GABBCON and AdLedger Launch New Blockchain Education Initiative

Blockchain was a top discussion point last year, but after the initial burst not much has appeared in the press.  However, that doesn't mean that blockchain is any less important ... or its rollout dormant in any way.  In fact, according to the AdLedger Conference hosted in partnership with GABBCON, Dear Marketers: Help Me Help You, there has been decisive progress in rolling out the protocol in the media industry.  One major initiative is the creation of Ad Ledger, which is described as a "forum for collaboration" by Gabe Greenberg, Co-Founder GABBCON.  Over the span of two years, Ad Ledger has quietly ramped up. Christiana Cacciapuoti as Executive Director, just announced a set of  board members (including c-founding companies as Tegna, MadHIve and IBM), holding-company members and new rules of engagement.  The most important aspect of Ad Ledger at this time is to educate the industry and present the parameters of what blockchain can and can't do.

The GABBCON announcement is the first salvo -- and now, the rest of 2019 is dedicated to taking the industry forward with members seeking eventual accreditation by the MRC.  Greenberg and his team are on the cutting edge of this blockchain roll out.  We met at the conference for an exclusive interview on the whys and wherefores of Ad Ledger, how it will impact the industry, next steps and obstacles to overcome.

GABBCON helped co-launch Ad Ledger and then transferred the GABBCON working group into it.  Becoming a founding partner was important, Greenberg explained, "because we saw an opportunity to bring buyers and sellers together in a way that the IAB and other groups weren't doing."  He noted that his company is participating to support the work that Ad Ledger is doing, including "breaking down the walled gardens and creating new open standards that help brands and agencies on one side and media sellers on the other side to extract the most value out of the market and pay as little for that as possible."  The way to this economic efficiency is by "cutting out the intermediaries and the folks that represent ad taxes," he added.

Greenberg has his eye on accreditation, which is necessary for scale and adoption.  "The team is in the early stages of working with the MRC," he indicated.  "It takes some time but the process is starting."

Looking to the future, Greenberg hopes that two years from now Ad Ledger will be at a point where the group "is chasing the scale of an IAB, develops a cryptoRTB standard that reaches a significant scale of the market, is not still in its infancy or nascent stage and that more and more brands are involved."

Currently, Hershey's and Bob Mills Furniture are involved and other brands were in attendance at the event for a look-see.  "But we need to get more brands that are demanding these solutions to come to the table and help form them," Greenberg asserted.  "More than anything Ad Ledger is a call to the industry to come together.  We don't need another consortium that's come and gone.  We need a group that is making real impact and making a difference."

For Wallace Kittredge, Senior Content Strategist for Bob Mills Furniture, a regional retailer of furniture, blockchain and participation in Ad Ledger will help his company explore more options, help justify their digital and offline budgets and close loops.  "Reporting is difficult enough at this time," he says.  "Blockchain will help with transparency and valuation."

For others, implementing blockchain into the media pipeline will help solve for one persistent vexing problem – ad fraud.  “Blockchain has many use cases from identity and risk management to fraud and decentralizing data," explains Alysia Borsa, Chief Marketing and Data Officer, Meredith.  "The low hanging fruit is fraud.  With disparate data coming in, how do we bring it all together in a centralized form? How do we create pilots that will be proof of concept for advertisers?”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Using Blockchain to Disrupt Media

Just when you thought the media landscape was quieting down, a new non-profit research and development foundation called the AdLedger Consortium has been created to further disrupt the buy/sell model, this time by using blockchain. This consortium is charged with implementing global technical standards, protocols and solutions for digital media and blockchain. 

The group’s founding members consist of a range of companies from technology, advertising agencies, media sellers and data vendors who are pooling their expertise and efforts to, according to the press release, “bring transparency and data security to the ad tech supply chain through blockchain technology.” According to their press release, founding member companies include, Canoe, GroupM, Cadent, Meredith, IPG Mediabrands and Neustar, among others.

Why Apply Blockchain to Digital Media

At a recent Frankfurt Kurnit event, Gordon Platt, President, Gotham Media, explained that when it comes to media and advertising, "Blockchain technology will bring media licensing and distribution into the 21st Century, enabling creators to control access to their work and ensuring that they get paid for its use."

Eric John, Deputy Director, Video Center of Excellence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) noted that in the areas of fraud and safety, “It takes automation to and entirely new level.” On the plus side, blockchain offers a failsafe, verifiable, immutable protocol to permanently link data for use in transactions and data tracking. Privacy compliance is part of this focus.

But caution is advised. “Putting a social network on the blockchain is harder than you think,” warned Benji Rogers, CEO and Co-Founder, Dot Blockchain Media. “If it links to extremist content, you can never take it down,” he explained. “You might siphon millions of dollars to the wrong person and can’t turn it off.”

Privacy Compliance Legislation

The concern about data privacy is being addressed through legislation by the EU called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) scheduled to go into effect in May 2018. Its implementation is a call to action for companies interested in creating and supporting a privacy compliant peer-to-peer decentralized network for media. Through the use of blockchain, companies can address a range of data issues from transparency to supply chain inefficiency to data security and portability to reconciliation and payments that comply with the new EU regulation.

According to Gabe Greenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of GABBCON, Global Audience Based Buying Conference and Consultancy, “Blockchain has the ability to help media by illuminating the current opacity in the supply chain and, by extension, eliminating fraud and moving economic value back to publishers and advertisers.” And, importantly, it offers a secure, privacy-compliant ability to transact that protects the user's private data. 

AdLedger Proof of Concepts

AdLedger is working on two different proofs of concept right now. The first is OpenGPDR, which will cryptographically store data on a data controller’s private blockchain, creating an audit trail. This will help companies manage the new privacy rights under the GDPR regulations of the Right to Access and the Right to be Forgotten.

The second proof of concept is Campaign Reconciliation which focuses on streamlining the campaign reconciliation process showing “what a campaign transacted from cradle to grave would look like on a blockchain,” stated Greenberg. Led by Amichai Lichtenstein, Director of Product Management at AppNexus, the project includes the creation of a contained blockchain network with a set number of players that combines disparate sources of immediate metrics based on measurement KPI’s tied to campaign delivery. Touted as a single source of truth, the ledger will ideally showcase blockchain’s ability to reduce the amount of campaign discrepancies and offer more transparency for buyers and sellers.

Challenges to Implementation

But there are still some challenges to overcome. The most frequently cited challenge, Greenberg noted, is speed. “The traditional ad tech landscape has high QPS (queries per second) demands that blockchain today would struggle to support, but we are confident that the technology will continue to evolve,” he stated, and added, “Saying that this will remain a challenge forever is assuming no innovation or iteration -- it's like saying a 5-year-old will never be tall enough to ride a roller coaster.” Even with this challenge, the expectation is that there will be increasing traction to embed blockchain in digital media throughout 2018.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com