IAB Tech Lab is launching a new classification called ‘seller-defined audiences’ or SDA which will put power in publishers’ hands in order to determine how audiences and first-party data will be distributed. This has expanded publishers’ role from purely publishing to supply, identify partners, and data providers. Cookies and log-ins give specific insights into what users watch or read and allow them to be categorized by a variety of factors. Interest groups can be flagged from sports to music as well as a wealth of demographic information. Moreover, customized labels can be submitted to IAB for approval, but the goal will be to make them large enough so individuals aren’t identified. Once people can be categorized they can be bought and sold in programmatic markets for more effective ad targeting. This could shake up the ability to scale rapidly because attributes are more easily categorized.
