Media agency network Mindshare says it has completed a trial involving programmatic advertising (digital advertisements that are purchased through software) for PepsiCo with the help of blockchain technology provided by Zilliqa. Apart from Zilliqa Research, Rubicon Project, MediaMath and Integral Ad Science participated in the project as well.

According to Mindshare, the blockchain-powered advertising trial brought an increase in efficiency of up to 28% for viewable impressions compared to another run that did not utilize smart contracts. Dubbed “Project Proton”, the system uses an internal token:

“These smart contracts reconcile impressions that are delivered from multiple data sources with payments facilitated using an internal Native Alliance Token (NAT) all in near real time, resulting in major efficiency gains and complete transparency for the brand owners.”

More campaigns are planned

PepsiCo director of consumer engagement for Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Farida Shakhshir, says more campaigns using this technology can be expected:

“The results are encouraging, and we plan to run a few more campaigns under different conditions to verify more hypotheses and measure overall impact.”

Some of the advantages offered by the system include more frequent reconciliations (as opposed to reconciliations only occuring after a campaign has finished), fewer required intermediaries and a transparent transaction process that limits the potential for fraud.

Mindshare has been collaborating with Zilliqa since late 2017 on the potential uses of blockchain technology in the advertising industry.