NBCUniversal is looking to clean up things like repetitive ads and brands running commercials next to those of competitors, which often occur in campaigns that span both TV and digital, with the adoption of the Ad-ID identifier backed by several industry trade bodies.
The Ad-ID system, which assigns a trackable, 12-character code to each advertising asset, was the result of a joint venture between the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The announcement expands Ad-ID’s current functionality on Peacock across NBCU’s One Platform, the company’s advertising platform for marketers, and work for both linear and digital ad creative.
“We have a tremendous opportunity to collectively solve an ongoing industry issue: the need for frequency capping to address excessive ad repetition that's a nuisance for the consumer,” Marla Kaplowitz, president and CEO of the 4A’s, said in a statement. “Ad-ID and its ubiquitous application across all channels and platforms as the data standard is critical to delivering the optimal consumer experience.”
The effort is especially important for NBCUniversal as it continues to grow its flagship streaming service, Peacock. The company is hoping to fuel Peacock’s growth with content like the Tokyo Olympics, particularly as consumers come out of pandemic restrictions and move increasingly out of home and away from their screens. Meanwhile, viewers are also shifting to connected TV and online advertising and away from linear TV, with 2020 marking the largest-ever drop in paid TV users, according to research from digital analysis firm eMarketer. The moves are pushing publishers to create better offerings for brands and advertisers.
By assigning identifiers to advertisements, NBCU says it can reduce ad repetition (frequency capping), separate ads from competitors, deduplicate ads in storage, and offer better ad decisioning, placements, and ad reporting.
Meanwhile, the 4A’s and ANA say they plan to make Ad-ID ubiquitous beyond linear and connected TV, and will announce other publishers using the identifier. The companies say Ad-ID will work on ads across any format and any platform, so an entry identified by NBCU will retain that same identity, even if it's used by another publisher.
There are “enormous opportunities afforded the industry by the very simple act by all marketers and agencies to use Ad-ID for every video and audio advertising asset," Bob Liodice, CEO of the ANA, said in a statement.
