Trust and Transparency in Ad-Tech: The Trade Desk
Note: Conduct 100% independent research to collect essential findings and insights related to "TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY” for The Trade Desk Inc: https://www(dot)thetradedesk(dot)com/us/about-us/our-story.
Seek information extensively from various corresponding sources and academic articles, and include expertise of people in the problem area. Priority is to find evidence that helps you explain how the any potential issues concerning trust and transparency, is worth solving by the client organisation.
PURPOSE
Your document shows your professional market research and problem-scoping capabilities. Once completed, you should be proud to share it with senior executives, including me as your professor of practice. As you conduct your research, think of the underlying opportunities for data collection and how to harness these for business purposes. The assignment also familiarizes everyone with the initial steps of design thinking and lean pedagogy as a shared process for learning in the course.
(A later assignment during the course will look at how problems within "TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY” for The Trade Desk have been identified and explained in depth, to design a solution for the chosen problem, which is seen as intriguing to stakeholders).
GUIDANCE
After initial research, proceed with more in-depth market research and problem scoping to learn as much as possible about particular issues, needs, or challenges, regarding "TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY” for The Trade Desk.
Avoid replicating what is already being done in business; instead, come up with new issues that still need to be addressed. In terms of context, be creative and look for the unexplored.
Evidence of why this problem is worth solving and why doing so may offer high-value opportunities.
Ensure you provide enough context with rigorous references (both academic and professional) including input from experts in the field.
A compelling problem can be solved as an instance or activity where a problem is solved for the target audience in a new and novel fashion while giving the client company an ethical, reliable, unused, and valuable way of conducting business.
BRIEF REGARDING TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY
• Attitudes toward privacy, among both regulators and consumers, are evolving rapidly. There is pressure on the advertising industry to ensure consumer privacy is protected and not compromised. At the same time, premium content has always relied on advertising for monetization. And the more relevant the advertising, the more valuable it becomes, and the more great content can be produced.
• This is as true today for the internet as it was when soap companies started sponsoring daytime TV dramas hoping to reach stay-at-home moms in the 1950s. Technology companies are under pressure to rethink identity technology (such as cookies and other trackers).
• How should TTD engage the industry in a new approach that preserves the value exchange of relevant advertising and gives consumers more control over identity and privacy?
DELIVERABLES INSTRUCTIONS
- Cover with heading and name, brief max 4-pages, with page numbering and subheadings as requested - APA references, unlimited number of complete appendices including relevant and readable tables, graphs, images, etc.
- Font 12, 1.0 spacing, and standard margins.
- You are expected to submit a detailed description of your problem set and data collection opportunity by referring actively to relevant sources to strengthen your problem argument and then responding to the following critical areas of importance
Use these headings:
1. Introduction and Problem Statement: Introduce the paper by leading the reading to the theme, the problem, and critical findings, along with a brief document flow overview.
2. Market Research: Identify and define the problem area based on your research findings regarding currency, relevancy, and societal and business significance (actively referenced, both academically and professionally).
3. Description of Problem and Significance of data collection opportunity: Provide clarity to the underlying issues, the people and organizations dealing with them, and define data collection opportunities when addressing the problem. Make appropriate references to your market research discoveries.
4. Opportunity and Risk Assessment: Describe competing and existing initiatives, regulatory trends, and other factors influencing the opportunity to solve the problem and collect data. What resources are needed to collect data to address the issue, and what risks and potential barriers like technology or regulation have you identified? What impact could a working solution have on people, businesses, industry, and the environment, both positive and negative? The answer could build on digitalization and leveraging data-driven transformation, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, and other similar exponential technologies.
5. Concluding Discussion: Conclude by arguing, based on your newly gathered research and analyzed intelligence, why solving this problem is worthwhile, especially from a business and data collection perspective. Why is it novel and fresh, despite potential competition / alternative solutions? Finally, list concrete actions for your client to proceed and succeed in building a state-of-the-art solution.
