Rocked by the withering of traditional ad identifiers, increasing privacy regulation, and increasingly fragmented audiences – advertisers are steadily regaining the ability to effectively use audience data across TV platforms.

“Clean room” technology, through which media companies and advertisers connect and exchange data within the scope of privacy rules, are gathering pace.

Once the domain of just digital advertising, that technology is now equally applicable to TV, says Jason Manningham.

TV’s two cities

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Manningham, CEO of Blockgraph, explains why.

He depicts a “tale of two cities”:

  • the traditional linear TV marketplace, which is increasingly becoming more data-driven and addressable.
  • the connected TV marketplace, which is almost entirely addressable.

But Manningham sees a problem. “Marketers are really having trouble reaching their audience consistently and being able to measure and manage frequency of reach for their target audience,” he says.

Connecting cleanly

Manningham’s Blockgraph – the JV of Comcast NBCUniversal, Charter Communications, and ViacomCBS whose Blockgraph’s Identity Operating System (IDoS) provides privacy-focused targeting and measurement solutions for new-wave TV services – this month launched its solution.

DoubleBlock is a “secure data refinery” marketers can use to connect and analyze first-party data sets in a way that does not break privacy rules.

It is a truly first-of-its-kind approach to offering clean room capabilities without the complexity, cost, and time that’s associated with creating a clean room.

DoubleBlock is a clean room on demand that allows multiple data owners, first party data owners, to combine that data in a granular fashion while removing all identifiable information and confidential information.

No single solution

For Manningham, helping TV companies connect up data pieces is critical to unleashing measurement and insights across the many ways in which consumers watch TV these days – and, therefore, in providing advertiser value across the companies’ new services.

But one thing Blockgraph’s tech has in common with some other such services launching is its neutral and flexible approach to data inter-connection.

“Identity is really the foundation of all forms of addressable and measurable media,” Manningham adds.

“Having flexibility around which identifiers can be matched between companies is really, really important. And that’s why we launched the ID Operating System.

“It allows two companies to take that combined data set and analyse for attribution, measurement, planning, audience creation, et cetera, all without having to set up a new expensive, complex piece of technology or database that has a high learning curve.”

Blockgraph Spreads Its Wings: More Partners, Manningham Says

‘Work together’

Manningham, who was previously with FreeWheel, cites forecasts showing US TV ad spend is forecast to grow overall, from $85 million this year to $94 million in two years’ time.

That is thanks to spending in new platform arenas adding to waning linear ad spend.

And that is why getting adequate measurement capability is so crucial – the future of the TV industry depends upon it.

“Identity needs to be solved,” Manningham says. “(But) identity being solved doesn’t mean everyone agrees to one common identity solution.

“It means all of these identity solutions need to work together, and they need to do so in a way that protects the privacy of the consumer, their consent that they’ve given to the appropriate data owners, and allows first party data owners to work together on behalf of consumers and marketers, all in a way that protects their data.”

You’re watching “Arriving at Your Audience: Why Direct-to-Household Connectivity Is Critical for TV Advertisers”  a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Blockgraph. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews