A cohort of ad industry veterans and tech platforms are launching BritePool, an identity solution for digital advertising that aims to provide consumers with some level of control over who uses their data. Along the way, it hopes to offer agencies and brands an alternative to the so-called duopoly of Google and Facebook.
Publishers such as CBS, Publishers Clearing House, as well as IBM, are already on board for BritePool, which will offer people who allow brands to use their data the ability to earn rewards such as free Uber rides, for example.
The move comes at a time when an increasing number of companies are attempting to create a standardized universal ID, one that preempts looming regulation while also providing marketers with a user base large enough to rival walled gardens.
Companies such as Google and Facebook hold significant leverage over marketers because both have massive amounts of logged-in users that enable marketers to target consumers with ads. Outside the duopoly, however, advertisers are often forced to use cookie-based solutions, which are becoming increasingly irrelevant given the fragmented landscape. Browsers such as Apple’s Safari are blocking them altogether.
BritePool, which is a commercial entity, has stakeholders that include industry veterans Bob Perkins, previously an executive at TBWA\Chiat\Day and a former Pizza Hut chief marketing officer, as well as David Moore, founder of 24/7 RealMedia, which sold for $650 million to WPP in 2007. Ad tech players MediaMath and Sonobi also have a stake in the effort, and are contributing engineers, tech and data, the company says.
“Cookies were very good for a while, but they’ve failed,” says Perkins, BritePool’s chief operating officer. “We are the only people trying to engineer a cookie-less world.”