Media is changing and the sell-side is stepping boldly into the identity jungle—a dense and complex environment where privacy regulations, evolving signals, and advertiser expectations make every step an adventure. It’s not about survival; it’s about navigation. Experian’s identity solutions offer sell-side players like connected TV (CTV) publishers, supply-side platforms (SSPs), and open web publishers a roadmap to deliver rich consumer insights and build addressable audiences.
Here’s how different stakeholders are navigating the landscape—and why having the right sherpa makes all the difference.
CTV publishers: Turning anonymous viewers into addressable audiences
The surge in CTV viewing, fueled by the shift from linear TV to digital streaming, has made it a critical channel for marketers—but navigating the identity jungle isn’t the same for every platform.
For major players like Netflix, Hulu, and Max, where users log in to access content, the challenge isn’t identifying viewers but enriching their profiles. By layering behavioral and purchase data onto these profiles, platforms can go far beyond insights on media habits to create highly attractive audience segments for marketers to target.
For free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms like Tubi, where logins aren’t required to watch content, the jungle is denser. These platforms have unknown viewers they can’t identify, which limits their ability to know who the customer is and reach them with relevant ads. By utilizing identity solutions, FAST platforms can turn unknown users into addressable audiences, resolving viewership at the household or individual level. This transformation allows for personalized, relevant ads that increase engagement, boost inventory value, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
How Experian can help
Imagine a CTV platform struggling with anonymous viewers on its FAST channels, where users tune in without logging in. Using Experian’s household-level data, the platform can convert these anonymous sessions into known, addressable audiences. This allows for personalized, precisely targeted ads that boost viewer engagement and significantly increase ad inventory value.
For platforms with logged-in users, Experian takes it further by enriching profiles with behavioral and purchase data. This deeper understanding enables even more precise ad targeting, stronger advertiser demand, driving higher CPMs, and ultimately greater revenue growth. With Experian, CTV publishers turn anonymity into opportunity and build meaningful connections across their audience.
SSPs: Delivering premium audiences across channels
SSPs are under pressure to differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace. The days of simply aggregating inventory are gone; today, SSPs must prove their worth by delivering premium value to advertisers and publishers.
Addressability is a cornerstone of this strategy. By combining demographic and behavioral data with offline and digital identifiers, SSPs can build and deliver high-quality audiences across various channels.
At the same time, supply path optimization (SPO) is taking center stage. SPO acts as a machete in the underbrush, clearing out unnecessary intermediaries and reducing costs while creating direct, transparent pathways to premium, brand-safe inventory. When paired with identity data, SSPs can offer buyers precisely targeted audiences, more premium inventory and a streamlined supply path.
How Experian can help
Imagine an SSP striving to stand out in a crowded market by delivering premium value to advertisers and publishers. Experian’s Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes empowers SSPs to enhance addressability and audience insights by combining digital identifiers with demographic and behavioral data. This enriched understanding of an audience leads to greater reach for the buy side and higher revenue for publishers.
Additionally, these capabilities enable SSPs to form exclusive inventory partnerships, positioning them as go-to sources for high-value audiences. With Experian’s solutions, SSPs can differentiate themselves by delivering superior targeting, deeper audience understanding, and streamlined supply paths that drive measurable results for advertisers and publishers alike.
Open web publishers: Promoting addressability and audience understanding
For open web publishers, programmatic advertising has created opportunities—and challenges. Inventory commoditization makes it difficult to stand out and often leads to suppressed CPMs. To compete, publishers need data and identity solutions that enable them to differentiate their inventory and reveal the true value of their audience.
Similar to FAST publishers, the jungle for open web publishers often starts with anonymous visitors. Recognizing and identifying all their users allows publishers to present advertisers with rich audience insights that lead to more efficiently targeted ads. Publishers are now equipped to fight commoditization and maximize revenue potential.
How Experian can help
Imagine an open web publisher striving to deliver more value to advertisers in a crowded programmatic landscape. Experian’s identity solutions help publishers turn anonymous traffic into addressable audiences, enabling them to understand their visitors and provide richer audience insights. This allows advertisers to target ads more effectively, increasing engagement and driving higher ad revenue.
With the ability to recognize their visitors and offer actionable data, publishers can break free from commoditization. Experian empowers publishers to maximize their inventory’s value and help marketers drive results.
Turning identity challenges into a strategic advantage
The identity jungle can feel daunting, but for those willing to explore its opportunities, the rewards are immense. Sell-side players—CTV publishers, SSPs, and open web publishers—have the tools to not just navigate but thrive in this dense and dynamic ecosystem. By embracing data-driven strategies and identity solutions, they can uncover new paths to audience engagement, inventory value, and revenue growth.
Read our companion article to learn how the buy-side is approaching data and identity challenges.
