We welcome Nada Bradbury, CEO of AD-ID, who shares insights on the evolving importance of AD IDs in the digital age. Nada explains how AD IDs, akin to product UPC codes, store metadata about creative advertising assets, thereby ensuring accurate tracking and ROI measurement across diverse platforms. She elaborates on the need for consistent AD ID usage to manage frequency capping and reduce ad waste, especially in the rapidly changing media ecosystem influenced by AI and dynamic placements. Nada also discusses the recent industry shift requiring AD IDs for creatives using SAG-AFTRA talent and the importance of fair compensation for talent, including social media influencers.  

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00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

02:00 Understanding AD ID: The Basics

04:24 Implementing AD ID in Marketing

05:46 AD ID's Role in Cross-Platform Advertising

07:53 Challenges and Solutions in Ad Tracking

11:21 The Future of AD ID and AI

12:27 Industry Insights and Personal Advice

21:32 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Learn more about AD ID: https://www.ad-id.org/

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Links and Resources:

• Subscribe to our newsletter here

• Laura Szczes on LinkedIn

• Lisa Wekellis on LinkedIn

• Double Z Media Website

• Double Z Media on LinkedIn

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Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Paid Media Playbook? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!

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Transcript:

This transcript is computer generated, please excuse any typos

[00:00:32] Laura: welcome. Today we have on Nada Bradbury at id Nada is with us to share a little bit of insight on where ad id, what we know of that Id nowadays, . I know I've been in broadcast for years as well and moving into the digital realm over the past 15 years, and I know, tracking and that sort of thing has become so important and attribution is so important as it was in television.

And I'm interested to hear what Nada has to say about what it's like going into the, the future of digital here and what she sees with AI and everything else. Welcome, nada.

[00:01:15] Nada: Thank you Laura. It's so great to be here and I really love the fact that you know about Adid. I've been here for about three years and I came in as CEO in order to bring Adid into. The digital world, right? Making sure that we're evolving as the media ecosystem evolves. And what I came to find out is that even though Adid has been around for over 20 years, even though we service over 80% of Fortune 500 companies, we call the top advertisers in the world, our clients as well as publishers and agencies.

Little is known about it and most people are like, wait a minute, what is AD id? What does it do? And so it's exciting to be here to talk about it and especially talk about it with somebody who, actually knows what AD ID is. So for those that don't, Laura, can I give a little explanation? Would that be good?

[00:02:04] Laura: Oh, that would be wonderful.

[00:02:06] Nada: Excellent. So, think about a UPC code, right? We're, all very familiar with products. When we're in a store, we have to scan them. They have a UPC code. That UPC code on a product carries all kinds of information known as metadata, right? So it'll tell you what the brand is, what. Product is what the size of it is, what flavor, all kinds of good things.

The same goes for ad IDs. So ad IDs were created in order to contain metadata about creative advertising assets. Whatever creative ads are, put into the marketplace should have an AD ID associated to them and when they register it with AD id, we are a, standalone independent industry standard within North America, although we are also utilized globally.

When an advertiser, an agency, or a publisher registers a creative with us, it automatically generates a unique code that is associated just to that one ad and it's metadata so that you can have correct information about what creative is being served what is the brand, what is the length, is there sag after a talent involved?

And then. Folks utilize that throughout the ecosystem to make sure that they are placing the ad appropriately to make sure that there's communication between advertisers, agencies, and publishers in understanding. What kind of payments need to be made, how often was it showed? And ultimately, what is the return on investment?

And I hope that we get to talk a little bit about all of that and how it benefits brand marketers in the ecosystem. But I think just to tie this up on, what we are most importantly, we were created over 20 years ago by the four A's and the a NA to serve the industry and their constituents.

They wanted to make sure that there was transparency and accountability out there, and that's how we came to be. And I always like to think that they were way ahead of their time because if you think about just linear television before just audio things were so simple.

[00:04:09] Laura: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:10] Nada: Everything is exploded, right?

And if there's ever a time to have simplification and a way to access insight about a creative and how it's performing and where it's going, it's now because it's so complicated and it feels like the Wild West.

[00:04:24] Laura: Well, tell me, how does a, if a marketing director is not aware, or an advertiser is not aware of how to implement Adid, what would be some of the first steps that they would take?

[00:04:38] Nada: So there's quite a few different ways we, we try to make the process as easy as possible. An advertiser, that the brand, brand director may be, working for could be in direct relation with us, right? So they have, an opportunity to have direct access to a ui and they are creating these IDs and the metadata associated to it on their side.

