“We are finally arriving at the intersection where identity can bring you to the upper funnel of performance.” - Tanya Zvonkin

Identity is having its big moment in 2025, and for a good reason. As Canvas’s Tanya Zvonkin put it, identity data is allowing buyers to understand performance and outcomes in a way that’s never been unlocked before. Zvonkin and RPA’s Lisa Herdman sat down with Kerry Flynn, Media Reporter at Axios, to provide the buyer perspective heading into this year’s upfront conversations.

Something new means that across buyers and sellers, there is a learning curve. “I don’t think ever before have we had to listen, educate ourselves, ask so many questions,” explained Herdman, in reference to RPA’s agency-wide endeavor to harness the power of identity data to standardize audiences. “We standardized audiences for every one of our clients, across all of our partners, in linear. This year the goal is to get for streaming, within each client, the same audience, so that we can plan, activate and measure all across the board.”

While there is a learning curve, the work is worth it, for sellers as well as buyers. “It’s hard enough to make [media buying] decisions in this competitive marketplace, but if you’re going to be part of standardizing, it makes it a lot easier,” Herdman said.

Identity data has not only opened up new opportunities for more performant campaigns in linear, but streaming, too. 

Applying an audience-based strategy to streaming buys allows advertisers to leverage the scale of linear with the precision of digital. “If you’re not doing audience-based buying in streaming, you’re missing the opportunity to avoid so much waste,” Zvonkin stated.