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A Holistic Approach to Advanced TV and Identity

Advertisers are increasing their spending across linear and connected TV (CTV). According to eMarketer, CTV ad spending will grow 21.2% in 2023 and U.S. advertisers will spend close to $100 billion on linear and CTV.

Understanding who consumers are and how to best reach them in their preferred channel is becoming more complex, making identity resolution more critical than ever.

The evolution of identity resolution

Digital identity resolution, or device graphs, emerged around a decade ago to connect cookies and mobile ad IDs (MAIDS) to understand if multiple IDs belonged to the same person or household. With the evolution of technology, this idea has now been integrated into the CTV ecosystem to improve accuracy in targeting and measurement.

To address fragmented TV consumption, a holistic and comprehensive approach to addressability is necessary.

The main objective of identity resolution is to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior. To achieve more precision in targeting and measurement, incorporating information related to household and consumer IDs—as well as first-party data in advanced TV—is essential.

However, despite advancements, marketers are still facing challenges, such as the deprecation of third-party cookies, Safari traffic gaps and the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) becoming “opt-in.” This fuels the need for more stable identifiers, leading advertisers to rely on a combination of addressable TV and CTV.

The overlap in addressable and CTV data leads to fragmentation

Addressable TV and CTV are often thought of as two separate markets within the industry, but in terms of identity, you should look at them through the same lens.

Millions of households still consume TV and video content via a set-top box or through apps on CTVs. This is in addition to what they consume on their laptops, tablets and phones. Of the top 11 cable and satellite providers, 65 million U.S. households still have a cable box in their homes. On the other hand, approximately 96 million U.S. households have at least one or more Smart TVs and streaming services. With about 126 million total U.S. TV households, that’s a lot of overlap.

To address fragmented TV consumption, a holistic and comprehensive approach to addressability is necessary. This approach captures addressable TV, CTV, digital identifiers and all audience attributes inside of single identity graph. This is the ideal approach for publishers, vendors and brands.

How to unlock holistic identity

How can you achieve holistic identity? Through a three-pillared approach:

First-party data onboarding: Bringing offline data from a brand’s consumers is very valuable due to the quality of the data. Because the data is collected right from the source, you know it’s accurate. It provides the foundation from which you can build your identity strategy.

Digital identifiers: Once you create a foundation with first-party data, you need to connect it, either with an internal or licensed digital ID graph. Then you can understand the connections between all devices within the household.

Consumer data: After you know which devices tie to a single consumer, you’ll want to act on that knowledge. Partnering with a data provider can help you better understand your consumers. Establishing this critical partnership will help improve targeting, measurement, and the customer experience.

To achieve a well-rounded customer view tomorrow, start today

To achieve the three-pillared approach today, you need to use many vendors and fragmented data sources, often with conflicting data.

The tools to do this are becoming more advanced and unified. The players in the ecosystem should adopt a seamless identity strategy. One that provides a privacy-safe yet full-picture solution. That means capturing and unifying all devices within a household, while also understanding the consumer behaviors and profiles behind those devices.

Keep up with your customers and their data

Once you create an informed identity strategy, you can begin to understand the makeup of each household and the individuals within. This understanding is critical, as personalizing the experience for an audience has become tablestakes. It’s key to know where they prefer to spend their time and what type of content they are most engaged in. Only then can you provide an optimal experience for each consumer, all while driving greater ROI for advertisers and publishers.