With a growing number of platforms and opportunities for advertisers to engage audiences, creative is increasingly challenging to track and manage across linear and digital channels. Lack of adoption for universal ad creative identification has led to ineffective tracking of ads across platforms, creating a major barrier to successful cross-platform advertising.
Adopting standards and interoperable IDs can benefit the entire ecosystem, enabling solutions that can help solve for omnichannel ROI and establish a thriving marketplace. The promise of cross-platform is fueled by rich data, the evolution of audience targeting and shifting dynamics around privacy – all driven by the fragmented media landscape.
Although audience IDs offer greater media performance, outcomes and higher CPMs for publishers, there is an immediate need and benefit to resolving persistent creative IDs. Unlike identity, this comes with fewer blockers to making persistent IDs a reality.
The need for new standards
Audiences are shifting from linear to streaming platforms. As an industry, if we don’t solve for creative IDs across both channels, viewer experiences suffer, as does the effectiveness of ad campaigns and the impact it has on driving outcomes.
Due to the number of platforms, channels and partners involved in each campaign, a single ad creative will often be assigned different IDs as it moves across the supply chain. The same ad will look like different ads, and metadata gets lost along the way because it doesn’t correlate to a persistent identifier. Advertisers, publishers and audiences lose out – from excessive ad frequency, gaps in data and lack of creative separation from competitors.
A common creative standard, similar to the UPC (universal product code) is essential. UPCs enable efficiency and accuracy in tracking products moving from the manufacturer to the consumer, regardless of the store where they were purchased. While audience IDs help define who saw an ad, a persistent creative ID provides accurate information to track which ad was delivered. You can have the right ad placement for the right audience, but if the creative fails, brands won’t achieve desired outcomes.
Making creative IDs a new reality
TV-quality experiences are expected across platforms, meaning viewers expect a level of brand suitability, creative integrity and relevance. As streaming rises, we need to preserve the power of TV ad experiences, regardless of the platform, format, device and market.
The IAB Tech Lab’s recent introduction of the Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF) is paving a new way forward by defining how registered Universal Ad IDs (common in linear TV) accompany ad creatives through the supply chain, from advertisers and publishers to DSPs, SSPs and measurement platforms. ACIF has benefits throughout the ecosystem, impacting ROI and outcomes, driving a win-win across the ad industry.
Establishing a clear value exchange
The value of a persistent Universal Ad ID only comes to fruition when the wider industry enables it. This new standard calls for a shift in motivation, where all platforms can embrace a more open ecosystem that empowers the consistent flow of data, regardless of who delivered it, sold it and measured it.
ACIF requires collaboration and interoperability between companies to create the win-win for brands, publishers and audiences. Audiences should feel as if they are getting value out of content experiences – with the relevant messages at the right time and in the right place. Universal Ad IDs help control for this by preventing signal loss throughout the campaign lifecycle, while enhancing effectiveness to drive marketing outcomes and ROI.
The barrier to adoption is low, and the value is high. With adoption at scale of ACIF, by next year we’ll be sharing numerous success stories about how tracking every creative asset throughout its campaign life cycle has enhanced content experiences, solved cross-platform measurement and ad frequency issues, streamlined workflows and greatly reduced time spent on data reconciliation.
ACIF eliminates some of the biggest obstacles preventing cross-platform advertising from reaching its true potential, creating a clear value exchange across the industry. We must work together to make it the new reality for every channel, platform and screen.
“On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.
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