Dive Brief:

• Ad tech company Lotame has adopted Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) technology to enhance cross-channel data interoperability, per details shared with Marketing Dive. The UID2 identity solution was developed by demand-side platform The Trade Desk.
• Lotame's data capabilities will now include audience activation across authenticated ad inventory in display, video and connected TV (CTV) channels. Agencies and advertisers will be able to target Lotame audiences on UID2-supported platforms.
• The move comes as Google began its deprecation of third-party cookies earlier this month and channels like CTV continue to grow, increasing advertisers' needs for robust identity solutions.

Dive Insight:

Lotame adopting UID2 is the first major move to follow Google's deprecation of cookies for one percent of Chrome users, which kicked off on Jan. 4. Interoperability between Lotame's data sets and platforms that use UID2 is another boost for one of the leading alternative ID tools that have emerged in recent years.

“With third-party cookie deprecation happening this year, every advertiser needs an identity strategy,” said Jay Goebel, vice president of data partnerships at The Trade Desk, in a statement. “It’s companies like Lotame who are helping to ensure the future of the open internet by adopting Unified ID 2.0 to give advertisers the power to make better, data-driven decisions in their media campaigns.” 

For Lotame, the move complements the company's approach to addressability in both authenticated and non-authenticated environments with its Panorama ID, giving it an opportunity to scale audience activations across all channels, according to Eli Heath, Lotame's head of identity, who called the development a "game-changer."

Central to the promise of UID2 and The Trade Desk's value proposition is its efficacy in highly addressable CTV environments where consumers will spend more than two hours per day by 2025 — more than double the time spent on desktop — according to an eMarketer estimate cited in press materials.

The Trade Desk continues to build support for UID2, which has been adopted by publishers including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal, retail media networks from Walmart and Albertsons and major marketers Unilever and Procter & Gamble.

UID2 is expected to be one of the many tools marketers will use to make up for the signal loss caused by the death of third-party cookies. Lotame's Heath described the need for multiple tools as a "basket approach" in a previous interview with Marketing Dive.