TAG LAUNCHES CONSULTATION FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL BLOCKCHAIN PILOT SOLICITING INPUT FROM INDUSTRY

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), formerly JICWEBS, jointly with ISBA, IPA, IAB UK and AOP, launches a 5 week industry consultation following a successful one-year pilot for the launch of a collaborative network using a blockchain – or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – platform as an always-on solution to drive accountability and business efficiency.

The event is hosted by Jules Kendrick, Managing Director UK & Europe, TAG and Adrian Lacey, Head of the Pilot Evaluation Committee and Director of Policy and Standards, TAG.

The purpose of the industry consultation, running from October 1 to November 5, 2020, is to provide you with the opportunity to:

• Learn more about the initiative and your Benefits
• Provide your Input to best shape the network to your needs
• Understand how you can Participate in the proposed network
• And importantly, contribute your company's views to assist us in deciding what to do next

The TAG Townhall will kick-off the consultation with a reminder of the project milestones and achievements,and provide the details of the consultation process. This will include the access to the Consultation Document and Pilot Executive Summary.

Supporting webinars providing background information about DLT and the initiative can be accessed below. These webinars are not part of the consultation and are only intended to provide background information.

• London Tech Week - Where Advertising meets Technology
  CreaTech webinar - Sep 7, 2020 (min 45:20)

  • Jules Kendrick, MD UK & Europe, TAG
  • Nigel Vaz, Global CEO, Publicis Sapient & IPA President
  • Tim Brown, CEO, Fiducia

• TAG DLT Network webinars:
   

  • Webinar 1 - What is the TAG DLT Network initiative all about?
    Jules Kendrick, MD UK & Europe, TAG (min 09:51)
     

  • Webinar 2 - Can DLT solve the industry trust problem?
    Gavin Stirrat, Industry Expert & Fiducia Consultant (min 16:31)
     

  • Webinar 3 - What radical changes is DLT driving across industries?
    Richard Brown, Chief Technology Officer, R3 / Corda (min 17:58)
     

  • Webinar 4 - How does a DLT platform work?
    Igor Alferov, Chief Technology Officer, Fiducia (min 17:30)
     

  • Webinar 5 - Why should I participate to the DLT Network?
    Phill Hayman, Customer Success Director, Fiducia (min 14:03)

The consultation comes after a pioneering 12 month pilot that ran from July 2019 to July 2020 with participants including major brands Nestlé, Telefonica/O2, McDonald's, Virgin Media, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson; agency trading groups WPP, Publicis, OMG, Havas, IPG; and more than 15 prominent ad tech providers and publishers spanning every segment of the supply chain.

​The Pilot allowed its Evaluation Committee, formed by 20 industry experts(1) representing all sides of the industry, to determine:

• That DLT is particularly well suited to address the trust, transparency and efficiency problems the industry is facing: providing an always-on immutable ad impression audit trails and the use of smart contracts to enhance accountability and compliance, while driving significant incremental business value and operational efficiencies for all value chain participants.
• That the initiative to set-up an industry consortium network using a DLT platform to enhance trust and transparency is in line with the mission of TAG/JICWEBS.
• That the specific requirements set for a DLT platform to power an industry consortium network in digital advertising - reconciling ad impression log files across supply chains, ensuring data immutability, security and privacy for a minimal cost - have been met.

(1) The DLT Evaluation Committee was formed of representatives from: IBA, IPA, AOP, IAB UK, IAB Tech Lab, ABC, GroupM, Mediacom, Publicis Media, Seven Stars, Omnicom, eBay, Accenture, PwC, Wirehive, LDTRT, and some independent blockchain and industry experts.

"Building a more transparent ecosystem requires both innovation and collaboration, and this initiative and pilot has demonstrated our industry's commitment and desire to working together to evaluate new technologies," said Jules Kendrick, Managing Director UK & Europe for TAG. "Our pilot showed promising opportunities for a DLT platform which we would like to share in this consultation process, including the potential to achieve a ‘Shared Truth' where the same data is recognized as valid and accurate across the supply chain."