• by Wayne Friedman , June 21, 2023

Adding to the growing list of media companies, Warner Bros. Discovery has signed on to the identity graph Unified ID 2.0, also known as UID2, for its brands within all its digital platforms.

Started up by the demand-side platform The Trade Desk in 2018, Unified ID 2.0 is an open-source framework of publishers, advertisers, and digital ad platforms that can establish identity without third-party cookies.

The Trade Desk started developing the identity graph to improve user privacy and ad targeting after Google announced its plan to eliminate third-party cookies.

Partners now include publishers such as NBCUniversal, AMC Networks, Paramount Global, Tubi, and Fubo TV as well as a number of demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs) such as PubMatic, Magnite, OpenX, SpotX, and Xandr.

Jim Keller, executive vice president of digital advertising sales and advanced advertising at Warner Bros. Discovery, said in the release: “Offering new capabilities such as Unified ID 2.0 within our inventory means that our advertisers will be able to leverage their first-party data to target the audiences they want.”

Data providers of Unified ID 2.0 include Acxiom, Comscore, Experian, LiveRamp, Nielsen, Salesforce, Snowflake, and Adobe.

Once users are logged in to a particular digital platform, Unified ID 2.0 creates an identifier that is hashed and encrypted.

Advertisers can access this data to learn more about an individual browsing habits. But they cannot connect any of this data back to individual users or link it to personally identifiable information. 

Marketers then can personalize site content and target consumers with ads based on their browsing history and behavior. 

Although consumers remain anonymous, under privacy-compliant rules, a 2021 eMarketer study said 54% of consumers described targeted advertising messages they consume as “creepy.”