Top 3 Identity Resolution Takeaways from Innovid and the ANA

The identity landscape is rapidly shifting: solutions appear and disappear, privacy regulations are intensifying, and cookie deprecation is looming. To help marketers make sense of the chaos, we partnered with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) on a virtual half-day conference, featuring a special appearance by Disney Streaming’s Jesse Laskaris, focused on the future of identity resolution. In a span of four hours, we covered topics ranging from global consumer privacy concerns to state-by-state privacy legislation to the importance of marketing science. Here are some of our key takeaways from the day:

We need to move from tracking by default to privacy by default. 

Let’s admit it: our industry will never move towards eliminating data altogether. The way forward with identity resolution will require tough conversations about what data collection and storage should look like, how to respect consumer concerns along the way, and how to take every step with privacy in mind. While some in the industry are leaning on nefarious practices like fingerprinting as a substitute for cookies and IP addresses, it’s important not to be enticed by these quick, short-term fixes — that’s how we ended up where we are now, with privacy legislations cropping up state by state, country by country. Work only with partners who put privacy (and, by default, consumers) first. 

“We’re going to move from tracking by default to privacy by default, from collecting everything then figuring out what exactly to do with all of it to only collecting the things that are needed.” - Tal Chalozin, Co-Founder & CTO, Innovid

Look across your organization for synergy strategies.

There’s a lot within an organization — particularly an iconic, wide-reaching one like Disney — that can be leveraged synergistically. Questions Disney Streaming’s Jesse Laskaris often asks himself are: How can Disney Parks help sell more subscriptions for Disney+? How can Disney Streaming sell more merchandise?

“There’s a lot of opportunity for marketing, data, and technology to really power the customer experience.” - Jesse Laskaris, Global Director of Performance Marketing Data, Operations, and Technology at Disney Streaming Services

There won’t be a one-solution-to-rule-them-all approach to identity resolution. 

While it’d be ideal to have one solution that would resolve identity across every channel and device, the reality is that the rapidly-changing advertising landscape will never settle on one. Solutions have sprung up from every corner of the ecosystem, from ad tech to media providers to browsers and more. “Our media plan is still too disjointed to have a legitimate identity strategy,” said Laskaris, “For us, it’s a channel by channel, partner by partner decision of the composition of audience data and how we use it. It’s just so dispersed still.” 

As we move forward in this deeply complex space — and consumers become increasingly protective of their digital identities — it’s crucial to adopt an identity resolution approach that is interoperable, transparent, and privacy-compliant. 

Learn more about Innovid’s forward-thinking approach to identity resolution, Innovid Key, or contact our team here.