Sometimes somebody like a Procter and Gamble may wanna do it on their side as well as enable third parties on their behalf when it's traveling throughout the ecosystem. Please. Ensure that there's an ad ID associated to it. Other times for partners like an NBC Universal, they will make sure that there is an ad ID appended to every ad creative that goes through their ecosystem if one does not come in.

So we try to make sure that wherever an ad creative is running through the system, it has an opportunity to get an ad id if it doesn't have one already from either of those touch points.

[00:05:34] Laura: Gotcha. so you're working with both the brand side and the client side as well as the the tactic side, for lack of a

[00:05:43] Nada: Yes, both the buy and the sell side. Absolutely.

[00:05:46] Laura: and how, how big are you, like, as far as if I wanted to run on streaming television how would that look to an advertiser?

[00:05:54] Nada: Yeah, absolutely. So, just a little bit about the company and how big we are, and then everything that we touch. We are a small organization. We're less than 50 people. But as I mentioned, we, touch all of the top advertisers, agencies, and publishers in the world, which is amazing. That also means that we are applicable to every single platform that's out there.

So one creative, as we know, could be applicable to something that would run on a, regular network. On linear television, the same ad could be utilized on CTV. So let's say like on Apple TV or on Netflix, or Peacock, or Hulu, you name it, it's, it's still the same code that goes through as well as audio or social media or the list goes on and on.

And that really is the core focus for us and where a brand marketer would see value. They are able to track that one individual creative across all different kinds of platforms and really get to a true sense of how am I spending, how am I investing? Is it being published in the places that I need it to be placed?

Right? Is that ad going where it should be going? Am I making sure that the publishers are, are frequency capping appropriately? Because I don't want to. Inundate consumers with my message. we did a study a while ago that actually if, if you show an ad too many times, Laura, believe it or not.  

[00:07:25] Laura: fatigue.  

[00:07:26] Nada: Yes. And people get upset and you know what they say, I am no longer going to buy this.

I am so sick if, if I see that commercial one more time. Right. And how often have we all sat there, we're watching something on the big screen. We're doing something on our phones and you're getting like the same message and you're just like, I just, I can't take it anymore. It needs

to stop.  

[00:07:45] Laura: So you feel, I mean, I feel like as a digital media company, we, we have frequency caps so that that doesn't happen. Is this something even above and beyond that you're saying?

[00:07:57] Nada: Yeah, so This is where it falls apart. If you are not utilizing a unique ID going across the board, your frequency cap management will fall apart because you don't know that it's. The same ad, right? So it, could be as simple as there's no code associated to it, or different codes are being utilized by whoever uploaded it into a system, and therefore you're inundating somebody.

And it all comes back to I only have a certain amount of, of dollars that I can invest for marketing. I want to make sure that I'm using them in the best way possible. That means that I don't want to oversaturate, but I also don't want to unders saturate. It has to be the sweet spot. Unless the publisher is engaging and making sure that they are utilizing an ad ID code to help with that frequency management problem.

it just, it doesn't work and it's ultimately, it's ad waste. I mean, you know, it contributes to all those billions of people keep talking about billions of dollars of ad waste. It's because people don't know what's going on. And wouldn't it be great if, instead of us saying, I need more money. In order to make my brand perform better, or, you know, I, I need a new marketing campaign.

Sure, it could be those things, but why not just start to take action against what you have in front of you today and make sure that you're using your money wisely? And I think all of us would love to, to take advantage of that. And part of that is making sure that, you know, you're, following the standards that are in place.

[00:09:23] Lisa: Many digital platforms encourage dynamic ad placements where they might adjust the format or the like, landscape versus vertical for a video, for example. What are the recommendations or best practices around ad ID and possibly dynamic placements? Would they be considered the same video in that case?

[00:09:42] Nada: Lisa, it's so interesting that you ask that. So people are trying to figure out what are we gonna do here? Right? And what happens with versioning and lisa might like to see a red background and Laura might like to see a blue background. And because Lisa and Laura live on different coasts and they're looking at an ad for an automobile, the call to action at the end is going to be different 'cause you'll get directed to one dealership and Laura would get directed to another dealership and nobody has landed on what they feel is appropriate.

We do have some publishers that feel that there is a need for different tagging, for each different advertising creative. And it will just continue to become more and more complicated because of ai. And it's so quick and easy to do that. But then you do have some publishers that are saying, you know what, it's one investment.

