[ad_1]
Short
Dive Brief:
- Comcast Cable Advertising, a division of Comcast Corp., is growing Blockgraph, a platform designed to provide a safe and efficient way for TV and media companies to exploit and share user data, according to a press release.
- With blockchain enabled software, data from any TV or media company remains in their systems and the participant continues to manage the privacy of their users. Blockgraph works as a peer-to-peer platform that allows participants to blindly meet directly with each other so they can offer marketers targeted audiences on a large scale without revealing user-identifiable information to third parties. .
- Comcast is working with NBCUniversal, also a division of Comcast Corp., to test Blockgraph and plans to incorporate it into its addressable offers this year. The company is also discussing with Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales division of Viacom and Charter Communications, to help refine the initiative and provide insights into the public for addressable announcements.
Dive Insight:
As marketing continues to be fueled by data, marketers are looking for solutions that can help them use data to provide greater customization on a large scale. At the same time, as privacy concerns grow, with data from third-parties that worry data, the advertising ecosystem has hit blockchain technology as a way to potentially introduce more security.
Television networks are focused on competing with digital platforms in their data capabilities and Comcast is positioning Blockgraph as a solution to help mediation companies activate their user data. Typically, advertisers and media companies send data to a third party to conduct a match. The third party returns "unidentifiable data segments" for targeting or measurement, according to the press release. Blockgraph would allow both advertisers and media companies to match each other using secure encryption technology, unidentifiable data and blockchain.
The news highlights how marketers and media companies are showing more interest in blockchain as a way to offer more transparency, reduce fraud, increase efficiency in their advertisements and better compete with Facebook's digital duopoly and Google. Leading ad companies are also focusing more on blockchain trying to clean up the digital ad ecosystem. IProspect from Dentsu Aegis Network, together with S4M, Futurs.io, Smart and Monadori MediaConnect, have recently launched the Adschain consortium to apply blockchain to address advertising fraud in programmatic purchases. IPG, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom and GroupM also collaborate with a blockchain working group with AdLedger.
Comcast's push in data-based marketing services comes as expected for TV over the top (OTT) spending of 40% to $ 2 billion in 2018, according to the Magna announcements for 2018. Addressable television spending it will reach $ 800 million, as more than 80% of American households are expected to be reachable via OTT in 2018.
