Gone are the days where consumers used just one device; nearly everyone has a mobile phone and it’s not uncommon for a person at work or at home to use a laptop, a desktop, or a tablet. Increasingly, people are also connecting to the Internet on smart home devices like the Amazon Echo or connected TVs.
Marketers are looking for smarter ways to move beyond serving display ads and executing basic retargeting efforts to web pages using cookie-based intender segments that typically only work on desktops and few tablets. In order to address this new digital reality, marketers are taking stock of how the consumer can best be reached as well as when they are most likely to engage with content that will have a favorable impact on their decision making.
Online advertising has been attempting to mimic direct mail for some time. Ninety percent of marketers use programmatic online ad buying and leverage mailing lists and onboard them to cookies or IDs that allow digital targeting. While steps have appropriately been taken to protect users' identity, onboarding and some form of digital ID is necessary in order to support the routing of relevant information to the people most likely to need it.
Enter the Digital ID.
A Digital ID can best be described as a person’s digital mailbox. Every person and household has a postal mailbox, and while there is a lot of noise about person-based and universal IDs for digital, the reality is that the device and device alone is what is being targeted in any digital campaign. Today, every consumer has a digital mailbox on their digital devices that is being reached with advertising as a part of the online content they consume. With mobile devices and the introduction (and expected exponential growth) of smart home devices and connected televisions, more information and more advertising is possible.
A Digital ID enables marketers to incorporate all of the devices the consumer uses and engage them based on their online preferences as well as their larger consumer profile. This ability to “personalize” messaging to the device improves the effectiveness of advertising and (ironically) mimics the behavior of old school marketers who determine which piece of creative should go to which mailing list.
The common attributes of the Digital ID are the IP and device that connects the backbone of the Internet to the device in its varied forms: email, websites, businesses and social networks, and IPTV and smart home devices. Unlike a cookie, which offers only about 30% coverage of devices and audiences, an IP and device-based Digital ID offers advertisers the flexibility of near 100% reach and full transparency to the offline profile of the users that make up your audience.
Semcasting’s Digital ID is unique in that it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to resolve and match users in CRM databases, mailing lists, site traffic, and household and business profiles to a user's preferred devices and locations. This process not only determines the best audience, it also determines the time and place that best represents an opportunity for quality consumer engagement.
For more information on the Semcasting Digital ID solution, contact us today.