So if I am working with a GM as an example, and they are coming out with a campaign, and it's only going to be the call to action that's different at the end. That investment doesn't change for them. It will still be the same investment. So I'm only interested in understanding the full parameters. So we are flexible at this point in time until the industry comes to terms on.

There needs to be versioning or there doesn't, we can enable versioning. So it could be at, and I'm gonna simplify this by a lot, but at ID code B 25. Or it could be ADD ID code B 25 dash A through Z, depending on how many different versions you have. We're accommodating the system until somebody takes a stand and says, this is the standard of what it needs to be.

But nobody's decided on that yet. And I think it's because it's so fluid and people have different needs

[00:11:20] Lisa: Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:11:21] Nada: it's, I mean, it's a great point in, if we think about AI and, and what's happening in this space, we're doing a lot of work right now with C two pa, which is content provenance. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but all of the largest tech companies are behind it. There is a need to be able not only to understand versioning, but to understand, are these ads even real?

Right? So how can I make sure that I'm not? Consuming some ads that are fraudulent or that I know that they have been changed or tampered with or where, where they're coming from. So as we start to talk about an AD ID code and how it helps brand marketers, it just starts to open up all of these other opportunities and how we can make sure that we are.

Understanding the provenance, understanding that something is real, that it's not fraud, that I'm being able to track where it's going, where is my investment happening? Am I getting the return on the backend? So for a very simple concept that was created over 20 years ago, just literally to make sure that something ran at NBC at 7:00 PM is now in the middle of making sure we untangle this crazy web of tech that's, that's consumed all of us.

[00:12:27] Lisa: Before you were with Adid, you were with Nielsen which is a very s. Different concept, but similar in the idea of analyzing advertising and effectiveness and that kind of thing. What have you seen change over the years between these two different companies and just in the industry in general?

[00:12:46] Nada: Yeah. The reason that I came over to Adid is because of my time at Nielsen, and what I came to realize that people were moving away from measuring content to measuring creative ads because that's where the money is, right? The content is there to pull people in, but what pays the bills is all of the advertising that's running through all of the different platforms.

And the focus really has started to turn on how do I know that I am getting my investment back for those creatives that I'm pushing through on those publishers. And what I came to realize is that. You can't do accurate measurement no matter how loudly somebody wants to scream at any of these measurement companies, Nielsen included, of we have accurate cross platform, cross media measurement, you really cannot unless you're utilizing a unique id.

And I liken it to what I think has been universally accepted within our industry. That you need accurate person level data in order to consolidate it to householding level, in order to consolidate it into a view of a market in order to understand what is happening with content. You need the same thing for creatives, and unless you know that. An ad that ran for Pamper diapers on Peacock is the same ad that ran on Apple tv, is the same brand that ran on the Visio landing pages. I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna watch is the same ad that ran on someplace else. You are not counting accurately and whatever you're reporting is going to be inaccurate.

And so that really was you know, was the aha moment for me. I came to a certain point in my career where I, thought. I need to make an impact. And unless, I go forward with the knowledge base that I have for my time at Nielsen, both on the measurement side, on media as well as on CPG I don't know who, you know, who's gonna be willing to take up that task.

And I think it's just so important and we have been doing quite a bit of great work recently at the I-A-B-A-L-M conference earlier this year. We stood up and held hands with Paramount and NBC, universal and, group M and we talked about, Hey look, this is what's going on and unless people realize you need to have accurate measurement and you need to utilize the industry standard ad ID code, you are not going to have accurate measurement.

Truly won't know what's going on. So it's just, it's been really exciting to be able to transfer that one knowledge set to a new one. that touches everything across the board within the ecosystem.

[00:15:19] Laura: Now, we were talking about the big change of this being required that people are required to do this now, if they're hiring union talent, we started off talking about what does someone have to know before doing this?

But basically it sounds like we would just reach out and say Hey, this is what I'm trying to do, or maybe the union actually brings you through that and, and helps you kind of navigate that.

[00:15:44] Nada: Yeah. So, we are very excited that the new contract with SAG AFTRA is requiring the use of AD ID codes for any creatives that utilize talent. We have been educating the marketplace on this encouraging people to understand what the rules and regulations are, and also helping them to understand that unless they follow that requirement, talent may not be getting paid appropriately.

And, that's just really critical, right? Everybody should get paid fairly. Everybody should get compensated for the work that they're doing and for all of the eyeballs that are on these creative ads that are out there. That being said. There is no process today that validates right there. There's nothing that happens at a publisher that says, oh my gosh, we have Angelina Jolie in an ad, and let's make sure that there's an ad ID code associated.

