Dive Brief:

• Ad tech company OpenAP’s new Open Identity cross-platform identify solution will go live in May. The solution is designed to enable advertisers to identify single audiences across publishers, streamers and data providers, according to a press release.
• Acxiom, DeepSync, Experian, LiveRamp and TransUnion are on board and have agreed to standardize their data for use with the Open Identity offering.
• OpenAP is owned by Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The company described Open Identity as an evolution of its OpenID common TV identifier that goes further by enabling direct matching of identity data for more seamless usage for advertisers. 

Dive Insight:

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the quest for the perfect cross-platform audience targeting model continues. On the heels of agencies and data companies offering consumer identity solutions, Open Identity is a bid by the TV networks who own OpenAP to show they have something to offer as well. They aren’t alone: The Association of National Advertisers is expected to roll out a beta test of its Aquila measurement solution in the near future, according to MediaPost.

OpenAP’s stakeholders assert that the Open Identity product has a strong point of differentiation because it was developed by TV broadcasters who know that advertisers want enhanced options for premium video. 

“The workflow of the future for streaming video must be interoperable and data must connect seamlessly across all data providers, publishers, platforms and currencies,” said OpenAP CEO David Levy, in a statement.

Once the product is live, publishers and data providers will connect their data sets to OpenAP’s data clean room, which will allow advertisers to compose audiences with identify information across the industry without any additional “crosswalks,” according to OpenAP. Advertisers and publishers will then use Open Identity to define the identity providers they want to use on a campaign as well as the business logic that governs targeting and measurement. 

The news is the latest example of the premium that the marketing and advertising industry has placed on data. Earlier this month, WPP acquired data collaboration platform InfoSum in a bid to boost the holding company’s AI-powered data intelligence and consumer identity capabilities. That acquisition followed Publicis Groupe’s purchase of identity solutions firm Lotame for similar purposes.