In March, Horizon Media hosted a blockchain summit and brought together platforms to discuss how they are working with the technology. The conference was meant to educate the agency about blockchain as much as enthuse its publisher clients. Horizon Media had been dubious about whether blockchain — a ledger that encrypts information for secured sharing and allows an advertiser to track how media makes its way to the media owner — could deliver on its potential use case of eradicating ad fraud in the media supply chain.
“Everyone was asking about it, but not really sure what it was about,” said Eric Warburton, vp of ad operations at Horizon Media. “What was made clear after this was that blockchain is way too new and it’s going to take testing.” Horizon Media is actively seeking clients that want to test the technology on future campaigns to determine whether blockchain can stamp out ad fraud.
Horizon Media isn’t the only agency jumping on the blockchain bandwagon. Havas, GroupM, Droga5, The Marketing Group, 360i and Huge say they are working on implementing strategies with their clients, but overall, they aren’t disclosing details.
Yet marketers question whether the technology can be used eliminate ad fraud and say it’s simply another shiny object that agencies are capitalizing on.
“Realistically, it’s more conceptual than it is practical,” said David Eisenman, CEO of Madwell, a Brooklyn-based creative agency. “We’re really not seeing advertising companies using it or media being deployed on blockchain in a serious way. I think people are taking advantage of the amount it’s in the spotlight right now.”
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