LOS ANGELES – It may be more commonly thoughts of as a consumer credit information provider.
But, after a couple of years involving acquisitions and integrations, TransUnion has arrived on the map as an advertising data enabler.
In this video interview at Beet.TV’s Beet Retreat in Santa Monica, Frans Vermeulen, VP of market development for the media vertical at TransUnion, paints a picture of TransUnion’s approach.
Market entry
Since TransUnion entered the media space in 2019, it has acquired TruOptik, plugged into the TV industry’s Blockgraph initiative and began powering OpenAP’s OpenID.
Now it is waiting for the closure of its proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of identity resolution Neustar, which would create a giant in the data-driven advertising space.
“I think (Blockgraph) will be a really exciting part of next year,” Vermeulen says.
Name of the game
He explains that, whilst TransUnion is keen for partners to use its own identity systems, integration is the watchword.
“Of course, from an identity perspective, a data perspective, we want to be able to exchange data based on a TransUnion identifier,” he says.
“Our strategy, however, is to augment that by saying, if we need to support a UID2 initiative, we’ll do that; if it’s a scaled identity or synthetic identifier that we can either inter-operate with or power someone else’s industry identifier like OpenAP heavily backed by the television community, we think that’s a smart path and that is the definition of interoperability.”
Game-changing deal
Its planned acquisition of ad identity resolution company Neustar for $3.1 billion would be its fourth in the space in the last couple of years.
“That is a game-changer,” Vermeulen adds. “A good portion of that is augmenting our business in the marketing solutions area.
“It comes with a new set of capabilities around attribution. We’ll need to integrate our identity products together as well.
“I think it’s a big statement to the marketing side of the house. TransUnion is a credit-first, financially-first kind of oriented corporation.
“It is making a huge commitment and statement that we’re here to play. We’re here to be serious in all things, data and identity television now.”
You are watching coverage from Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2021, presented by FreeWheel, IRIS.TV, Samba TV, TransUnion & Warner Music Group. For more videos, please visit this page.
