FreeWheel launches new identity initiative
June 22, 2022
FreeWheel is launching new identity collaborations and capabilities that it say will enable advertisers to seamlessly connect first and third-party data to the increasing wide array of IDs coming from diverse platforms and endpoints, allowing for greater scale, optimal reach and frequency for television.
By connecting premium data services and platforms, including Blockgraph, Experian, LiveRamp and TransUnion, FreeWheel’s capabilities allow advertisers and publishers to defragment the industry and match their first-party IDs to some of today’s most commonly used IDs in the TV advertising ecosystem. This industry wide effort supports ID solutions from companies such as Blockgraph, Experian, LiveRamp, Merkle, OpenAP and TransUnion, as well as device identifiers such as cookies, mobile IDs and CTV IDs.
“We are doing this to simplify workflows and create scale by driving interoperability across many of today’s leading ID solutions,” said Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel. “The industry is growing more complex –from data points to endpoints, and everything in between. As an ecosystem connector, we hope to make the premium video space more seamless, efficient, and ultimately, more effective for both media buyers and sellers alike.”
This new identity initiative includes interoperability with publisher, operator and carrier data assets connecting household data with Blockgraph distributors, as well as Experian, LiveRamp, OpenAP and TransUnion data assets, and directly with proprietary agency datasets like Merkle. As a result, marketers will have the ability to seamlessly plan, target, pace and measure utilising their first-party data assets as well as third-party datasets. By building a solution that allows first-party data to be connected, with privacy and data protection built in from the ground up, FreeWheel will help provide the tools for the TV ecosystem to use identity data in a controlled and privacy safe and compliant manner.
“With cookie deprecations on the horizon and privacy regulation evolving at a rapid pace, companies are leaning into first-party data solutions, often built on proprietary identifiers. As a result, the identity landscape has become highly fragmented,” said Jon Whitticom, Chief Product Officer, FreeWheel. “FreeWheel helps solve for this by creating interoperability across various industry ID solutions, as well as traditional device IDs, utilising advanced privacy methodologies and minimizing data leakage. This enables a buyer or seller to build a segment in nearly any ID space and execute using FreeWheel technology to provide the connective tissue across the television industry enabling them to better reach their audience accurately, and at scale.”
FreeWheel is currently piloting this new solution and plans to release the new, advanced privacy-centric identity capabilities later this year.