Dive Brief:

• As of March 31, all ads that include a member of the SAG-AFTRA union are required to use Ad-ID tracking, according to a mandate signed last year. 
• Ad-ID is a web-based tracking system for commercial performance — developed by the American Association for Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers — spanning television, radio, and digital ads. 
• The mandate is meant to help make Ad-ID a standard identifier in the ad industry.

Dive Insight: 

Requiring all 165,000 SAG-AFTRA union members to use the Ad-ID identifier will make it a priority for a large group of advertisers. It remains to be seen whether it will force those not using SAG-AFTRA members to implement the identifier and create more uniform tracking habits across mediums. A few hundred thousand is a comparatively small group in the big picture, but the industry is looking for new methods of tracking now that cookies are losing their worth.