Verizon Media Launches Unified ID Solution “Verizon Media ConnectID”

Built for the cookie-less future of digital advertising, powered by nearly 900 million direct consumer relationships, a diverse ID graph, and a full-stack DSP & SSP ad platform 

New York, NY (December 1, 2020) -- Verizon Media today announced the launch of its new unified identity solution, Verizon Media ConnectID. Built on the foundation of Verizon Media’s consumer-first values and market-leading advertising technologies, the new unified ID solution is designed to support advertisers, publishers and consumers as the digital landscape evolves away from cookies as a way to manage and reach audiences online. 

The end of third-party cookies and other tracking mechanisms is leading marketers and publishers to find alternative, privacy-centric identity solutions to maintain addressability for relevant advertising and monetization.

Enter Verizon Media ConnectID.

The new unified ID helps advertisers buy, measure and optimize ads while enabling publishers to manage, monetize and navigate audiences--all without third-party cookies by leveraging Verizon Media’s strength in:

• Direct consumer relationships: A strong and loyal user-base of roughly 900 million globally¹ through Verizon Media’s 30+ owned and operated consumer brands including Yahoo (content, search and mail), HuffPost, AOL and TechCrunch. According to Comscore, Verizon Media brands are #1 in Business & Finance News in the US², while its email services are #2 in terms of reach³.
• Diverse ID graph: Differentiated and diverse data at scale with 200 billion data signals daily⁴. Verizon Media’s Identity Graph is built on deterministic data from direct consumer relationships across a range of omnichannel, cross-screen touchpoints, like mobile app, search, owned and operated sites and apps, email and more. 
• A Full-Stack: As an end-to end, full-stack technology partner with an award-winning DSP and SSP⁵ Verizon Media can uniquely support advertisers and publishers in unlocking the full value of their content and marketing. A full-stack also allows for a single user match pool across demand and supply platforms for better transparency, transactions and audience insights, without any third-party integrations required to get started. 
• Privacy: Rated #1 in trusted data protections by Advertiser Perceptions⁶. Data is hashed, opt-in, and consent-based, enabling direct relevant advertising while maintaining a commitment to consumer choice and privacy. 

“We are uniquely positioned to drive scaled, consumer-first identity solutions to help advertisers and publishers navigate the evolving digital landscape,” said Iván Markman, Chief Business Officer, Verizon Media. “Our trusted, premium global properties used by hundreds of millions of people, our identity graph built around billions of daily, consent-based data signals, and the only independent ad platform with a full-stack DSP and SSP to protect data integrity across demand and supply, all come together to solve this new landscape for our customers.” 

Verizon Media ConnectID helps advertisers and publishers reach consumers wherever they spend their time -- mobile, connected TV, digital audio, digital-out-of-home, and more, while respecting consumer choice and privacy. It helps marketers maximize the potential of their own first-party data for campaign optimization and measurement, and enables publishers to leverage first-party audience data for better monetization as part of the Verizon Media Ad Platform. 

Today, Verizon Media is already helping its customers future-proof their businesses for tomorrow. Adoption of its unified identity solution has delivered a 33% lift in performance⁷ for advertiser campaigns. 

Dev Pragad, CEO of Newsweek, said: “We want to deliver the best experience possible for our audiences as well as maximize revenue for the premium content we produce. To ensure we can maximize our clients’ user experience while maximizing our revenues, we need partners like Verizon Media who can connect our audiences with quality advertisers and experiences, maximize yield and ensure our audiences’ privacy choices are respected. That’s why we’ve signed up for Verizon Media ConnectID.”

Rick Erwin, CEO of Adstra said: “As digital advertising is entering a new era of identity, it’s crucial for us to work with partners who are interoperable with our solutions and can ensure we continue to reach audiences with the most relevant messages in a privacy-centric way. Any advertiser currently using our identity solution is also able to target, measure and plan using Verizon Media’s unified ID solution, Verizon Media gives advertisers and agencies representing them, a clear way to ensure business continuity in an uncertain future.” 

Verizon Media is taking an integrated three-pronged approach to building sustainable identity solutions for the future by: (1) investing in persistent identity within its Ad Platform ecosystem, (2) developing next-generation ID-less audience solutions (3) and partnering across the industry with leading data providers like Acxiom, Adstra, Equifax IXI, Experian, Neustar, TransUnion, and Throtle, while also working with IAB Tech Lab programs to develop industry-wide pro-privacy solutions for addressability with accountability. Verizon Media ConnectID delivers on the first part of this strategy.

Jordan Mitchell, SVP, Head of Consumer Privacy, Identity, and Data, IAB Tech Lab, said: “IAB Tech Lab is proud to have Verizon Media involved in the development of new privacy-preserving addressability standards and industry accountability programs through Project Rearc, and we look forward to their support of these standards and programs once they are released.”

Verizon Media ConnectID is available in North America, APAC and select LATAM markets at launch and rolling out to more markets in the future. To learn more contact your respective account manager and visit verizonmedia.com.

*Innovid, STUDY: As Brands Continue to Navigate Change, 43% of Consumers Say Digital Ads Should be Personalized, 2020

¹Source: Comscore Custom Reporting, Multi-Platform, Verizon Media (and Microsoft Partnership) Avg. May 2018 to May 2020, Global

²Source: Comscore Media Metrix ® Multi-Platform, Yahoo-HuffPost Finance Network, Total Audience, September 2020, U.S. 

³Source: Comscore Media Metrix ® Multi-Platform, Services - e-mail category, Total Audience, September 2020, U.S.

 ⁴Source: Verizon Media, internal data 2020

 ⁵Source: Voted #1 DSP and SSP by Adweek Best of Tech Awards 2020 

⁶Source: Advertiser Perceptions, Programmatic Intelligence Report Q1 2020, Ranked #1 in Data Protections compared to leading DSPs

⁷Source: Verizon Media, internal data 2020
 

About Verizon Media

Verizon Media, a division of Verizon Communications, Inc., houses a trusted media ecosystem of premium brands like Yahoo, AOL, TechCrunch and Engadget to help people stay informed and entertained, communicate and transact, while creating new ways for advertisers and media partners to connect. From XR experiences to advertising and content technology, Verizon Media is an incubator of innovation and is revolutionizing the next generation of content creation in a 5G world.