You didn’t think 2020 would end without at least one more Unified ID 2.0 announcement, did you?
IRIS.TV, a video data platform with its own contextual video marketplace, is joining the Unified ID 2.0 initiative, the company said on Wednesday.
UID 2.0 is an open source identifier based on email addresses that’s part of the ad industry’s attempt to develop an alternative to third-party cookies. The Trade Desk has been leading the charge and did the initial development work.
IRIS.TV’s role will be to provide access to video-level contextual data that can enable addressability and measurement for video ads across formats and devices in combination with UID 2.0.
Its proprietary IRIS_ID identifier, which exists for each video that gets onboarded into the IRIS.TV data marketplace, will be interoperable with Unified ID 2.0 for contextual targeting across online video and connected TV.
CTV is growing at a rapid clip, but it’s still a nascent marketplace from a buyer perspective, and advertisers need more transparency. That’s one of the biggest challenges facing the CTV space right now, said Sean Holzman, head of ad platforms at IRIS.TV.
“Advertisers are running into more problems with how to reach users at scale to achieve their reach and frequency goals in brand safe and suitable environments,” said Holzman, who noted that it’s also becoming increasingly difficult for publishers to monetize their premium video inventory as a result of new data laws, the continued dominance of the walled gardens, and the upswing in paywalls that limit the amount of revenue publishers can make from their content on the open web.
Tools like Unified ID 2.0 have the potential to “provide marketers with more confidence and certainty in the inventory they are purchasing,” Holzman said.
TTD has been signing up ad tech and publisher partners at a regular cadence over the past couple of months.
For those keeping track, it’s time to update your laminated scorecards (h/t Myles Younger of MightyHive):
The Washington Post will enable transactions on its site using UID 2.0 and make it available to Zeus Performance publishers; OpenX will support passing UID 2.0 in the bid stream; Neustar will make it interoperable with its Fabrick ID; Mediavine has integrated UID 2.0 into its audience engagement framework; PubMatic will offer UID 2.0 as a default identifier; Magnite will use UID 2.0 to facilitate RTB transactions; Index Exchange will enrich bids across channels for publishers that use the ID; Nielsen will help The Trade Desk improve the measurement aspects of UID 2.0; Criteo is building the single-sign on UI for consent and privacy management; and LiveRamp will embed UID 2.0 into infrastructure so that SSPs and DSPs can bid on it.
