With Apple’s current cookie restrictions and the long-awaited elimination of third-party cookies in Google’s Chrome browser, marketers, publishers and technology partners have been working to develop cookieless, data-rich solutions that will meet advertiser and publisher needs. Audigent has announced with its partners UPROXX – the youth culture & music destination, part of Warner Music’s WMX – MediaMath, Freestar, and The MediaGrid that it has successfully deployed a scalable end-to-end cookieless header bidding solution across its advertising using its Hadron ID and Prebid’s header bidder.

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“The successful deployment of the first identity and contextual-based cookieless header bidder with our dynamic Hadron ID solution is our equivalent of the moon landing and it’s a big moment for our industry.” said Drew Stein, Founder and CEO of Audigent. “UPROXX, MediaMath, Freestar and The MediaGrid have all been incredible, forward-thinking partners who share our drive for a privacy-first advertising ecosystem and PreBid’s leadership around the virtuous use of real time data has paved the path for a new generation of consumer-safe technology solutions that deliver results for brands and media agencies. We built Audigent for the cookieless future, and this novel use of Hadron ID shows everyone can win – publishers, advertisers and consumers. With this first major milestone achieved, we are looking forward to getting to expanding our partnerships and scaling cookieless header bidding.”

This milestone paves the way for solutions in which buyers can transact on publisher-defined audience characteristics in real time without depending on the third-party cookies. One of many publishers seeking solutions for a cookieless future, this latest achievement for UPROXX and others is the result of a focused effort and partnership with Audigent to provide a seamless identity solution to drive performance for brands, incrementality for publishers and positive experiences for consumers.

The core technology that makes cookieless header bidding possible is Audigent’s innovative Hadron ID solution, the first solution combining both audience-driven and contextual identity built for the entire supply chain, from publisher to SSP to DSP to marketer. Deployed as a real-time, on-page solution via Prebid, Audigent’s dynamic solution can be applied and scaled across many publisher and buyer platforms, and includes the ability to use multiple cookieless identifiers, providing an interoperable identity system that allows clients to extend addressability beyond any single source solution. Known as a virtuous, privacy-first identification technology, Hadron ID when combined with Prebid’s header bidder is designed to be turnkey for all parties – creating cross-channel addressability that provides the ecosystem continuity around targeting and scale without compromising data privacy.

For Publishers
The data shows that publishers are 2.3x more likely to monetize the impression versus traditional cookie solutions. And when cookies are gone that number will grow significantly.

For Marketers
Audigent’s identity-based cookieless header bidding solution delivered an addressable impression rate of eight-one percent (81%). That is compared to the control rate, based on logged in users only, which is approximately fifteen percent (15%).

To ensure future scaled interoperability across all partners, Audigent used IAB Tech Lab standards to establish a common taxonomy framework. That framework is one of the foundations of the cookieless header bidding deployment and allows for real-time transactions against seller-defined audiences without the use of cookies.
“Across our digital properties we are focused on delivering the best experience for our readers and our brand partners,” said Paul Josephsen, Chief Strategy Officer of WMX. “As we move further into a cookieless world, this breakthrough initiative using Audigent’s Hadron ID ensures that UPROXX will continue to have a great user and advertiser experience while futureproofing our relationships with our brand and media agency partners. So many technology and third-party players have been talking about cookieless solutions for more than a year now, so we’re especially excited that Audigent and partners were able to deliver at scale.”

"Our industry is grappling with the demise of third-party cookies, and MediaMath is thrilled to support the development of new, cookieless solutions," Laurent Cordier, Chief Partnerships Officer at MediaMath, told AdExchanger. "Our work with Audigent and the IAB Tech Lab has enabled us to develop the requirements for transacting on seller-defined audiences. This advancement greatly expands addressability through the deployment of cookieless header bidding and represents a significant milestone in creating targeted ad experiences, while remaining privacy-first."