That means identity graphs with near-complete coverage of streaming audiences, which accurately associate people and households to connected devices, drive better business outcomes. They do this by helping marketers reach more of the right consumers efficiently, and media companies actuate more inventory for high-yield, data-driven audience targeting.
Interoperability, collaboration and connectivity bring streaming identity to life
In a fragmented environment such as OTT, it can be tough to see how to connect the dots to tap streaming's potential to reach a specific target with the precision, consistency and scale that make for effective advertising campaigns. Fragmentation is a defining characteristic of the connected TV space in particular, and one that’s unlikely to change. There are more than a half-dozen operating systems across connected TVs alone. An array of proprietary streaming identifiers from device manufacturers, publishers and ad tech platforms have given rise to identity gardens that are, in effect, another form of fragmentation.
Streaming’s identity infrastructure needs to include a way to understand and connect multiple identifiers across the ecosystem, including device signals from connected TVs, publisher logins, proprietary IDs and permissioned personally identifiable information. This points to a growing need for a multikey, people-based system that can help recognize consumers en masse—one that can resolve disparate signals, including proprietary identifiers and is interoperable with consumer targeting datasets and the many sources of streaming media inventory.
Importantly, the streaming media ad ecosystem needs to tie into this identity infrastructure. Without broad connectivity, transacting will continue to be cumbersome for buyers and sellers, and the real-time decisioning central to digital media, including streaming, will not be attainable.
Building a shared understanding of identity
Advertisers’ abilities to leverage a scaled, accurate and coherent view across streaming media buying points has remained out of reach.
Identity is the fuel that will power accurate, cross-device targeting at scale that, in turn, will drive relevant consumer experiences and positive campaign outcomes. This will require identity datasets to include the vast majority of streaming consumers and devices, and properly connect the two.
Those foundational identity solutions must be interoperable across the array of signals, identifiers and tech stacks that exist in the streaming ad ecosystem.
But that’s not enough. The industry is thinking about identity and deploying it in different ways, making progress toward a system that addresses streaming media’s pain points difficult to achieve. Though challenging, understanding and appreciating the complexities of identity is worthwhile. We can then align on essential elements of an identity infrastructure that unlocks the full potential of streaming media advertising—which is sure to benefit both advertisers and media companies.
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