Listeners Strike Back

There’s nothing we love more than when the content we create generates a strong reaction. Well this week we brought together some members of the Marketecture community to channel that reaction into a podcast we like to call “Listeners Strike Back”. We also got an update from 33Across on how they play into the ID drama.

Listeners Strike Back + More on IDs

This week’s podcast featured three members of the Marketecture community reacting to some recent content we put out.

Ad Fontes under fire

First, Nandini Jammi absolutely torches Ad Fontes Media, the subject of a recent Marketecture interview. She claims their methodology results in racial disparities, is arbitrary, and treats right wing extremist publications too gently (I’m paraphrasing, you should listen).

Not surprisingly, Ad Fontes disagrees with Nandini’s criticism, and will be giving their response on this week’s podcast, coming on March 30th.

Did Google’s abusive behavior actually hurt anyone?

Then, Adam Heimlich, the outspoken CEO of Chalice.ai tells me that I take it too easy on Google on their antitrust issues and makes the point that in a jury trial it will be a lot easier to convince people they did wrong.

“ID Bridging” is a more nuanced issue

Finally, we get some helpful perspective on the ID Bridging issue from Mike O’Sullivan of Sincera. Mike has been looking at the detailed underlying metadata of RTB for over a decade and knows of what he speaks. Among other clarifications he makes the argument that there are contractual relationships between some SSPs and DSPs specifically allowing for ID bridging in different ways.

Listen to the pod now:

• Spotify

• Apple

• Anywhere you listen

ID Bridging follow-Up from 33 Across

One vendor name that came up a number of times in my conversations about ID Bridging was 33 Across and their “Lexicon” solution. So I called up CEO Eric Wheeler, and had him explain exactly how it works. Below are the notes from my call:

Lexicon is a 1st party data and probabilistic solution for identifying users in non-cookie environments. Eric says the solution does not rely on IP Addresses and he rejects the “ID Bridging” label.

Lexicon only provides these IDs to DSPs that have contractual relationships with the company. The DSPs initiate an ID sync in a no-cookie environment, and Lexicon responds with an ID, usually the DSP’s own ID, and maintains a match table. (Some of the tech details probably require a whiteboard, this is pretty hand-wavy)

Then the SSPs that are part of the program send the DSP’s IDs to them in the bid request. I specifically asked Eric which field in the bid request is used, and he indicated that “some DSPS want it in the buyerid and some don’t.” This also comports with what Mike O’Sullivan said on the pod.

I appreciate Eric taking the time to talk on the record.

Reading list

• DOJ files antitrust lawsuit against Apple but largely steers clear of the app store commissions and advertising

• Speculation in the WSJ that Vizio under Walmart will no longer license data. We pointed this out as a risk factor when we covered the deal.

• Our friends at Ad Tech Explained do a great job explaining Microsoft’s Sandbox proposal, the Ad Selection API. Tl;dr: Less happening on the browser, and advertisers can mix-and-match user profile segments.

• Target in-housing more of Roundel, which has generally been very partner-driven.

More Marketecture.tv…