The advertising industry has a problem. According to The Guardian, at least 25 percent of people viewing online video views are bots operated by fraudsters. The bots cost advertisers billions of dollars every year. Several companies have started to work on proof-of-view technology, which detects and disqualifies views by bots from ad spending.
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The recent partnership of Verasity with Nasdaq-listed Brightcove Marketplace has brought Blockchain ad-tech solutions back into discussions again. I talked to Verasity’s founder RJ Mark about what makes PoV technology an essential tool for the advertising industry in this decade.
Verasity aims to eliminate $100bn per annum in ad fraud. Its Proof of View technology has been adopted by 2 million video and ad content publishers. Here’s what RJ Mark had to say.
What Is Proof Of View Technology?
“Proof of View is a technology that acts as a counter-force against malicious and fraudulent actors. Such actors are everywhere in the online video advertising space. Advertisers are often taken aback when we show them the hard fact that more than 65% of all video views are bot-manipulated.”
“PoV mitigates that risk through advanced measures and ensures that only genuine and verified views are credited to a campaign. Advertisers can engage with real people in a fraud-free environment, while content creators remove ad fraud from their platforms and attract more advertisers.”
“Our US-patented PoV technology uses blockchain technology to improve and secure this system significantly. Our detailed ad reports are standing testimony to our claims that advertisers and content creators can easily access.”
How Blockchain AdTech Helps Advertisers And Content Creators?
“Historically, people have over complicated blockchain’s use in AdTech. The heart of the blockchain is an open ledger that is transparent and immutable. Blockchain solves the major foundational issues in AdTech of transparency and reporting discrepancies.”
“An immutable ledger is only as good as the information it stores, and advanced anti-fraud solutions purify transactional data. Through blockchain, Verasity can provide a trustless execution environment for advertising, allowing advertisers to easily agree on payment terms for ads verified by Proof of View.”
Why Will This Space Continue To Grow? What Is The Trust Gap?
“Advertisers, publishers, and users are all turning against opaque advertising practices. 3rd party cookies are being sunset, publishjers are creating walled gardens to increase value, and users continue to block ads astonishingly.”
“The industry won’t grow without more trust, but once open ledger is widely adopted, those transparent pipes will see a growing advertising volume.”
Which Businesses Do You Think Will Be Impacted The Most?
“Any industry involved with digital advertising. In terms of blockchain-based anti-fraud systems, I would say that video advertising will see the greatest reduction in fraud but the largest potential market for blockchain is digital rights management — especially given the increasing focus on NFTs and the metaverse.”
“Specifically, We are looking forward to collaborating with some of the major gaming companies for our NFT fraud-free marketplace solution.”
What Is Happening In The Enterprise Space?
"Digital advertising is all enterprise. Therefore consumer-driven trends will ultimately impact enterprise adoption of new advertising techniques. Platforms like TikTok and other emerging video apps will likely drive some of the ad shares away from more traditional venues like YouTube."
“Through our partnership with Brightcove Marketplace, PoV is integrated into the largest enterprise video distribution platform in the world. While Brightcove takes our services to its base of more than 3,000 video publishers and broadcasters, since our integration, some 30 new publishers have already joined the Brightcove ecosystem exclusively to leverage Verasity’s technology.”
What Changes Do You See Happening To The Ad-Tech Industry?
“Well, we already see many prominent positive trends for the market and our brand to grow hand in hand. For instance, users will be keen to explore the cookieless marketing technology that stops user data manipulation efforts.”
"Incorporating open ledger technology would mean further streamlining the advertising supply chain. In such a scenario, we see ourselves more vigorously empowering stakeholders with a fraud-free ad-space that has increased cash flow and improved bottom lines."
