Jason Manningham’s Post

Last week, Blockgraph signed our 50th customer. The ecosystem we set out to build is growing stronger every day, thanks to the dedication and collaboration of our talented employees and incredible partners. Anyone who’s ever spent time working for a startup knows intimately well the importance of achieving "#networkeffects.”  But less talked about is the importance of #ecosystems. Building a true ecosystem isn’t about amassing users or hitting arbitrary growth milestones; it’s about creating a network where every participant, no matter their size, derives and creates tangible value from working with others in the network. In Blockgraph’s case, it has been about fostering a space where first party data isn't just collected, but is also safely connected with others’ data to drive tangible business outcomes. The journey to 50 has not been a sprint—it has been a multi-year marathon of ensuring privacy, fostering trust, and continually innovating. Our ecosystem thrives because it’s built on the principles of transparency and mutual benefit. It’s a place where advertisers, media partners, and data owners can collaborate seamlessly, unlocking the full potential of their data while safeguarding privacy. In today’s fragmented media landscape, where data is both a strategic asset and a scarce resource, having a robust, interconnected ecosystem is not just beneficial—it’s essential. The intersection of Blockgraph’s Household Identity, Data Collaboration Platform and our Purpose-Built Ecosystem has been designed to adapt and evolve, meeting the ever-changing needs of our partners and the broader connected TV advertising ecosystem. As we look ahead, we remain committed to expanding and enhancing our ecosystem. Next week, I’m excited to connect with many of our ecosystem partners at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our shared successes and explore new ways to drive value together. Here’s to the next milestone, and to the collective power of collaboration in building a thriving privacy-committed ecosystem of #firstpartydata for the dynamic #connectedTVadvertising industry.

No collaboration, no future. With increasingly scarce 3rd party signals, brands and media companies must not only prioritize #1stPartyData capture, they also must invest in ways to maximize its utility while simultaneously safeguarding its privacy. So, how does an advertiser thread the needle here? Enter the #DataCollaborationPlatform (DCP). DCPs are rightfully being heralded as a key solution to this problem. But like anything in adtech, there’s a good deal of noise and confusion around what this means to different parties. And no matter what companies might say, there’s no single "easy-button" that solves everything for everyone. When it comes to data collaboration within the advertising ecosystem, there’s a wide spectrum of approaches ranging from providing building block privacy-enhancing-technologies (clean room infrastructure) to purpose-built applications (clean room products) that provide data protections for a specific use case. Not surprisingly, many of the world’s leading cloud providers have invested in providing customers the necessary base level infrastructure (compute, storage, PETs) while leaving much of the “product development” to media companies and traditional data services vendors / onboarders. An overlooked opportunity for CTV has been the sweet spot in the middle: the platform. That is where Blockgraph came in. Since we formed in 2020, we recognized the need for a comprehensive set of foundational identity and technology that served as the connective tissue between infrastructure and ad products, while also offering the robust ecosystem and integrations where tools and services could come together seamlessly. All of this to make connected TV advertising more precise, more measurable, and ultimately more performant. So what does that mean? It means building off a high fidelity, consistently available household identity foundation. It means implementing privacy protections at the identifier level and throughout the entire collaboration lifecycle. It means automation, speed, and efficiency of all operations.  It means facilitating permissioned, direct, connections between collaborators for a wide array of use cases. It means recognizing that, when it comes to applying data across the dynamic CTV advertising ecosystem, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. But most of all, it means giving the amazing innovators in our industry the service, technology and forums to give them the confidence they need to take the industry to its next level – one driven by data, one with a steadfast commitment to privacy and security, and one where all boats rise when companies work together. More on that next week.

When it comes to the future of CTV identity, it's all about the connected home. Last week, I touched on the three essential building blocks of what makes Blockgraph essential in the converged TV ecosystem. Today, let's dive into one of our more unique features: the #BlockgraphID and why it's all about the household. While the small screen often grabs the headlines these days, it's still the big screen where the streaming action happens. Various industry estimates conclude that roughly 85% of combined streaming and linear viewing occurs on connected TVs (CTVs) – a stat that  underscores why a household-centric approach is essential to any video advertising efforts.   Blockgraph ID is designed with a privacy-centric focus, derived from authenticated CRM and identity data. But what truly sets it apart is its concentration on the household. The more well known ‘alt IDs’' (i.e., UID2) should be commended for bringing innovation to the open web and parts of the CTV streaming ecosystem by creating a privacy-centric approach that puts email-based authentication at the center. This works well for environments where a single person is consuming the media or making a purchase. However, these person-based approaches are more limited in the realm of cross-platform and co-viewed environments where household-level identity is required to unify TV data across viewing methods (FAST, Linear, Streaming) and harmonize it with advertisers' offline CRM and purchase data.   This unification is only made possible through an ecosystem rich with verified and authenticated first-party operators and a network of leading identity graph providers capable of unifying online signals (IPs, device IDs, emails) to offline signals (shipping or billing addresses). Imagine leveraging your offline purchase data to optimize your online ad spend more effectively – that's the power of a household-centric ID approach. The #BlockgraphID is more than just another identifier, its the rosetta stone necessary to bring together the disjointed TV ecosystems' data. It's a sophisticated, privacy-centric tool tailored to the realities of today's viewing habits and advertising needs. By focusing on households, it bridges crucial gaps, offering a comprehensive solution that individual IDs simply cannot.

