Innovid Introduces "Identity Unlocked"

Perhaps no one said it better than Digiday in response to the latest in cookie news. “Google is delaying the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser — again. In other unsurprising developments, water remains wet.”

Were we shocked? No. After all, this is the third time Google has delayed the demise of cookies since its original deadline way back in January 2020. 

Regardless of when a cookieless world approaches, the demise of this signal for identity resolution is raising significant questions for advertisers.  

Without cookies, will you be able to execute A/B testing? Deploy a retargeting effort? Or use frequency capping for a campaign? 

The good news is that the capability to identify audiences will not evaporate with the demise of cookies. With Innovid’s unique approach to identity, advertisers like you will still be able to leverage authenticated IDs, first-party data, device IDs, and probabilistic data. 

And as we noted in a previous blog post about Google’s deprecation of cookies, life (aka advertising) finds a way. 

At Innovid, we've been preparing for the end of cookies for years. (Even though CTV has never relied on cookies and never will.) In 2021, we introduced Innovid Key, our constantly evolving identity infrastructure that enables the entire Innovid platform to help brands ensure they are reaching the right audiences. 

We recently published a new guide, Identity Unlocked: Your Guide to Navigating the Shifting Advertising Ecosystem. This guide outlines our vision for the future of identity and shows how Innovid Key helps advertisers continue to meaningfully connect with their intended audiences online.

Here are five takeaways from Innovid’s Identity Unlocked:

1-Effective advertising depends on identity resolution. 

Much of digital advertising’s rise is the tug-of-war between advertisers’ desire for effectiveness and consumers’ natural and understandable concerns about privacy. Put another way, advertisers need a way to understand if their investment is having an impact, but audiences don’t want to be tracked. 

For brands, identity resolution is essential for executing these important advertising motions:

• Retargeting
• Measuring outcomes
• Determining reach and frequency
• Personalizing creative
• Sequencing ad messages
• A/B testing

Now, as the cookieless future looms, alternative ways of identity resolution are stepping to the forefront. 

2-There will be no single identity solution; interoperability will be essential. 

At Innovid, we believe a single identity framework or ID on its own is useless. The ecosystem is full of IDs, each of which works in its own respective silo. The future of identity resolution will be built around integrating with the continuously evolving identity ecosystem. 

We have built Innovid Key to be interoperable with any identity solution. Innovid Key ensures accuracy and persistence across devices, IP addresses, and cookies, and our platform integrates seamlessly with both first- and third-party solutions. We currently work with Liveramp ATS, and we are committed to interoperability with other first-party identifiers such as Epsilon, UID 2.0, Transunion, Horizon Media Blu.ID, and Neustar. 

3-Authentication outdoes estimation.

At Innovid, we deploy a “waterfall” approach to identity resolution. By mapping proprietary data alongside first- and third-party identifiers in a centralized hub, Innovid Key prioritizes high-quality data signals —with authenticated IDs, such as email addresses and phone numbers at the top — to ensure advertisers can effectively deliver, measure, and optimize their campaigns.

4-Identity is built on data. 

Identity is about data, and Innovid has an astounding amount of data. We serve over 1 billion impressions daily, generating over 6 billion data points every 24 hours. Our data is as reliable as it gets, because it’s MRC-accredited ad-serving data across desktop, mobile, and CTV. Our vantage point as an ad server is also a plus, because the digital universe is full of blind spots. DSPs can’t see direct buys, nor can SSPs (and they are also blind to other SSPs). Similarly, publishers can only see what happens in their own footprint. The only entity in the advertising ecosystem that sees everything — every impression on every publisher, on every platform, on every device, in every household — is the buy-side ad server.

5-Innovid Key helps advertisers reach and engage their audiences. 

Innovid Key helps advertisers continue to take full advantage of what digital marketing offers. Innovid Key enables brands to:

• Track the path to conversion.
• Tailor messaging to the audience.
• Gauge the performance of messaging, including outcomes generated and frequency achieved. 
• Enable optimization of their campaigns.

Identity will remain crucial for the healthy functioning of the digital advertising ecosystem, both online and via CTV. Innovid Key is vital for brands that rely on accurate identity resolution to power their marketing. 

Innovid Key is forward-thinking and future-proofed, and this may be its most considerable insight and most significant advantage. Because our approach doesn’t rely on a single signal, partner, or strategy, you won’t have to scrap your approach when identity resolution shifts again (which it will).  

Download the guide.