Triton Inks Deal To Help Make Audio First-Party Data More Addressable And Appealing To Ad Buyers

First-party data that is in the hands of publishers continues to play a larger role for publishers, while at the same time privacy restrictions continue to become stricter. That has led to the rise of technology that addresses both. Triton Digital has formed a partnership to allow audio publishers to not only leverage their first-party identity data but to do in a way that safeguards user privacy. Triton will work with Optable to bring its identity management and data collaboration platform into the audio space. Through its partnership, it says publishers will be able to leverage the user insights — but they will be hosted on Optable, an impartial third party.

“User identity activation technology is revolutionizing the audio landscape, creating new ways for brands to reach audiences and publishers to enhance the listener experience,” Triton CEO John Rosso says. “This integration further highlights our commitment to expanding and enhancing our ecosystem of solutions as publisher and advertiser needs evolve.”

Triton Digital and Optable first collaborated to enable user identity for iHeartMedia. In December, iHeart announced it has adopted Unified ID 2.0 — or UID2.0 — an open-source identity framework that leverages encrypted email and phone number data to create a privacy-conscious identity standard without the need for third-party cookies. As a result, iHeart has enhanced the addressability of its audio inventory. By utilizing Triton Digital’s programmatic sales platform and Optable, iHeart has also been able to activate the user identity capability, which helped drive programmatic ad revenue growth. Triton says iHeart was able to fill ads at a rate that’s 2.4 times higher and saw a 26% increase in average daily spending from advertisers.

“The initial results are a positive sign of how this technology can change the landscape and see this as a first step toward additional improvements down the road,” Rosso says.

With Triton’s new partnership with Optable, other premium audio publishers will be able to safeguard, administer, control, and govern their first-party identity data. Triton says that will help them sell more of their advertising inventory via its programmatic sales platform.

“Integrating Optable’s ID Switchboard with Triton’s Audio SSP gives iHeartMedia and other audio publishers an easy way to use their first-party data to activate identity solutions like UID 2.0 securely and seamlessly, all in one place,” says Bosko Milekic, Chief Product Officer of Optable. “This collaboration is a practical step forward for audio publishers, helping them securely scale their inventory’s addressability across different demand partners.”

Unified ID 2.0 — or UID2.0 — leverages encrypted email and phone number data to provide a privacy-conscious identity standard without the need for third-party cookies. The alphanumeric identifier is created by a UID2 operator and used for targeting. But because the token is a different value each time it enters the bid stream, it prevents the unauthorized building of profiles based on UID2 information. SiriusXM Media’s Pandora Media last June became the first audio publisher to adopt UID2. It has also been adopted by advertisers including Procter & Gamble, NBCUniversal, Paramount, LG, and HP.