LiveRamp Launches Brand Campaign on Netflix as Publicis Deal Fuels Scrutiny of its Neutrality

LiveRamp, which has for years helped manufacturers, publishers, and platforms join and activate buyer information, is launching its first model marketing campaign on related TV. The message, considered one of belief and suppleness, arrives amid a pending Publicis takeover that has the advert trade questioning whether or not the platform can stay impartial. 

The adtech firm will air 15- and 30-second advertisements for its providers on Netflix for the following 5 months, focusing on executives with a promise to assist entrepreneurs join information sources seamlessly and “ship experiences prospects need, maximize advertising returns, and drive extra income.” 

The core message: Entrepreneurs can depend on LiveRamp within the period of AI. “AI is simply as priceless as the info that it sits upon, and solely LiveRamp has the inspiration in information ethics, id, cleanroom applied sciences, together with our broad community, which collectively allow entrepreneurs to scale AI-powered workflows and enterprise efficiency in a method that’s sturdy and defensible and safe,” the corporate’s chief marketer Jessica Shapiro mentioned. 

Belief is more likely to be a priceless differentiator in gentle of accelerating automation within the trade. When entrepreneurs begin handing the keys over to autonomous methods to deal with marketing campaign planning, viewers creation, measurement, and optimization, high quality and governance of the underlying datasets will solely grow to be extra vital. 

The promise, proper now, can also be an opportunistic one for LiveRamp. The corporate’s claims of neutrality are beneath heightened scrutiny after French promoting large Publicis in Might introduced plans to acquire the platform for $2.2 billion. Since then, some advert trade leaders haven’t simply expressed concern about giving a competitor entry to their id and information infrastructure, however have said outright that they will drop the platform. Amongst them are Omnicom CEO John Wren. In the meantime, former Dentsu exec Doug Ray instructed ADWEEK not too long ago that, as with IPG’s 2018 takeover of Acxiom, there can be a “gradual erosion” of purchasers off LiveRamp.

The brand new marketing campaign may assist do harm management on the notion of LiveRamp’s neutrality and trustworthiness out there. However the marketing campaign shouldn’t be a direct reply to considerations about Publicis’ takeover of the platform; it was within the works earlier than information of the acquisition broke and is designed at the start, Shapiro mentioned, as a “response to the acceleration of AI.” She added: “It’s, normally, the message individuals want to listen to, and it reinforces what we stand for by way of neutrality,” Shapiro mentioned. “Being reliable and ensuring that the info is safe is one thing that’s within the roots of our firm.”

Requested whether or not LiveRamp expects to see Publicis opponents like WPP, Omnicom, and Dentsu utilizing its platform in a number of years’ time, Shapiro mentioned: “We preserve that we are going to be impartial, and now we have at all times been impartial and labored with firms and businesses throughout the board. And we’re not anticipating a change on that entrance.”