In a significant speech yesterday, to a live audience of industry peers (as well as a virtual audience), Jeff Green, founder and CEO of The Trade Desk delivered an impassioned defense of the open internet and a critique of walled gardens. The occasion was the launch of Solimar, The Trade Desk’s new DSP, built on the foundation of its universal identifier, Unified ID 2.0, under construction for the last 18 months. The moment we are in now — the digital acceleration caused by the pandemic, the flourishing of new channels, the slow death of cookies — will define the future of the internet, Green said. “It’s up to those of us who are committed to the open internet to really take advantage of this moment.” The new trading platform. Solimar focuses on data security; the need for marketers to show ROI; the need to serve a wide range of channels, including CTV; and the challenge of resolving user identities. Among the main features announced today are: - Secure onboard ramps for advertisers’ first-party data (including triple-encrypting in some jurisdictions);
- An extensive measurement marketplace that delivers real-time metrics to support campaign optimization (Green drew the contrast with the walled gardens’ secrecy around measurement);
- An advanced business goal-setting capability that enables real-time adjustment of goals based on recommendations from KOA, The Trade Desk’s AI engine; and
- An improved and simplified user experience (an interface, Green said, that seeks to sustain a “dialogue” with the user).
Why we care. Everyone in the industry, and everyone writing about marketing and martech, is talking about what’s coming when Google goes walled-garden with FLoC and tries to carve up global advertising between itself and Facebook. This was an occasion for a thought-leader in the industry to stand up — literally in front of a live audience, too — and talk about what the loss of an open internet would entail. Green rose to the occasion (although questions do remain to be answered about whether solutions like Unified ID 2.0 can really allow advertisers to reach relevant audiences at scale). |