The thing is, when I buy linear TV, I know exactly where the ad ran, I just don’t know who saw it. And when I buy CTV, it’s just the opposite — I know exactly who saw the ad, I just don’t know where it ran.

I heard that quote—or something like it—numerous times as I was researching our latest TVREV Special Report on the IRIS_ID.

It’s a real problem on CTV right now as audiences are moving to steaming en masse and as brands consider using CTV for something more than universal reach.

So how did we get here then?

It’s simple: publishers, the people who own the CTV content, all have their own metadata around their shows. Unfortunately, they all have their own nomenclature too, meaning the title of an episode can be Episode Title, Episode Name, Name of Show, etc. Without a way to normalize all those different ways of saying “this is what the show is called” it is all but impossible to track ad placement across publishers and for advertisers to know where their ads ran and, just as crucially, whether the surrounding programming was brand safe and/or contextually relevant.

To be clear, publishers aren’t doing this to be cruel. They’re doing it because until now, they have not had a safe and secure way to share their metadata without the risk of Amazon and Google getting hold of it and using it.

Enter the IRIS_ID

The IRIS_ID is what is known as an “Extended Content ID ” meaning it’s a piece of code that travels alongside the content, albeit a piece of code that can only be unlocked by someone to whom the publisher has given a key.

The IRIS_ID is also neutral, meaning that IRIS.TV is not engaged in buying or selling advertising—they take no position on the media—so that everyone in the ecosystem is able feel good about using the IRIS_ID.

That said, the IRIS_ID can be used by third parties to provide contextual data for the shows and to then create datasets of programming that is brandsafe and contextually relevant to specific target audiences, e.g., contextual targeting.

This is key because the general consensus is that contextual targeting will play a huge role in CTV advertising over the coming years, due to both increased regulations around the use of data and the acknowledgement that TV viewing is a household-based activity not an individual or “person-based” one.

The report, which you can download here, explains all of this in much more detail and in our “Jargon-Free” TVREV style, with insights from industry insiders about the many additional uses for metadata on CTV (frequency capping, content recommendations, personalization) and why the IRIS_ID is set to be a real game-changer for CTV advertising.

Download the free report