European Addressable Media Initiative issues report, setting out recommendations and calling for industry action to support the development of a sustainable addressable ecosystem.
Today, the European Addressable Media Initiative (EAMI), led by Finecast, LiveRamp, Amobee, Comscore, Lotame, Magnite, Neustar, OneTrust and PubMatic, in partnership with The Project X Institute, has issued a major industry report, setting out a series of recommendations for advertisers and media owners in Europe to help them position their businesses for the future and to support a vibrant addressable marketplace.
To download the report, click here.
The growth of addressable media and increasing data privacy regulations are the foundations of a new advertising ecosystem, delivering better advertising experiences to consumers, enabling advertisers to improve ad relevance and marketing efficiency, and allowing media owners to support and future-proof their revenues.
Addressable media has scaled rapidly in the US and in major European markets, driven primarily by the proliferation of online media, but rising penetration of connected devices and deployment of addressable infrastructure means that other platforms, including TV, radio and out-of-home, are becoming more addressable.
Across Europe’s five largest markets – the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain – we estimate that addressable media including online advertising and addressable TV and radio now account for two thirds of advertising expenditure and almost all net growth.
However, there are headwinds. Changing consumer expectations around privacy and new data privacy regulations in the EU and UK mean the era of easy and cheap access to consumer data is coming to an end. Anti-tracking safeguards, and deprecation of established digital identifiers have had a significant impact on the advertising market, driving a proliferation of identity and measurement solutions, leading to increased complexity and confusion for ad buyers and sellers alike. Cross-media addressability adds further complexity, as do widespread national variations.
As Emily Hanson, global head of marketing at Finecast, explains, “The addressable media landscape continues to change at pace, and we are seeing huge demand in Europe,” said Hanson. “However, the development of a robust addressable media ecosystem is only possible through strong partnerships and investment in technology integrations. Brands are looking to embrace this connectivity, but the landscape is still complex and differs greatly by medium and market.”
Hugh Stevens, Head of Customer Success at LiveRamp, summarises the challenges and opportunities as well as the key role of adtech, “As consumer media becomes more connected, brands are relishing the opportunity that addressable solutions can bring. From personalised creative to full media plan accountability, data enablement is at the forefront of this, so having a solid interoperable infrastructure which respects privacy whilst enabling people-based marketing is critical. As the market continues to grow, whether through evolution or cookie depreciation, brands will look to the adtech ecosystem to establish the frameworks for opportunity realisation.”
The Initiative’s report comes at the end of a six-month programme of industry research and engagement, with more than 100 executives in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain participating in interviews, discussions and events for the Initiative, culminating in a Summit in October with the key findings and recommendations published today.
This program of work has helped us identify six critical challenges facing the addressable ecosystem:
1. Uncertainties over the future data privacy landscape, which many industry participants believe is still unsettled.
2. Confusion over which cookieless ID solutions to adopt, given the proliferation of offerings.
3. The growing number of walled data gardens, challenging the open web.
4. Correspondingly, increasing pressure on smaller media owners with limited resources, finding it hard to meet advertiser needs and navigate the solutions landscape.
5. Pressure from buyers for improved cross media measurement …
6. … and growing impatience with incompatible media measurement frameworks
Recommendations and priorities for the industry
To help address these challenges, we have developed a set of recommendations, with input from our Expert Advisory Group and Members of the Initiative:
1. Operationalise procedures for auditing and optimising data supply chains
Develop standardised processes and procedures for auditing and optimising data supply chains to improve transparency, data quality and efficiency and to ensure compliance with data privacy regulations and other frameworks.
2. Help ad buyers and sellers develop portfolio strategies for ID solutions
Provide greater clarity about the primary use cases for different addressable solutions and help buyers and sellers to embrace portfolio strategies for ID resolution frameworks for different campaign objectives, targeting requirements and outcomes.
3. Provide detailed framework and forum to support publisher alliances
Publisher alliances can play a critical role in helping smaller media owners and publishers to unlock budgets that would not otherwise be available and sharing the costs of developing and rolling out new technologies which many could not do individually. A detailed blueprint, including operating models and templates, could help support the successful formation of alliances, alongside a forum for international cooperation.
4. Establish best practice guidelines for data matching solutions
Establish best practice guidelines to support the roll out and operationalisation of data data-matching solutions for advertisers, agencies, and media owners. These should include clear and transparent principles relating to data quality, ingestion rules, data protections and permissions. This information should be provided automatically to users of data matching solutions and users should insist on having this information.
5. Support moves towards cross-media measurement in each country
The emergence of new forms of media and formats and changing patterns of media consumption mean that genuine cross media measurement is increasingly essential to support effective and efficient media investment.
To help support effective and efficient investment across different media our recommendation is to urge industry players to support moves to develop cross media measurement systems. In smaller countries such as Italy and Spain, this is likely to mean an alignment of existing JICs around common approaches.
6. Set up certification programmes to support measurement innovation
A dynamic, innovative ecosystem of measurement providers is slowly developing around addressable media but the industry could do more to support the development of common approaches to certifying measurement partners, ultimately helping to maximise investment in addressable advertising.
