There is no denying Digiday’s article on publishers’ scepticism towards unified ID solutions is a key read for publishers. Having spoken to those who show a healthy scepticism and also to those who are not as familiar with the technology to make educated decisions. 

The quote from Thomas Lue Lytzen (Ekstra Bladet, Denmark) sums it up well: “We’re skeptical of sharing this sort of data with the broader ecosystem because there’s a risk that it ends in a situation where you have ad tech vendors building these huge databases on our audiences that we have no control over so we’re back to square one of publishers just being providers of users and not journalism.”

We are all acutely aware that until recently, the distribution of third party cookies has diluted the value of a user, which was a publisher's key commodity. This has led buyers to use their own data as the publisher’s data was perceived as being of little value. So, in theory the unified ID solutions should be a way of retaining the value of a publisher’s data but this is providing that the publishers do not give it away for free!

If publishers are really serious about controlling the identity of their users and protecting this all important commodity, they need to consider expanding their ambition to control the trading channel as well. There is great value in user knowledge, but the money is in the campaigns, so in order to monetise data effectively the method and channel of selling inventory should be an integral part of the new strategy as is keeping control of the data. 

Sometimes it makes sense to kill two birds with one stone, and whilst you’re at it, you might as well create a more transparent workflow to solve the much discussed inefficiencies of programmatic advertising as it currently stands.

Adnuntius products related to this post:

• Adnuntius Marketplace

• Adnuntius Data