Is there anything that blockchain can’t do? It seems that
lately every company is trying to utilize blockchain for one application or
another. The latest is that some major brands like Bayer and AT&T are
looking to use blockchain to bring transparency to the digital media supply
chain.
In 2016 ANA released a blockbuster media transparency report
that warned advertisers that the digital ecosystem was fraught with waste and
fraud. This report got companies like Bayer and AT&T scrutinizing all
aspects of the digital supply chain. Now, both companies are working with Amino
Payments, a blockchain tech platform. Mark Wright, VP of media services and
sponsorships at AT&T says that he hopes the technology will enable him to
identify “who specifically are those tech providers [in the supply chain] and
how much of a fee are they assessing to my working media dollars? It’s pretty
murky and thus you need technology to help you get under the hood right now.”
Blockchain can only reveal who’s in the supply chain if all
the stakeholders are connected. This is a big challenge for blockchain vendors
(since media networks and publishers must be added one at a time), but AppNexus
comes to the rescue by integrating its entire supply network. AppNexus is
currently works with Amino and sees it as a better way to manage reconciliation
in digital media.
From my perspective as a digital marketer, more transparency
in digital media can only be a good thing. It seems that we are still early on
the journey to bringing blockchain in to help solve this problem, but the
technology can benefit many of the players in the ecosystem. I would be willing
to bet that this trend is here to stay and that the transparency challenge is
at the (very) beginning of the end.
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