Every fortnight or so we’ll bring you some technical updates that we hope you’ll find useful.
Today’s topics are a summary of the key highlights of the recently released OpenRTB 2.6 protocols, some news on the Data Transparency Standards and a look at a newly launched UK retail data platform.
OpenRTB 2.6
IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Supply Chain Working Group are regularly reviewing and working on updating the protocols of programmatic advertising, and the latest version has some significant improvements for everyone – in particular for CTV ads. Version 2.6 is now available for review and public comment is being sought globally until February 7th 2022.
The key features of the new protocols dramatically improves and enhances programmatic buying of CTV inventory by comprehensively enabling structured, dynamic and hybrid ad pods. As a result, media owners will now be enabled to better monetise their CTV commercial breaks by allowing their advertising clients to:
- place multiple ad requests within one bid request.
- have greater flexibility in the number of ad slots and their length.
- have access to a much more comprehensive range of CTV inventory.
The addition of ad pods in CTV brings ad buying in line with the way traditional TV advertising is bought and sold, with the added benefit of flexibility enabled by digital real-time programmatic ad bidding – giving buyers the best of both worlds. A summary of the three types of ad pods are below.
Structured Pod: The seller offers a fully defined pod structure; the number of ad slots, their slot in the ad pod, and duration is predefined and static.
Dynamic Pod: The seller offers a pod structure where the number of ads and the duration of each ad in the break is indeterminate, but the total duration and maximum number of ads are constrained. In other words, the total duration of the pod is known, but the number and duration of the individual ads within the break may not be defined ahead of time. This allows bidders more flexibility to optimise their selection of ads across the demand on their platform.
Hybrid Pod: The seller offers a pod structure containing both structured and dynamic components. In other words, the ad pod is composed of some combination of ad slots with predetermined durations, and ad slots constrained by a total duration and also a maximum number of ads.
We are excited by how these standards can support more innovative and commercial opportunities for both buyers and sellers through these improved capabilities in CTV advertising, as well as providing additional layers of safety and transparency. Some of the other benefits also included within OpenRTB 2.6 for programmatic buying are:
- Faster and more frequent changes in lists and enumerations included in OpenRTB through the use of AdCOM. Earlier versions of OpenRTB required a full upgrade of version to facilitate changes, the use of AdCOM means that lists can be updated and implemented independently.
- Improved support for contextual buying and selling by making it easier to signal the various taxonomies managed by IAB Tech Lab within the bid request.
- The introduction of Network and Channel objects to support CTV inventory descriptions
To fully review the new protocols simply click here
Data Transparency Standards
The IAB Tech Lab’s data transparency standards have underpinned the Data Label initiative since 2019. However, with the efforts of Project Rearc and the related specifications being released, work on this had to be delayed. Now this project has been reinvigorated and also combined with the Neutronian Quality Index Certification – which can now be completed by data providers within a single integrated process.
By combining the efforts of these two industry critical initiatives there are improved efficiencies for data providers that wish to verify and certify the quality and transparency of their datasets, giving marketers and agencies more confidence from being able to leverage the related vetting processes of any data providers they may be evaluating. Together, these transparency signals and quality scores will build the foundation for the adoption of IAB Tech Lab’s “Seller Defined Audiences” addressability proposal that was released earlier this year as part of Project Rearc.
We have previously covered the Data Label initiative, and look forward to this gaining momentum once again. However the Neutronian framework is less well known here in Australia. For a quick summary see the information below.
To learn more about this partnership simply click here
Retail data platforms
In the UK a long-standing relationship between the largest grocery retailer there (Tesco) and their customer data partner (dunnhumby) has recently announced an interesting Media and Insight Platform – which is relevant to Australia as key retail and loyalty businesses here are also gearing up from a solutions perspective.
It’s interesting to see the positioning of this retail platform in terms of solutions, in three specific areas:
Category Development – a self-serve platform plugged into Tesco’s customer insights, giving their brand partners the opportunity to make customer-led optimisation plans and make better insight-driven decisions about any promotional investments.
Precision Innovation – a collaboration through a set of different tiered packages to help guide Tesco’s partners through the different stages of new product development (NPD) providing the benefit of an end-to-end process with just one provider.
Multi Media Measurement – enabling Tesco’s brand partners to close the media measurement loop by by linking any advertising exposure with Tesco’s purchasing data to measure and evaluate all of their media campaigns, both on and off Tesco’s retail media estate.
We’ll keep an eye on how this rolls out in the UK… and for a related press release simply click here