The IAB says that the consumer economy is in the middle of a revolution that’s as significant as the Industrial Revolution was 150 years ago. The organization calls this phenomenon the Direct Brand Revolution and at its core are consumers being able to trust companies with their data.
“Companies can not afford to breach the trust of their consumers. That’s why we say brand safety is not optional,” IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg says in this interview with Beet.TV at the outset of the 2018 Digital Content NewFronts in Manhattan.
Rothenberg observes that “massive changes” have taken place in the way supply chains create value and the way value is extracted from those supply chains.
“It’s now possible for companies to be created, for brands to be created, out of nothing in an instant out of the supply chain functions that are available in the cloud,” he says.
The common theme is that newer companies are directly connected to their end consumers—connections that yield “enormous amounts” of first-party data that inform the rest of what the enterprise does.
“So what that means is, and here’s where you see a bit of the tension and the contradiction, you have to have direct relationships with your end consumers. It’s the only way your company can survive,” Rothenberg adds.
To be able to first initiate and then maintain those direct relationships, brands must establish trust. “And so that’s where you have the tension around data generally and big data specifically.”
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.
