Another Kind of Blockchain on Trial

In a few weeks Blockgraph a unit of Freewheel a Comcast company will begin offering its decentralized blockchainbased platform to other US media companies with major consequences for how TV ad campaigns are formulated and carried out on a variety of video platforms from broadcast stations to smart TV sets and TVconnected devicesamp160 Starting this summer a group of program distributors content publishers advertisers and ad agencies will be equipped with blockchainpowered software operating continuously through each company39s secure systems At any time each company can tap into the software known as an quotidentity layerquot to monitor and crunch audience insights pertaining to the target audiences or viewer preferences of brand campaignsquotBlockgraph is run in an environment each participant company controls and is responsible for operatingquot saidamp160Jason Manningham pictured below Blockgraph39s General Manageramp160 quotIf you think about the consumers that advertisers are trying to reach there are a number of different data points that need to be reconciled across different devices and distributors in order for advertisers to match a target audience segment against a media company39s audience among multiple devicesamp160 You need resolution that39s secure and considers both company and audience preferencesquotFreeWheel created Blockgraph two years ago with the rationale that blockchain can be utilized for the advertising community39s fastgrowing reliance on big dataamp160 What39s more Manningham adds a process workable for advertisers can extend to any TV platform they buy time onamp160quotThe way TV and media are consumed has changed tremendously over the last 10 yearsquot Manningham notedamp160 quotThere is more content available on more devices than ever beforeamp160 However audiences are consuming that content across multiple different channels whether its traditional linear TV videoondemand mobile apps or directtoconsumer servicesamp160 As a result of all the choices it39s really difficult for marketers to reach them at scalequotIn designing this identity layer then running a beta test that wrapped up last December Manningham and his colleagues kept two goals in mind One was to have the software extend across the needs of multiple different types of media companiesamp160 The other was giving the company starttofinish control of the data they use without the need for outside resourcesFor many advertisers and media organizations out to attract a specific viewer base with a specific campaign quotboth would have to use a trusted thirdparty where both advertiser and media company would provide their audience data to that thirdparty who would match up the data and all of the synthetic identification for that audiencetargeted campaign to be enabledquot Manningham explainedamp160 quotIt39s a slow process increasingly expensive and has a centralized party in the middle maintaining all that dataquotWith each Blockgraph client using the same software format through their own system quotit identifies all the audience records encrypts them and allows matching between multiple partiesquot Manningham continuedamp160 quotThat reduces a lot of the operational overhead associated with third parties while maintaining control over each party39s data in the ecosystemquotIn the beta test Comcast and parent NBCUniversal utilized Blockgraph39s software layer where each organization was able to crunch the audience data without exposing that information to the otheramp160 Feedback was positive with no issues over data retrieval or fashioning an ideal audience for specific campaignsLook for several advertisers or agencies to join other program distributors and content creators in using Blockgraph over the summeramp160 Manningham hintedamp160that in time the pilot will extend beyond US bordersamp160 quotThere39s a strong appetite in Europe to use technology like Blockgraph as part of the addressable tech stackquot he saidIf the pilot pans out Blockgraph will launch sales of its software early next yearamp160 Will NBCUniversal incorporate Blockgraph for its upcoming adsupported programming venture expected to roll out during the first half of 2020 via smart TV sets and devicesamp160 Manningham39s succinct answer quotToo early to tell but I39m optimisticquotClick here to read the Blockgraph whitepaperamp160Building the Future of DataDriven TVClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Another Kind of Blockchain on Trial

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Simon Applebaum

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