Blockchain Advertising - The future?

This will probably be my last post for a while, but hopefully not. The semester comes to a close, and I’ve been able to learn a lot over the course of these 4 months. Most of what I’ve put up here has been something I have some experience with, or understand. So, I had to make this last post a little more challenging for me. I’ve decided to talk about something I don’t entirely understand and luckily not a lot of us do too. I’ve spent some time researching and trying to understand this better, for the mine and your benefit. I’d love comments that would correct, educate and enlighten me.

Blockchain is a buzzword that is slowly revealing itself over the course of the past 2-3 years. With the advent of cryptocurrency over a decade ago. First things first – a quick introduction to both.

Cryptocurrency

The origin of cryptocurrency dates all the way back to 1983 with the conception of anonymous cryptographic cash. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 and is essentially a decentralized means of transaction that is way more secured and verified due to a distributed ledger technology – Blockchain.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a growing list of interconnected records managed by a peer to peer network linked via cryptography and contain transaction data. A peer to peer network that adheres to certain protocols, reviews and approves transactions within the system. So, imagine a room with 4 people (wearing masks) facing each other and every time a party makes a transaction, others note down the time and the value so that the next time somebody makes the following transaction, the process repeats and blocks are therefore formed. It’s a very rudimentary understanding of the process, and I urge that you shed some light.

Now, Blockchain offers incredible advantages. The ability to verify data and remove duplicity and unverifiable identities real time brings its own set of advantages to the current digital marketing landscape.

This help?

Blockchain and Marketing

Blockchain is slowly making its way into advertising now. With issues such as user identification, transparency and bots plaguing the current digital marketing landscape, there is a huge opportunity for blockchain to come in and solve some of these problems. Blockchain has the potential to change the way marketers collect data and show more relevant ads to consumers.

Fraud and false data

With the internet being a vast expanse, digital marketers always struggle with the authenticy of impressions – bots and fake accounts account for a large portion of the problems marketers face. This leads to higher costs, lower ROI and almost a waste of resources. Bloackchain being a regulated decentralized peer to peer network will therefore ensure the authenticity of the users on the platform, thus ensuring that marketers don’t waste resources.

Better Data

Blockchain can process different kind of consumer transactions and behavioural data – considered to be GOLD for all marketers. Better data will ensure the ability to better target the audience and provide them with relevant ads, therefore improving the value to the customers and a more efficient use of resources.

Of course, there are huge challenges with the adoption of this technology. Lack of awareness being the largest issue. Hopefully with time, trial and error, we will see the adoption of this technology change the entire online marketplace. There will be a cost associated with it, but I do believe that it can be a big game changed and will bring better revenues and more loyal customers to the brand.

I would absolutely love to have a conversation about this, so if you’re reading this and feel that you can add to my understanding, please drop something in the comments so I can educate myself.