Sometimes, it takes a while to fully grasp what something truly is. Blockgraph is a bit like that. From the start, we understood why Blockgraph was created. It was designed to unify fragmented data within an increasingly complex #convergedTV marketplace (a critical need should TV advertising continue to thrive), all while ensuring necessary privacy and security protections (a must-have for any company involved in today's advertising industry). However, articulating exactly what Blockgraph is has often been a challenge. • Customers frequently ask, "Are you another clean room?" Well, sort of. • "Are you an ID?" That's part of it, but it doesn’t capture why we’re unique. • "Are you a TV data consortium?" Yes, but not quite in the way you might think. In reality, Blockgraph is all of these things and more. Yet, I recognize that no business, especially a four-year-old startup, can be everything to everyone. Much like in life, there are moments that bring clarity. Blockgraph’s fourth anniversary and several key partnerships provided our team with just such a moment. Blockgraph is exactly three things: 1) A Privacy-Centric Household Identifier: Derived from authenticated data, this identifier forms the foundation for unifying the connected TV industry’s data. 2) A Data Collaboration Platform: Our software offers data owners flexible, secure, and efficient technology to manage first-party data, facilitate peer-to-peer data matching, and enable more fluid planning, targeting, and ad measurement. 3) A Purpose-Built Ecosystem: Comprising internet operators, publishers, distributors, marketers, adtech platforms, data and measurement partners, all of whom have a vested interest in facilitating converged TV ad campaigns. That leaves, the “how” we do all of this better than alternatives. We’d be happy to answer that. Just let us know when you’re free :)

Aleck Schleider and I will be returning to #CannesLions next month like so many of our great partners in the industry. Excited to share our progress and have many strategic conversations (over #Rosé, of course) on how Blockgraph is postitioned to help them solve for the pending CTV signal loss in order to improve #OutcomesBasedMeasurement and #1stPartyAudienceOnboarding.

The hits keep coming in May at Blockgraph as we build on our #anniversary month. Today, we're excited to announce our latest partnership with tvbeat, marking another leap forward. Blockgraph and our privacy-centric approach to household identity are continuing to proliferate through the programmatic ecosystem. It's a pleasure to announce our latest partnership with tvbeat, who has been driving innovation and advancing an audience-first approach to TV advertising. https://lnkd.in/eAy9-CtS Thanks to Jon Lafayette for the coverage on NextTV.

It’s upfronts week, with many of the big TV networks, from NBCUniversal, to Fox to Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery hosting their annual presentations. Streaming giants Netflix and Amazon are also joining the festivities.   Measurement is emerging as an important part of this upfronts season, as advertisers are searching for more than just scale — they want to tie measurement and attribution data back to business results — meaning there is a bigger focus on the full loop from reach to conversion. Add in all the jockeying to be the dominant measurement currency and there’s a lot to talk about - with perhaps nothing more foundational than #identityresolution (especially for the connected household). It was a pleasure to join Chris Brooklier from The Trade Desk to talk about all of these things--and how Blockgraph is playing the important role of "data draino" unclogging the pipes of addressable television (credit Jonathan Heller). #householdidentity #measurement #attribution #signalloss #connectedTV #privacy

Believe it or not, Blockgraph turns four tomorrow!   Reflecting on this significant milestone and the profound progress made, I’m humbled at what we’ve been able to achieve as a small group standing on the shoulders of our partners. Our dedicated team, committed investors, and forward-thinking clients have pushed the company forward in ways even I didn’t foresee when the company was being formed in the the early days (https://lnkd.in/eNngZ58i). From forming innovative multiscreen measurement partnerships with industry leaders, to establishing Blockgraph as a Progammatic powerhouse (https://lnkd.in/ef7exqXq), to being recognized as one of the most promising privacy advancements (https://lnkd.in/evddq_VJ) – we’ve continued to advance the connected TV ad industry forward toward a more data-driven, privacy-centric approach to identity and data collaboration. As I look at the platform today, with billions of outcomes being attributed, a multitude of addressable campaigns being facilitated, and a census level household identity framework in place to support advertisers in achieving their goals while ensuring privacy and data security remain front and center - I’m in awe of what can be accomplished when you have committed long term partners, talented and motivated employees, and a culture of collaboration and grit. Even more, it’s a privilege that the largest internet and TV operators in the US are trusting our platform to provide privacy centric authentication services for the betterment of the connected TV ecosystem (https://lnkd.in/eNi-gQgS). And yet, I know we have a long ways to go as we look to continue our vision of making advertising better for brands of all sizes, while ensuring the highest levels of dedication to security and privacy-centric data protections. As we continue to evolve over the next few years, rest assured that we will continue pushing the industry forward and innovating with the best and the brightest in media and technology. Onward to year four. Let’s make it the best yet. (PS: that cute icon is our beloved Blocky. Like our team, he has been working hard to keep your data safe). #connectedTV #privacycentric #identityresolution #justgettingstarted