Connected TV advertising has a mile-wide opportunity ahead, but there are a few critical challenges that loom, including viewer privacy, lack of cookie-based targeting and cross-screen identity management. There are lots of initiatives addressing these challenges and I have little doubt that over time they’ll all be fully resolved and/or the industry will get comfortable with approaches irrespective of their particular limitations; CTV advertising is simply becoming too strategic for too many players for it to be derailed.

Helping move the ball forward, this morning Beachfront and Beeswax announced they are adopting LiveRamp’s IdentityLink identifier for clients' CTV ad buying. Beachfront is an ad management/SSP in both video and TV. Beeswax is a DSP for programmatic ad buyers. LiveRamp started as a data on-boarding company and has evolved to an identity solution provider.

The integration further enables Beeswax’s CTV ad buyers to target audiences across Beachfront’s inventory using their own first-party data in combination with LiveRamp’s IdentityLink identifier. Whenever advertisers deploy their first-party data there’s always a risk it could become accessible to unauthorized parties. Yet with CTV ads being cookie-less, using first-party data takes on a more important targeting role. So this integration is a step toward improving CTV ad targeting and a vote of confidence in LiveRamp’s identity management approach.

Then there’s the issue of how CTV must become part of cross-screen ad campaign planning and execution, which is essential. Today many CTV ad campaigns are positioned for incremental reach beyond traditional TV. But measuring their true effectiveness means buyers must have a holistic audience view across CTV and TV, plus mobile, desktop, etc. The whole issue is complicated further with the impending demise of cookies, which itself is going to upend how most open web digital ad targeting has been done. Bottom line: CTV advertising needs an open-web type targeting standard and one that can be cross-screen.

This context has led to an enormous amount of effort being funneled into how to leverage data in a secure, privacy-first, cross-screen manner. Integrations like Beachfront/Beeswax/LiveRamp help do this. Related, NBCUniversal’s “One Platform” technology and audience targeting solution, which was further described this morning with partners 4C Insights, FreeWheel and Operative, also help. We’re going to be seeing many more approaches in the coming months.

If you want a really deep dive into CTV ad targeting and measurement, be sure to attend our CTV Advertising Summit on June 11th in NYC. Early bird discounted registration is available now!