Mobile recognition firm AdTruth aims to amalgamate its targeting capabilities with Experian data to its own user IDs, as leading figures in the advertising industry call for clarity over ad tech, and warned over the perils of increasingly dominant players. 

AdTruth aims to introduce Experian MOSAIC data to its product to help improve audience profiling in both offline and online display ad campaigns, through the amalgamation of the detailed audience segmentations to its existing audience technology.

Experian, which took ownership of the firm of AdTruth this year, already uses one of the advertising industry's most  robust datasets (MOSAIC) to help advertisers target audience segments by geographical area, and is already commonly referred to as: 'the common currency for audience profiling'.

A document profiling the launch reads: "While we’ve come to accept the cookie’s limitations on PCs, the lack of coverage and longevity on mobile leaves companies partially-sighted.

"Furthermore, fragmentation across devices, platforms, media channels and companies leaves consumers represented as multiple, misunderstood identities.

"AdTruth IDs will offer not only the universal linchpin for the digital marketplace to connect, but also a common language and depth of audience insight to do so seamlessly and effectively."

James Collier, AdTruth, UK, managing director, told ExchangeWire: "So far targeting has only marginally changed from guessing that because someone is on a travel site, then they are probably looking for a holiday.

"But by bring Experian's Mosaic data – with its database of millions of people in the UK – from offline to mobile [IDs], then we are looking at extremely advanced information."

This audience information is then passed on to the inventory supply sources that can help advertisers buy at scale.

The company used the IAB Engage conference taking police today (15 October) to highlight the launch, where it is also showcasing the platform's combined targeting capabilities with fellow ad tech firms Lithient, and Nexage.

The company aims to show how the newly launched AdTruth IDs can be used to solve currently common issues around attributing value to media spend (currently a problem for advertisers looking to drive install of their mobile apps), cookies' comparative inability to work on mobile devices, as well as duplication of audiences on mobile campaign tracking.

Mobile primacy 

Speaking speaking from the centre stage of tenth annual IAB Engage summit, Steve Hatch, Facebook, regional director, UK & Ireland, described mobile as "the first screen", in a keynote session used to unveil its new consumer research tool Facebook IQ, adding that there had been a 532% increase in mobile video consumption in past two years.

This comes a week after the launch of Facebook's Atlas ad server, a launch that it used to trumpet its 'mobile-first' offering including cross-device tracking without the use of cookies, and one that many in ad tech circles underlines the growing competition between the social network and search and display ad giant Google.

Also unveiled at the event was the upcoming introduction of retargeting capabilities on Nexage Marketplace (which was recently bought by mobile marketing specialist MIllennial Media) on mobile web inventory, with the company reporting that retargeting giant Crieo has already begun partnering with them.

"Using the syncing capability will allow both Android and iOS to open up the floodgate to retargeting spend to reach consumers that are increasingly showrooming, shopping, and buying on mobile," reads a release announcing the launch.     

The twin-pronged developments of consumers' pivot to mobile web consumption, and advertisers' increasing preference to buy ads using programmatic technology was further indicated by Pubmatic research released to coincide with the event indicating that last year desktop ad buyers bid 30% of the time and but won only 5% of the impressions. But the same research also shows that mobile buyers bid 1.3% of the time, and won 23% of the time. 

Meanwhile, also speaking from the IAB Engage stage Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP, CEO, said the "tech side" of the advertising business was "frightening", and further went on to attendees – primarily ad tech providers as well as advertisers, and media owners – over the growing incursion of single stack advertising service providers such as Google, further warning that China's Alibaba was a similar threat.