Verizon Media is preparing for the demise of cookies with new ad formats that don't rely on these identifiers.
These new formats will allow brands to use Verizon Media's in-house first-party data and ad identifiers to customize creative and target audiences.
Verizon Media currently maintains two advertiser identifiers: ConnectID, a one-to-one ad targeting solution that uses sign-ins from Verizon Media properties as identifiers; and Next-Gen Solutions, that uses broad context like weather and location to provide targeted advertising. These ad formats are looking to help advertisers and publishers prepare solutions for when an identifier is present and when it isn't.
The new formats rely on Verizon Media’s ad identifiers, heralding a larger shift in ad tech to more privacy-respecting methods of collecting data on audiences. The loss of identifiers like third-party cookies is expected to reduce the amount of user data for brands and advertisers and make the data that is available less targetable and more restricted.
New ad formats include “intelligence-based visuals,” which uses machine learning to identify images on Verizon owned and operated properties and then surface similiar images within an ad. For example, a consumer can be reading an article about the hottest summer shoe styles and see an ad featuring a similar style from a brand.
With “text strength indicator” Verizon Media can help brands optimize creative without relying on IDs by applying artificial intelligence-driven text analysis across the ads run on its demand-side platform. According to the company, it provides real-time feedback on the predicted performance of the copy in their ad as it is being created, while also making recommendations for winning ad copy.
Two of Verizon’s new ad formats, “dynamic creative” and its sibling, “dynamic product ads,” can help create tailored display, mobile and video ads with or without first-party data. If first party data isn’t available, “dynamic creative” ads can use information from Verizon's Next-Gen Solutions to customize ads, for instance using local weather to display sunglasses or mittens using the same brand template. “Dynamic product ads” can be used to re-target or prospect users based on shopping patterns.
Verizon Media says the ad formats are immediately available to advertisers. In May, parent company Verizon announced the Verizon Media unit, including media brands, ad tech, and search units, would be sold off to Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion dollar deal. When the deal closes the company will be rebranded as Yahoo.