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Tapad's, part of Experian, SVP of Identity shows us how marketers might communicate seamlessly through emerging channels like voice, the smart home, and, yes, podcasts.In his relatively new role as senior vice president of identity at Tapad, a part of Experian, Ajit Thupil keeps a close eye on the evolution of marketing as it becomes more intent on using data and identity technology to track ROI. Here he sits with Chris Wood at Tapad’s New York offices to discuss the future of identity. (To capture the inventive atmosphere at this location, the room they chatted in was named after Leonardo da Vinci.) For Thupil, it all comes back to the customer, whether it’s a brand client or a consumer. Brands want measurability and customers demand a seamless experience across the many devices they use in a day. While consumers are understandably reticent about giving up personally identifiable information (PII), current identity solutions use anonymous data profiles to connect the dots at the individual or household level. Given the frequency that users switch devices, along with their tendency to share bigger screens like TVs, there’s no dearth of challenges for this “head of problem solving” to solve. Contact us today
Joint solution will enhance accuracy and reach across North America, EMEA and APAC NEW YORK, April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, a global marketing technology company and leader in digital identity resolution solutions, today announced a new joint capability with Arm®Treasure DataTM , a leader in enterprise customer data management. The partnership combines The Tapad GraphTM technology with Arm Treasure Data's robust enterprise Customer Data Platform (CDP), enabling advertisers in the Arm Treasure Data marketplace to access Tapad's datasets. With the integration of Tapad's Graph and Arm Treasure Data's existing first party data, marketers will be able to deliver scalable, cross-device messaging with precision. In addition, marketers can benefit from anonymous customer journey analysis, audience expansion and online and offline attribution. Arm Treasure Data's APAC market customers will have access to expanded audience reach by leveraging Tapad's global, proprietary datasets. While Tapad will be able to extend its presence into the APAC region, tapping into Arm Treasure Data's existing footprint. "Combining Tapad's Graph with Arm Treasure Data's CDP will enable our customers to make holistic, data-driven decisions that increase ROI," said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad. "In combining these two solutions, we can now offer advertisers the value of both technologies to optimize their marketing initiatives and create seamless experiences across multiple devices and channels." "The Tapad GraphTM is a trusted and established platform with a history of innovation," said Stephen Lee, Senior Director, Business Development, Arm Treasure Data. "Integrating Tapad's technology into the Arm Treasure Data CDP will allow for streamlined experiences across markets, achieving global scalable reach." For more information about The Tapad GraphTM, or to request a demo, visit our identity page. About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global marketing technology company and leader in digital identity resolution solutions. The Tapad GraphTM, and related solutions, provide a privacy-safe approach to connecting device identifiers to brand and marketer data, thereby allowing for enhanced measurement, attribution, reach and ROI of marketing campaigns. The Tapad GraphTM enables marketers around the world to maximize campaign effectiveness and drive business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its innovation, growth and workplace culture, and has earned numerous awards, including the TMCnet Tech Culture Award. Based in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor Group. About Treasure Data Arm Treasure Data enterprise Customer Data Platform (CDP) unifies data from multiple sources – online, offline, IoT and device generated data – and empowers enterprises to disrupt their markets with superior customer experiences. Our customers are creating transformational customer relationships by connecting the data dots with our CDP. Arm Treasure Data is fully owned by Arm Holdings and has a global customer base of over 300 enterprises including Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. Our clients manage over 130 trillion records, resulting in more predictable and profitable business results. Contact us today
Leading global marketing technology company, Tapad, a part of Experian, adopts The Trade Desk’s streamlined cookie ID into its identity resolution solutions to increase global cookie coverage across the internet April 03, 2019 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Global marketing technology company, Tapad, a part of Experian, has partnered with The Trade Desk to onboard The Trade Desk’s unified ID solution into its digital identity driven solutions. The Trade Desk’s unified ID solution is free for all parties spanning the digital advertising supply chain, including SSPs, DSPs, DMPs and data providers. With leading players onboarding the unified ID solution, such as Tapad, streamlined cookie syncs make ad viewing experiences better for consumers, increase match rates for all parties, and expand cookie coverage on a global-scale. Adoption of The Trade Desk’s global cookie footprint enables Tapad customers to benefit from greater precision and potentially higher performing digital marketing campaigns. “Digital identity resolution is key to improving digital marketing campaigns. Supporting The Trade Desk’s unified ID solution, in conjunction with our cross-device and identity resolution offerings, helps us and the entire open ecosystem,” said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad. “It simplifies cookie syncing, and increases match rates among our partners; enabling our customers to improve marketing campaign performance.” “Identity is critical in the ecosystem and as a long-standing leader in the space, Tapad has shown a strong commitment to building digital identity resolution solutions that help marketers launch more effective campaigns on a global scale,” said Ed Chater, VP of Data Partnerships, The Trade Desk. “We are thrilled for their participation and look forward to solving the digital identity narrative across the industry through this partnership. The continued widespread adoption of the unified ID solution validates our collective mission to improve the effectiveness of digital advertising.” About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global marketing technology company and leader in digital identity resolution solutions. The Tapad Graph™, and related solutions, provide a privacy-safe approach to connecting device identifiers to brand and marketer data, thereby allowing for enhanced measurement, attribution, reach and ROI of marketing campaigns. The Tapad Graph™ enables marketers around the world to maximize campaign effectiveness and drive business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its innovation, growth and workplace culture, and has earned numerous awards, including the TMCnet Tech Culture Award. Based in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor. About The Trade Desk, Inc. The Trade Desk™ is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can create, manage, and optimize more expressive data-driven digital advertising campaigns across ad formats, including display, video, audio, native and, social, on a multitude of devices, such as computers, mobile devices, and connected TV. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners ensure maximum reach and decisioning capabilities, and enterprise APIs enable custom development on top of the platform. Headquartered in Ventura, CA, The Trade Desk has offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. To learn more, visit thetradedesk.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Contact us today