• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, September 12, 2016

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and ad-tech firm AppNexus are partnering to help ANA members understand how marketers can use their first-party data to
remain competitive in programmatic media, helping to “demystify” the opportunities around data-driven strategies.

With advertising increasingly becoming more data-driven, marketers that own first-party data have a distinct advantage. The question is whether they know what to do with that advantage. AppNexus believes they don’t have to rely solely on so-called “walled gardens” like Facebook and Google. In fact, AppNexus believes that marketers should be using their own algorithms and machine learning to reach their audiences.

The initiative will encompass a series of events and materials that will be produced by the ANA and AppNexus over the next year, aiming to equip marketers with guidelines to establish clear ownership of their data and apply it to meet their objectives.

The partnership sounds like a smart move. With so much data in play, it makes sense for the ANA to partner with AppNexus. Any effort that helps educate marketers and demystify how to use data efficiently is leaning in the right direction.

“It’s no secret that programmatic advertising and data management have become key ingredients in the overall marketing mix,” stated ANA CEO Bob Liodice.  “This new partnership is designed to give our members the tools they need to meet the challenges posed by this evolving and increasingly complex media ecosystem.”

Of the new partnership, Michele Weber, SVP of marketing at AppNexus, told RTBlog: “We are working together to explore how brands are using their first-party data and how they are thinking about data ownership and control when working with agencies, data management platforms, and other third-parties in digital advertising." Weber said AppNexus has worked directly with brands and agencies to identify, activate, and optimize data in digital advertising. "We expect brand-owned data to emerge as a key competitive advantage for marketers as the industry moves away from black box programmatic advertising to real-time data driven customer experiences, shaped by learning algorithms in the programmable age.”