• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 2, 2021

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) today published a report intended to help "demystify" the burgeoning marketplace of consumer "identity resolution" providers, as well providing some guidelines for best practices for advertisers and agencies to consider when working with them.

The report, entitled “Navigating the Identity Resolution Landscape,” was produced by the ARF’s Identity Resolution Working Group within its Cross-Platform Measurement Council, and is available via download.

It includes a variety of "use cases" for identity resolution and outlines different approaches used by he primary providers in the field, while also striving to debunk "myths" surrounding the practice.

“Identity resolution has thoroughly permeated the fields of advertising and marketing science,” ARF Chief Research Officer Paul Donato said in a statement releasing the report.

“Brands are looking to maximize the value of their first party data through integration and enrichment with other datasets," he added. "As a result, brand advertisers increasingly look to define target audiences against which to ‘activate’ at the device, household or individual level. But as is often the case in the deployment of new data types and techniques in marketing and advertising science, the development and adoption of the science precedes the establishment of standards, guidelines or evaluative criteria for users of the data. This paper is an effort to begin the process of ‘demystifying’ the identity resolution space.”

“Surely there are challenges ahead, as technology and the law are rapidly evolving around the privacy and identity space. But we are at a critical juncture. How can we preserve the open-web’s integrity, respect consumer privacy and still make advertising more targeted, relevant, and effective? That is the vision, and it is worth all the effort,” says Donato.

“Navigating the Identity Resolution Landscape” is based on interviews with key executives at over 20 prominent Identity Resolution providers. 

Principal authors of the paper are Sable Mi, VP, Analytics, Epsilon, and Chair of the Cross-Platform Council; Josh Chasin, Chief Measurability Officer, VideoAmp, Co-Chair of the Cross-Platform Measurement Council; Scott Wells, Data Science Lead, Wavemaker; and Alice Sylvester, Partner, Sequent Partners.  Jay Mattlin, a VP of Research at the ARF and Director of its Council Program, also contributed portions of the paper.

Identity Resolution providers participating in the report include Adstra, Experian, ID5, infutor, LiveIntent, LiveRamp, MediaWallah, Narrative, Neustar, Oracle, Semcasting, Samba TV, Tapad, Throtle, TransUnion, Tru Optik, Versium, Zeotap, InMobi, Flashtalking, Epsilon, Truthset and MSA.