‘In Conversations With…’ is a LiveRamp series where we bring together leading voices in the industry and ask them to share their thoughts on the constantly evolving realm of marketing, advertising, media, and tech.
In this edition of ‘In Conversations With…’, LiveRamp’s recently appointed Vice President, Enterprise Sales ANZ, Deb O’Sullivan, speaks with David Benjafield, Country Manager ANZ at MediaMath, acclaimed demand-side platform, about their shared passion to create an addressable ecosystem and rebuild trust in the industry.
Having started his career in media back in 2002, David quickly discovered a keen interest in digital technology and developed a curiosity of how solutions can be leveraged to deliver meaningful insights and solve problems. With more than 20 years of industry experience across the UK, EMEA, and ANZ, Deb also holds a passion for innovative solutions, particularly around martech transformation.
Like Deb, David enjoys working closely with industry forums and experts to help ensure these solutions and tools contribute towards a healthy and accountable ecosystem. Deb and David share a vision – to promote mature conversations around how the industry must implement sustainable and scalable solutions to keep pace with constantly evolving consumer expectations.
In this blog, Deb and David share how LiveRamp and MediaMath have partnered to champion transparency and accountability in the adtech ecosystem while ensuring consumer trust is prioritised at every touchpoint.
How did the MediaMath and LiveRamp partnership begin?
Our partnership began around 18 months ago at Cannes 2019. It was one of those informal conversations about “the art of possible.” It quickly became clear that what LiveRamp was doing fit perfectly with MediaMath’s addressability strategy.
MediaMath has long favoured the existence of neutral common IDs, but we realised that these IDs needed to solve for more than just data loss from cookie syncing, especially with the anticipation of third-party cookies fading away. And so “the art of possible” became something real and tangible, and we began a partnership with LiveRamp.
How is MediaMath working with LiveRamp to drive the development of standards and tools to ensure that practices are transparent?
MediaMath has always championed transparency and accountability in the adtech ecosystem, leaning heavily into the development of industry-wide, interoperable frameworks and tools. But with increasing regulation and the rapid evolvement of technology, clearly there is more to do. At MediaMath, we make it a priority to actively contribute to industry forums around the creation of new tools and standards that perpetuate a healthier, more accountable ecosystem.
LiveRamp shares the same philosophy and understanding that the ecosystem needs an addressable solution that respects the privacy preferences of consumers — and is centred in trust. That is why LiveRamp is a foundational partner of SOURCE and why we moved so quickly to enable transactions on LiveRamp’s identifier.
SOURCE by MediaMath is a technical and commercial framework for agencies, brands, tech companies, and content owners designed to provide long-term sustainable solutions for a clean digital media supply chain with brand-safe, viewable inventory.
How can brands and advertisers leverage addressability to deliver premium consumer experiences in a privacy-first way?
Brands need to participate in industry efforts to define accountability standards for the adtech ecosystem. These include those that are currently happening at IAB Tech Lab (project research), Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In these industry bodies, brands can work together to design a future that will ensure better consumer experiences and respect for privacy preferences. It is essential that brands make their voice heard and are active partners in the design of this new ecosystem.
Additionally, the safe and effective use of first-party data is becoming increasingly important. Given the unique position advertisers are in, marketers are well-placed to provide controls and transparency to consumers regarding the use of their data for delivering premium consumer experiences.
How has the introduction of LiveRamp’s identifier changed the work you are doing with your clients and partners?
The existential issue for clients today is preserving capabilities that enable better, more personalized customer experiences and more effective use of advertising investment. So, to say that the future beyond third-party cookies is top-of-mind for brands is an understatement. We already have multiple clients transacting using LiveRamp’s identifier. For those already bidding on the LiveRamp identifier, clients are able to compare campaign performance against media investments bought on a cookie and device ID-level, ultimately allowing our clients to adjust benchmarks as the industry heads into a post-cookie world.
How can the industry help support an accountable and addressable ecosystem?
First and foremost, by understanding it is an industry-wide effort! It takes the buy-side, the sell-side, the trade groups, and everyone in between. It takes understanding each stakeholder’s goals and being transparent about outcomes and performance. It takes bi-directional data-sharing between buy- and sell-sides, to engender real trust between publishers, adtech intermediaries, and advertisers.
The launch of our SOURCE Ecosystem Scorecard will help the sell-side adopt a range of signals necessary for a more accountable, addressable, and aligned supply chain. The Scorecard will help the buy-side decide which players to work with, based on how far along they are in these areas.
How can publishers leverage programmatic technology to monetise their audience more efficiently?
As part of MediaMath’s flexible identity ecosystem and our SOURCE Ecosystem Scorecard addressability signals, we are creating urgency with our SSP and publisher partners to adopt preferred identity vendor technology, such as LiveRamp’s Identity Infrastructure. From here, advertisers can connect with platforms across the bidstream to increase the value of their inventory to buyers, providing increased reach against their advertiser audiences and more buyer benefits.
Publishers that adopt this technology give themselves the potential for increased inventory monetisation through consented authentications, should they have the audience traffic, and will now be able to identify and pass them onto buyers for increased spending.
To begin activating addressable campaigns with LiveRamp and MediaMath, reach out to [email protected].