There's nothing that does that today. So it's on an honor system. We are working on ways you know, we do have validation UIs that people could plug back into and, and validate a code and validate the metadata, et cetera. But there is no stopgap process to say they abided by it or they didn't. So something that we're working towards an honor system to start, and we'll go from there.

But look, everything needs to be, we feel. Fair and appropriate for everybody who participates in creating advertising creatives. And there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to to turn all those advertising investments that happen,

[00:17:13] Laura: I know that having worked with union talent quite a bit in the past you know, I've been through that honor system and we knew it for broadcast, but we didn't.

Transfer it over to you know, our DSP, for example, and we're running on programmatic videos. And so this is, definitely gonna be a eye-opener for those people that are not using a unique id.

[00:17:36] Nada: Absolutely Laura. And you know what? You would be surprised. There are people that will go out of their way to make up an ID instead of just using our UI to create one. I'm like, oh my gosh, you are spending so much time. Like, what? Why are you faking your homework? Just click a button and it's done. Just make sure that it's done.

But we're working closely with the industry now. The IAB Tech lab has implemented what is called a i, so it's the ad Creative Identity Framework. Ad ID is the is the industry standard of record for North America. For that, there is a way to validate and make sure that we go. So we're hoping that all of these steps, right, we're trying to angle it from every possible way that we are gearing folks towards just.

Click the easy button and get it done. There's no need,  

[00:18:23] Laura: easy as we possibly can. this is a good thing. It's an opportunity, like it's, it's all good.

[00:18:30] Nada: Exactly. Exactly. There's, yeah, there's truly no downfall. And it makes everything work smoother and easier and more efficient and ultimately. Saves money and hopefully, you know, affords folks the opportunity to make money, right. To get, consumers to buy their product. So it's, it's an exciting time for us.

Especially. I know you just, you mentioned DSPs and, and all of the stuff that happens in the digital space. We recently did a study. Which looked at what happens with consumer ads, where are they being most influential, right? What kind of platform, and I know everybody understands that traditional TV is, declining and other things are coming up, but how quickly is that working?

And what we're seeing is that 68% find. Traditional television to be very impactful in their decision making for their consumer purchases. But right behind it, in the sixties, we're at 64% for streaming and 63% for social. That is amazing, right? and you start to think about all of those new dollars that are coming in people's wallets and young adults, and they're mostly influenced by social media to no surprise, but.

Same process that has been implemented for linear is the exact same process across all of these. And now we could just start to track better. And oftentimes I think that the CPMs are a lot lower, right? It's, sometimes a lot more efficient to reach folks on these other new types of platforms than it is on traditional media.

So it's, it's an exciting time.

[00:19:57] Laura: I think, you know, social proof is such a powerful just the most powerful, honestly, like as far as changing behaviors. And, so with an influencer, how does that get. Tracked in the same way, like a social influencer who's gonna talk about you on

[00:20:14] Nada: Yeah. So, that is our, our new focus. for the remainder of this year and into next, we need to get them on board the same way that we did with Talent within SAG aftra. They truly are talent, right? And they need to get compensated appropriately. They aren't creating what we consider traditional creatives.

So we are on a mission to make sure that they get access to everything that everybody else does, because guess what? They're also responsible for billions and billions of

[00:20:41] Laura: right. right. They're held accountable just like everybody else. And I know that, 'cause I've worked with them and it's like, well they kind of have to tell you a lot like of what they're doing where they, you know where they're distributing.  

[00:20:54] Nada: Yeah.

And they probably are not getting compensated appropriately. They're in a new, space, right? So things are just, they're starting from the ground up. They're gaining all of these followers. They have so much influence, but we wanna make sure that they also understand how the process works and where the system's going.

And you know, there's, folks that I follow and I often wonder, are they aware of the impact that they're having in the industry? And that there is a way for them to be able to track their value and in what they're

[00:21:22] Laura: yes. Yes. That is cool. That is super cool. That is great news.

[00:21:27] Nada: Yeah, so it's exciting for us, and, and we think it's, a really great time for it too.

[00:21:32] Lisa: Well, this has been wonderful, nata. Thank you so much for joining us for this conversation. Before we let you go, we do have one final question. If you could go back in time and give yourself at the beginning of your career one piece of advice, what would it be?

[00:21:46] Nada: raise your hand for everything, whether you know how to do it or not. You'll learn it eventually.

[00:21:51] Lisa: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:52] Nada: Yeah, absolutely. This has been great. Thank you so much.

[00:21:55] Lisa: Oh, thank you.

[00:21:56] Laura: Thank you.  

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