The ad industry now knows consumer privacy is the key imperative.

But achieving that whilst nevertheless offering advertisers advanced targeting capabilities is a work in progress.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Comcast Advertising Chief Growth Officer Pooja Midha says realizing privacy plus capability depends on data quality.

Privacy-first

“When it comes to the safeguarding of data, there’s nobody that wants to take a ‘trust me’ approach,” she says.

Comcast Advertising is the advertising arm of Comcast Cable. Its two primary brands are Effectv, Comcast Cable’s ad sales division and FreeWheel, Comcast’s technology platform connecting buyers and sellers.

Midha joined in March after a stint at true[X].

She welcomes the arrival of tools from the likes of Blockgraph, the TV industry initiative which recently unveiled DoubleBlock, a “clean room” software product for CTV advertising.

Block by block

“Blockgraph is one of the solutions that could help to enable safe, compliant data sharing,” Midha says.

“DoubleBlock is ultimately there to reduce friction by allowing brands to directly match their campaigns and also measure those campaigns against connected households.

“One thing the ad-tech supply chain isn’t really looking for is, is more companies doing more things, unless it’s going to make the experience better or safer.

“So what I think is great about DoubleBlock and what Blockgraph is doing in their approach is, they’re focusing on how they can make the experience better for advertisers and safeguard data.”

Flexible, Simplified Approach to Identity Will Solve TV Advertising Fragmentation: Blockgraph’s Manningham

Cleaning house

“Clean rooms” are software for helping advertisers analyse and interpret data via third-party sources and services in a privacy-compatible way.

DoubleBlock is a clean room on demand that allows multiple data owners to combine that data in a granular fashion while removing all personally identifiable and confidential information.

“But it’s not the total answer,” Midha acknowledges. “It’s not just about being able to share in the appropriate way.”

“All of the tactics that make us excited about data-driven CTV – the opportunities for segmentation, the opportunity for targeting, the promise of what machine learning can do here – all of that is only going to be as good as the quality of the data that is actually informing those tactics.”

You are watching “Arriving at Your Audience: Why Direct-to-Household Connectivity Is Critical for TV Advertisers,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Blockgraph. For more videos, please visit this page.