2. IBM Mediaocean Blockchain
pilot for advertising
• Media software company Mediaocean collaborated with IBM iX on a blockchain
consortium for the digital media supply chain powered by IBM’s blockchain
platform – Hyperledger.
• The consortium included leading advertisers, agencies and publishers, including the
likes of Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Unilever and IBM Watson Advertising.
• The goal was to simplify the media supply chain, provide transparency and build
trust and accountability across the media ecosystem.
3. Issues
Programmatic advertising might have made targeting and buying ads at a large
scale possible, but it increased complexity and decreased transparency in the
media supply chain.
• Ad Fraud - According to World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), click fraud in
programmatic ad buying will cost advertisers and their industry partners more
than $50 billion by 2025.
• Multiple Middlemen – Nearly 65% of the ad spend is lost to multiple middlemen.
• Reconciliation
• Security
• Privacy
• Transparency
• Centralisation
4. How Blockchain can help?
• Smart Contracts - With no centralized party to oversee ad buying, advertisers and publishers can
interact directly and automatically with agreements and smart contracts enforced through the
blockchain. smart contracts ensures that what was promised is delivered and gets rid of all the
middlemen who take a cut from each transaction.
• Transparency - Using a distributed system, advertisers will have the chance to audit each time an
ad is fetched from its source and is countable.
• Security - Blockchain enables the supply-chain network to exist in a secure way, creating the right
visibility and security for counterparty transactions.
• Reconciliation - Smart contracts validate all terms and conditions of a contract and clearly define
what will be an accepted impression. Buyers know what they owe, sellers what they’ll be paid,
and an accurate invoice within acceptable terms is released.
5. • Payment Transparency - Blockchain-based ad buys combine technologies from blockchain and
advertising to create payments transparency, verify and enforce all terms of payments and
provide a clear trail of cash flow.
• Privacy leading to trust - Blockchain creates an environment where more and better data can be
collected from customers, while offering proactive control and making it more difficult for
unauthorized users to exploit it. This connects advertisers to consumers, leading to enhanced
trust between the two since privacy is given with permission.