6. Personal Reflection: Discuss critical findings from this assignment for yourself; what was most valuable learning? Discuss how you will continue enhancing your knowledge with potential external people from your network throughout the course.
7. Reference List
8. Appendices
Trust and Transparency in Ad-Tech: The Trade Desk
Student Name
Course
Professor Name
Date Submitted
Introduction and Problem Statement
Digital marketing is built on trust and transparency. Marketers need to trust that their partners are delivering on their promises, and they need to be able to see what is happening with their campaigns in real time. Transparency lets buyers and sellers know what they are getting and encourages them to make informed decisions (Stevens et al., 2018). When trust is built up between partners, it leads to stronger relationships and more successful marketing campaigns. In recent years, attitudes toward privacy have shifted, and trust and transparency have become even more important. Inquests into data breaches and other privacy issues have made people more cautious about how their personal information is used (Sinclair, 2019). At the same time, consumers are more accustomed to using digital tools to interact with businesses. They want to know that their data is being handled securely and that they can control how it is used. The Trade Desk is an ad-tech company that provides a self-service programmatic platform for buyers of advertising (Chester & Montgomery, 2018). The company has become a notable player in the ad-tech industry, rivaling giants like Google in its approach and practices. According to its website, the company has more than 350 premium partners that provide it with inventory, including streaming TV platforms, newspapers, and eCommerce platforms (The Trade Desk, n.d.). The company is keen on upholding high trust and transparency standards. However, it does not properly disclose its relationships with its partners. Specifically, the company does not disclose the data points its partners share with it and its customers for easy scrutiny by consumers and regulators. This paper will discuss the market research and describe the problem and significance of data collection opportunity while providing a risk assessment and personal reflection on the issue.
Market Research
The ad-tech industry relies on media sellers like The Trade Desk’s trustworthiness and transparency about the data points they expose to media buyers. This transparency is important because it helps ensure that media buyers get the most accurate and up-to-date data about what works best for their campaigns (Stevens et al., 2018). Transparency is also important because it allows media buyers to make informed decisions about which ads to run. If they know the demographics of the people who have shown an interest in a particular product or service, they can choose to target those people more effectively (Stevens et al., 2018). More importantly, transparency allows media buyers to navigate the legal pitfalls that may arise from potential privacy violations.
One of the key reasons why transparency is so important in the ad-tech industry is that data can be sensitive. Media sellers like The Trade Desk collect data about how people interact with ads and products. According to Sinclair (2019), this data can help create more effective ads and to target potential customers more effectively. In some cases, this data can also be used to create illegal targeted advertising.
The Trade Desk should improve its disclosures regarding its relationships with its partners and the data and inventory they share. In particular, the company should make it easier for customers (media buyers) to see the data points its partners share. According to Cremer and Richter (2020), this is a good way to increase trust and transparency. This would make it easier for media buyers to scrutinize The Trade Desk's dealings. In addition, it would make it easier for consumers and regulators to understand how data is used and shared.
Description of Problem and Significance of Data Collection Opportunity
The Trade Desk does not properly disclose its relationships with its partners. Specifically, the company does not disclose the data points that its partners expose to it and its customers for easy scrutiny. This lack of transparency can make it difficult for The Trade Desk's customers (media buyers) to determine their exposure to liability regarding possible privacy breaches in their campaigns. By understanding the problem area, stakeholders may be better equipped to make informed decisions about their involvement with The Trade Desk.
The Trade Desk makes considerable effort to foster trust and transparency by publishing a long list of the data and inventory partners (more than 350 partners) with whom it works, as shown in appendices 1 and 2. Each partner-listing redirects to a web page on the partner's website. For instance, the 123Push dataset redirects to a page on the Skydeo (the partner) website containing an in-depth description of the dataset, including the number of devices a potential media buyer can target and the best products types to target to those devices (users) (Skydeo, n.d.). However, these listings and their associated descriptions fail to describe the data points the dataset exposes, which can help media buyers determine and avoid legal exposure regarding privacy breaches....