Adtech has had a buzzword problem for as long as I can remember. “Programmatic”, “in the header” and now “blockchain”.

The drum has a good article and I recommend reading it: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/03/05/how-tell-when-someone-talking-bs-about-blockchain

In this article I’m going to talk about the Basic Attention Token by Brendan Eich. My goal is only to inform and start a conversation.

Let’s frame this discussion by talking about only two parties: brands (or advertisers) and users.

Without brands and users, we don’t have an industry. We must remember this.

Brands can vote with their dollars, users can vote with ad blockers. Publishers often get a raw deal.

When brands advertise on the internet they want

Ads to be seen

Ads to be seen by real people

Ads to be seen by the right users

Associated with brand-safe content

Metrics

“Transparency”.

Our industry would say that these problems are solved but brands disagree. It was an enlightening moment as I watched just how high the industry jumped after the lightning bolt by P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard last year. Money talks.

On the other side, we have users, they get

Bombarded with ads

Tracked everywhere

Depleted phone batteries due to advertising network requests and rich media

Brave’s solution is the Basic Attention Token

Brave is trying to monetize “attention”.

It does this by blocking ads and providing a new way to consume ads that is based on engagement and intent while protecting user privacy.

It is off to a good start too, raising over 30 million dollars and has millions of downloads of its mobile web browser.

The current model is for a publisher to place ads on their website. This can be risky for brands when they are unwittingly associated with unsavory content. Brave would instead show rich video ads that are separate from the publisher’s website. Publishers would still get credited for the ad.

Brave features an in-browser ad server and client side machine learning to help match users to relevant brands. This is extremely powerful and will provide better targeting than even the best DMP’s, user IDs and cookie matching can provide.

Brave also includes a privacy shield for users. This means that they can remain anonymous while also providing rich targeting for brands.

I also believe this is fully compliant with GDPR as no private information ever leaves the user's device. The Brave browser downloads an ad catalog ahead of time and matches ads to users based on learned behaviors.

The Basic Attention Token or BAT is the cryptocurrency used to power this ecosystem. (cryptocurrencies are powered by “blockchain”. This is the only time I will mention it)

Brands use BAT to purchase advertising and publishers and users are paid in BAT. Yes, users get rewarded in BAT for their attention.

This opens up powerful new possibilities for publishers. Users can contribute their BAT back to the content creators they want to support.

A common misconception is that the Brave web browser is required for this to work. There is no reason that the Brave platform can not be expanded to other browsers, TVs, augmented reality etc.

This attempt to change advertising is not entirely new. I remember this being tried in the past by dubious companies using various plugins.

The reason that I think Brave is different is because of the use of the BAT cryptocurrency and their commitment to open source code.

While they may not be there yet, their vision seems to be a new decentralized advertising ecosystem that champions transparency where everyone benefits including users. This has not been tried before.

Advantages for brands

Accurate collection of metrics such as viewability

Better targeting

Show ads at the best possible time independent of the page load

Fight fraud by measuring attention of users when watching your ads and rate limiting. Users wishing to make money must adhere to know-your-customer-laws (KYC). This reduces fraud incentives

Advantages for users

Privacy shield

Support content creators without paying subscription fees

Earn money

No need for an ad blocker

Less ads per day of higher quality

Better battery life on their phone

My thoughts

Brands will be onboard with this new approach. They will vote with their dollars if it delivers results

There will be pushback from the adtech industry

Publishers will be concerned. I am sure that Brave is assuming that higher quality ads will deliver higher revenue

Possibility of lawsuits by big publishers

Fantastic for users. Users can contribute to this ecosystem, protect their privacy, get rewarded and support their favorite content creators









What do you think? Let me know in the comments.