15 October 2024
We sat down with Frank Plähn, VP Audience Products at smartclip, to discuss the smart ID Hub as well as other proprietary privacy-centric products. Watch the full interview above or read the transcript below.
Overcoming signal loss and data gaps
When it comes to facing the overall signal loss that this industry is seeing, we have a free-fall approach in place, which is our smart ID Hub initiative — our most important feature set. But we are also looking into enabling more and more contextual targeting solutions. We also offer privacy-centric solutions that allow our publishers and broadcasters to control the information that is shared downstream with DSPs, DMPs, etc.
Orchestrating identifiers with the smart ID Hub
The smart ID Hub is actually the most important feature set that we offer when it comes to dealing with signal loss. When it comes to the core features of the smart ID Hub, I would like to mention three different feature sets. The first and most important feature set is that we support multiple identifiers, which basically means that we do not match and merge different identifiers. Here, we support all sorts of incoming identifiers from the publisher and from the broadcaster, as well as our own identifiers. Then we manage them in the second step, to build kind of a foundation for features that we then build up on multiple ID support and also on ID management. Our identifiers in smartx are managed by levels and hierarchies. That gives us a lot of granularity when it comes to the third thing, which is building up features that support our smart ID Hub initiative — basically frequency capping and unique user counting. This means, when it comes to frequency capping, you can be really strict on certain identifiers, or you also can go a little bit broader to allow more inventory to be monetised. So there is a trade-off that can be made by each and every broadcaster and publisher, which gives our broadcasters and publishers the highest degree of flexibility.
Support for identity solutions offered by vendors
Besides identifiers that are shipped in by our broadcasters and publishers and identifiers that are created by smartclip, we also support identity solutions provided by industry identity vendors, because we understand that it’s super important to support identifiers that work overarchingly across different inventories and tech stacks. That’s why we already support net ID and also Utiq, and we’re looking forward to supporting more industry identifier solutions. What we basically do is that we allow those identifiers to be shipped into smartx, and then we forward them downstream to the respective DSPs that the broadcaster and the publisher would like to have these identifiers used for. But there is a chance for them to kind of select that for DSP, which identifiers should be forwarded to which DSP that also supports that specific identity solution.
Managing PII flow with the GDPR Cockpit
When it comes to supporting privacy-centric products, we also have a couple of initiatives in place. On the supply side, there is the GDPR Cockpit which allows the broadcasters and publishers that are connected to our platform to control what information is shared with DMPs, DSPs, and other partners that we’re working with to kind of be in full control. The most important part is that the signal that the user provides with the TCF string or with binary content is always considered. However, the publisher is in full control and has the chance — depending on its privacy agreements with the partner — to make it stricter and control more of which information is shared downstream.
Monetising opt-out traffic with Vegan Ads
Vegan Ads, which is one of the main features in our privacy-centric toolbox, is a demand feature. Vegan Ads allows our broadcasters and publishers to monetise opt-out traffic because there is no PII data shared downstream as well as opt-in traffic, in case you don’t want to share PII data for certain inventories. It’s a feature that can be applied for programmatic deals as well as direct campaigns on the demand side per campaign. And that brings a lot of benefit to our customers, especially as we see — due to the signals that we are facing — that opt-out traffic is kind of increasing. So this solution is a great chance to monetise that traffic.
Frank Plähn is the Vice President of Audience Products at smartclip. In his role, he leads the development of cutting-edge privacy and identity-related technology, including the smart ID Hub, contextual targeting solutions, and other privacy-centric products. His work focuses on creating alternative IDs and privacy-first solutions that empower European broadcasters and publishers to maximise revenue, while addressing the ever-evolving needs of advertisers. Since joining smartclip in 2023, Frank has brought more than fifteen years of experience, having previously worked with leading advertising and technology companies like Crossplan and major audio broadcasters such as REGIOCAST.
Frank Plähn
VP Audience Products
