Point-Based Solutions Are A Pain Point Of The Advertising Industry

As the advertising industry struggles to holistically solve for accountability, transparency, and brand safety, marketers have turned to a variety of point solutions. Unfortunately, these point solutions only add to the complexity and cost, and are unlikely to address the underlying issues causing these problems.

To get a deeper understanding of what advertising’s core constituencies think of the existing supply chain and how they think it will look in the future, we teamed up with founding member MadHive to commission an independent study by Industry Index which surveyed 100 brands, agencies, and publishers.

Our research unveiled that in the short-term, respondents recognize that the status quo is likely to prevail, reporting that they plan to add 8.5 technologies in the next year. Over the long-term, however, these stakeholders wish to reduce the complexity involved in managing their tech stack, while retaining and improving their capabilities.

Our panel responded that they expect to license about 15 technologies in 3 years, compared to the almost 28 they are using today.

Figure 1: “Technology usage among brands, agencies, and publishers.” Complexity, Opacity & Frustration: Why AdTech Must Change Now, AdLedger, MadHive, Industry Index, 2019

According to the respondents, those responsible for building the less complex future they want to see are tech vendors. Although it’s true that tech vendors — unlike the publishers, agencies and brands surveyed — are actually in the business of creating technology, they are encumbered by their understandable desire to protect their financial interests. Currently, those interests are inextricably tied to the current status quo, making disruption a risk.

Figure 2: “Who is responsible for fixing the complexity and problems in AdTech?” Complexity, Opacity & Frustration: Why Adtech Must Change Now, AdLedger, MadHive, Industry Index, 2019

Taken all together, the results highlight the need to upgrade our infrastructure, integrating mechanisms to solve for the industry’s ills. New technologies like blockchains, cryptography, and AI were either non-existent or too early to be leveraged when the current infrastructure was put into place, but now represent exciting possibilities. AdLedger is thrilled to be leading the way in transforming these possibilities into reality.

Download the study at AdLedger.org.