The development of a common certification programme for addressable media measurement partners would give advertisers and agencies confidence that certified providers deliver robust, high-quality capabilities while enabling media owners to maintain their commercial sovereignty. Any scheme would need to be supported by the buy and sell sides of the market and could be funded by charging research providers for accreditation.
About the founding members of the European Addressable Media Initiative
Finecast
Finecast is a leading addressable TV company which enables advertisers to personalise ads across on-demand, linear and live streaming TV environments. Finecast gives advertisers the ability to deliver relevant ads to audiences watching TV content across multiple broadcasters, connected devices, set top boxes, over-the-top providers and game consoles – all through a single point of access.
Finecast optimises delivery across the entire addressable TV marketplace. With access to hundreds of different targeting segments, from socio-economic to life stage, purchase and financial data, advertisers can reach viewers whenever and wherever they are watching. Finecast is part of GroupM, the media investment group of WPP. www.finecast.com.
LiveRamp
LiveRamp enables companies and their partners to better connect, control, and activate data to transform customer experiences and generate more valuable business outcomes. Our fully interoperable infrastructure delivers end-to-end addressability for the world’s top brands, agencies, and publishers and our neutral and open approach ensures that our clients can select from among best-in-class partners and technology to meet their specific needs. liveramp.uk.
Amobee
Founded in 2005, Amobee is an advertising platform that understands how people consume content. Our goal is to optimize outcomes for advertisers and media companies, while providing a better consumer experience. Through our platform, we help customers further their audience development, optimize their cross-channel performance across all TV, connected TV, and digital media, and drive new customer growth through detailed analytics and reporting. Amobee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tremor International, a collection of brands built to unite creativity, data and technology across the open internet. amobee.com.
Comscore
Comscore (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms. With transformative data science and vast audience insights across digital, linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) and theatrical viewership, we are a powerful third-party source for reliable measurement of cross-platform audience. comscore.com.
Lotame
Lotame delivers flexible data solutions to future proof connectivity and drive performance across all screens. Marketers, publishers, and platforms rely on our innovative and interoperable solutions, powered by our identity platform, to onboard, enrich, and address audiences. Lotame serves global clients in North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Lotame’s suite of data connectivity solutions includes Lotame Panorama ID, a global people-based, privacy-first identity solution for the open web. It has become one of the most adopted cookieless identifiers, deployed by 40,000+ publishers. lotame.com.
Magnite
We’re Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising platform. Publishers use our technology to monetise their content across all screens and formats including CTV, online video, display, and audio. The world's leading agencies and brands trust our platform to access brand-safe, high-quality ad inventory and execute billions of advertising transactions each month. Magnite has offices across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. www.magnite.com.
Neustar
Neustar, Inc., a TransUnion company, is a leader in identity resolution providing the data and technology that enable trusted connections between companies and people at the moments that matter most. Neustar offers industry-leading solutions in marketing, risk and communications that responsibly connect data on people, devices and locations, continuously corroborated through billions of transactions. Learn how your company can benefit from the power of trusted connections. www.home.neustar
TransUnion
TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good®.
A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences, and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people. visit www.transunion.com.
Onetrust
OneTrust is the market-defining leader in Trust Intelligence. Our technology platform connects privacy, GRC, ethics, and ESG teams, data, and processes so companies big and small can collaborate seamlessly and put trust at the centre of their operations and culture. This means we help customers adopt better privacy practices so they can be trusted with customer data and deliver more valuable user experiences. www.onetrust.com.
PubMatic
PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM) is an independent technology company maximising customer value by delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future. PubMatic’s sell-side platform empowers the world’s leading digital content creators across the open internet to control access to their inventory and increase monetisation by enabling marketers to drive return on investment and reach addressable audiences across ad formats and devices. Since 2006, our infrastructure-driven approach has allowed for the efficient processing and utilization of data in real time. By delivering scalable and flexible programmatic innovation, we improve outcomes for our customers while championing a vibrant and transparent digital advertising supply chain. pubmatic.com.
About The Project X Institute
The Project X Institute is a new think tank and advisory collective, dedicated to solving complex challenges across the media, advertising, entertainment, technology, and sports markets.
We bring together some of the most experienced executives and sharpest minds in the sectors we cover to help companies, policy makers and investors. We provide an alternative to traditional consulting firms, combining heavyweight expertise with a flexible and nimble approach adapted to each client’s specific requirements.
Founded by industry veterans Jon Watts and Ian Maude, the Institute's team of senior advisors bring their unique expertise, market knowledge, and ability to provide advice at the highest levels to bear on key challenges in the connected world.
For more information visit https://projectxinstitute.com/eami.
Media contacts
For further information on the initiative or to arrange interviews and briefings with PXI or the consortium members, please contact:
Jon Watts
jon.watts@projectxinstitute.com
+44 7974 255398
Ian Maude
ian.maude@projectxinstitute.com
+44 7900 698498