CES is a gadgetry showcase but adland\u2019s digerati has also decamped to Las Vegas this week where The Trade Desk will trumpet its \u201cGalileo\u201d offering, a strategic lynchpin to its prolonged rollout of Unified ID 2.0.<\/p>\n
At its core, Galileo is an advertiser-focused offering engineered by The Trade Desk that aims to help brands chart the internet without traditional targeting tools<\/a> such as third-party cookies via its platform. <\/p>\n The demand-side platform proposes that advertisers upload their first-party data to Galileo to target their desired audiences on \u201cthe open internet\u201d with Unified ID 2.0, or \u201cUID2,\u201d serving as the fulcrum of the offering. <\/p>\n Galileo appears to be a tonic to the mounting headaches of advertisers concerned as to how they can maintain their online audience targeting after Google Chrome retires its use of third-party cookies next year. <\/p>\n In theory, such convenience will attract advertisers in sufficient numbers that publishers, a key constituency in the Galileo audience-matching proposal, will find UID2 compelling but some still require convincing.<\/p>\n A key selling point of Galileo, which helps advertisers match their first-party data with comparable datasets elsewhere on the internet, is that it helps ease the headaches involved with matching different audience types using different technologies<\/a>. This is because it offers \u201cdirect onboarding integrations<\/a>\u201d with all major customer relationship management (CRM), customer data platforms (CDP), plus data and clean room providers.<\/p>\n The Trade Desk\u2019s chief strategy officer, Samantha Jacobson detailed how it aims to assuage advertisers\u2019 fragmentation concerns after the sun sets on third-party cookies. This is because Galileo has direct integrations with CRM, CDP, and cleanroom providers,\u00a0including\u00a0Adobe,\u00a0Amazon Web Services, Habu,\u00a0InfoSum,\u00a0LiveRamp,\u00a0Salesforce, and\u00a0Snowflake.\u00a0<\/p>\n UID2, one of a host of different \u2018audience IDs\u2019<\/a> supported by Galileo, and is at the core of the latest offering given that it uses email addresses submitted by audience members use to register with media outlets. <\/p>\n Publishers can then use hashed versions of these email addresses to generate a UID2 which is then used to cross-reference with advertisers\u2019 email data, which is similarly hashed, to identify mutually-relevant audiences. From here, media traders can start negotiating<\/a> deals. <\/p>\n In recent weeks and months, The Trade Desk has won over some of the industry\u2019s largest broadcasters to UID2 with Disney<\/a> and Paramount<\/a> agreeing to use the audience matching tool, but others (particularly legacy publishers) are not as easily convinced. <\/p>\n More than 50 North American media owners have gone live with UID2, opening up their advertisers to an addressable base of more than 3 billion devices using this targeting methodology, according to The Trade Desk, which has previously said it is working with Vox and The Washington Post.<\/p>\n UID2 has received buy-in from the industry\u2019s buy-side \u2014\u00a0a constituency where star names such as Procter & Gamble have given UID2 their approval<\/a> \u2014\u00a0meaning adoption of Galileo would, on the fact of things, appear to be a no-brainer. <\/p>\n There are very few ecosystems that are large enough to be walled gardens on their own<\/p>\n Samantha Jacobson, CSO, The Trade Desk<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n However, some are reticent about feeding their first-party<\/a> to an industry-wide solution that could potentially drive ad spend away from their coffers, and onto the long tail of the internet. Although, speaking with Digiday, Jacobson countered this assertion, adding that involvement with UID2 did not require participation in \u201csome sort of co-op where they\u2019re contributing their data for use by others.\u201d <\/p>\n She further emphasized the collective \u201copen internet\u201d ethos whereby smaller companies battle Big Tech for ad spend<\/a>. Jacobson added, \u201cThere are very few ecosystems that are large enough to be walled gardens on their own\u2026 I certainly don\u2019t know of a journalistic outlet that is large enough to be able to maintain a separate line item on an advertiser\u2019s budget.\u201d<\/p>\n Representatives of publisher-focused trade orgs, including the Association of Online Publishers, Digital Content Next, and Prebid.org, were unable to respond to Digiday\u2019s inquiries over their members\u2019 attitudes UID2 by press time. <\/p>\n The past 18-month period has seen The Trade Desk attempt to (effectively) hand over the governorship UID2, only to be rebutted by the leadership of such trade orgs<\/a> \u2014\u00a0such is the politicking that is taking place in the industry as the erosion of traditional targeting efforts continues. <\/p>\n However, a senior source at a large publisher noted while The Trade Desk\u2019s efforts to lobby this constituency have been met positively in recent weeks, such players often have diverging motivations. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is trying to hedge their bets,\u201d added the source, who requested anonymity as they were not cleared to speak with press. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mixed feelings about UID2, and part of that is the desire to have more direct business with advertisers\u2026 but at the same time, The Trade Desk is a significant player.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s still the Wild West in terms of all things identity<\/p>\n Ameet Shah, partner, Prohaska Consulting<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Meanwhile, Ratko Vidakovic, founder of consultancy outfit AdProfs, noted how \u201cthe publisher-side is the crucial component\u201d if Galileo\u2019s rollout is to find success, as UID2s represent a crucial part of its audience matching proposal. <\/p>\n \u201cWithout it, the whole scheme falls apart,\u201d he noted, adding, \u201cI think the fact that Google Chrome delayed third-party depreciation by a year or two<\/a> didn\u2019t do UID2, or any other deterministic ID solution, any favors [in terms of adoption]\u2026 I think it\u2019s removed any urgency from a lot of publishers\u2019 efforts to implement logged-in user strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking separately, Ameet Shah a partner at Prohaska Consulting, noted the urgency required, even if many in the publishing sector have pressing concerns over how to deploy resources in the mouth of a prolonged economic downturn<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI think publishers need to experiment and determine what\u2019s best for them,\u201d he added, \u201cit\u2019s still the Wild West in terms of all things identity\u2026 it\u2019s unknown if things like Seller-Defined Audiences<\/a> will get any traction, I think many will have to experiment with as many identity partners as they can.\u201d <\/p>\n Reaction to Galileo at CES is likely to represent a critical milestone in how The Trade Desk\u2019s 2023 playbook will develop with sources telling Digiday the DSP\u2019s pitch will face competition from commercial foes and regulators alike. <\/p>\n Several publisher-side sources told Digiday that Amazon, arguably the most ascendant player in the advertising landscape<\/a>, has been courting media players for meetings over the next few days in Las Vegas. Similarly, Google\u00a0(whose PAIR initiative was likened to Galileo<\/a> by several sources) has been lobbying for advertisers\u2019 attention in recent weeks. \u00a0<\/p>\n However, Galileo and UID2\u2019s biggest challenge is arguably<\/em> present further afield, as data protection authorities increasingly bare their teeth, especially in the EU. For example, ahead of CES\u2019 official opening, Meta received a significant body blow<\/a> in the guise of a \u20ac400 million fine (that\u2019s close to $425 million) from Coimisi\u00fan um Chosaint Sonra\u00ed \u2013 Ireland\u2019s Data Protection Commission which effectively polices GDPR compliance by the industry\u2019s Big Tech players. <\/p>\n Some wonder if such a ruling could have a domino effect on independent ad tech providers \u2013 after all, privacy concerns have impacted UID2\u2019s EU rollout<\/a> \u2014 with the ruling likely to underpin any such pitches in this year\u2019s CES conference halls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat is Galileo, and how does it work?<\/h2>\n
Buyers love it, but publishers \u2026<\/h2>\n
\u2018Everyone is trying to hedge their bets\u2019<\/h2>\n
Lurking competition <\/h2>\n