousands of marketers across the globe – spanning both the online and offline worlds. This allows anyone to easily collaborate with other ecosystem participants – removing friction and enabling rapid innovation.
LiveRamp IdentityLink for RTB is free
Across the globe, all participants in the data ecosystem need a scaled identity solution and we’re in a position to make our complete IdentityLink graph available at no charge to any DSP (demand-side platform) via a perpetual license. Of course, if DSP partners desire a high degree of unique customization – and want to charge their customers for their identity services – we’ll do our best to support this and evaluate the pricing models for these situations on a case-by-case basis. But above all, our goal is to make it easy for marketers to connect and activate their data, create better outcomes for all in the industry, and ultimately foster better experiences for consumers. Again, the industry and all of its citizens need a common open standard for the good of all, and we intend to provide that.
The industry is ready
There’s incredible excitement about IdentityLink for RTB – platforms are embracing it, marketers want faster implementation, and publishers want people-based ad inventory. We’re already seeing the benefits of these fundamental changes to the ecosystem. Initial campaign results include:
- An 8% increase in audience reach
- 100% match rates on exposure log files – all of which can be connected back to enterprise data
- A 33% increase in click-through rates.
IdentityLink for RTB is simply another step in our journey to unify scaled, people-based identity across the ecosystem – and into the enterprise. Every marketer can leverage their data and manage the customer journey with incredible accuracy and a common, privacy-conscious identifier, and create better experiences and outcomes for consumers and everyone in the industry.