In 2017, OpenAP was founded with a simple mission–to make it easier for advertisers to activate audience-based campaigns by bringing simplicity and scale to data-driven video. The application of that mission at the time was creating standards that made audience-based advertising as easy, and with greater benefits, as age and gender demographics. Fast forward to the present day and that the mission remains the same, but is now evolving to keep pace with the transformation of TV advertising. 

President of Paramount Advertising John Halley, who played a role in OpenAP’s founding and has been close to its mission ever since, sat down with OpenAP Chief Marketing Officer Brittany Slattery to discuss why now, more than ever, our industry needs to lean into collaboration to drive forward this shared vision for the future of data-driven video.

“The defining industrial characteristic of the premium video marketplace is that it is a fragmented market.”

Why now? With the rise of CTV channels and social media, premium video advertising is at an inflection point. While long-form video continues to deliver premium content with undisputed scale and audience tune-in, it also faces a level of fragmentation that walled gardens and closed-loop environments do not. The only way to overcome fragmentation and continue to deliver a seamless experience for buyers is through collaboration. Since OpenAP’s founding, TV publishers and premium video providers have embraced radical collaboration to drive change. The future of premium video’s place as the most important outcome driver in the advertising mix relies on it.

“If we do not standardize around key processes, we will forever be undershared. It is too challenging and not efficient enough to work with single providers under committed, unique workflows.”

While standardization is the key to driving scale and ease across multiple publishers, a single identity spine adopted and used industry wide won’t be the solution, nor should it be, according to Halley. “The buyer is the one mediating identity across formats and environments. Omnichannel activation requires buyside navigation,” explained Halley. Rather than a single identity spine, our industry has embraced a solution to identity that allows for multiple identifiers or identity spines, all unified through a privacy-first environment without the need for crosswalks. As we zoom towards that reality, we must continue to keep the needs of the buyer as the north star.

“The buyer is always at the epicenter.”