VideoAmp Joins Data In Snowflake’s Cloud For Privacy-Driven Insights

In the latest indication that ad-tech companies are trying to make ad targeting more privacy-compliant in the new regulatory environment, VideoAmp has struck a partnership it says changes the way data comes together.

VideoAmp will work with Snowflake, a cloud data storage company, to offer “multi-party cloud environments” for data collaboration – effectively, a way of pooling audience data with rules and privacy baked in.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, VideoAmp CEO and co-founder Ross McCray explains how it works, and why.

The trouble with agreements
“In today’s best practice and approach, what we’ve seen is that there’s a lot of contractual commitments in trust-based systems, where you sign a DocuSign, you’re saying, ‘I won’t do this. I won’t do that with your data’,” McCray says.

“(You) send it to some third-party identity partner who is a trusted source to get all the raw data to create these anonymous based systems and send it back across the wire.

“We don’t believe that’s putting the consumer first. There’s a lot of holes with that approach.”

Holistic, safe data view
VideoAmp has already been using multi-national Snowflake for more than three years to run analysis.

Now it is joining Powered by Snowflake, a partner program, which will see it use the cloud computing resources to change the way data expectations are forged,

“A lot of the legacy measurement systems haven’t been able to really accurately count in those more modern ways of digital and streaming,” McCray says, “and to look at it in a more holistic view, which should increase their yield and opportunity for where their audiences are going.”

He adds: “The way that we’ve architected this system with Snowflake is that we’re able to do a multi-party computing join – there’s never a circumstance where the data that’s owned by the publishers has to be shared with someone else.

“We’re unable to ever process the individual-level data, but we’re able to get much more accurate in terms of how we’re doing the identity resolution.

“(That) allows for advertisers and agencies and media owners to process secure data in a way that allows us to get access to things that you wouldn’t have in more of a trust-based system.”

‘No quick bucks’
Seven-year-old VideoAmp’s platform offers software and more for linear TV, over-the-top and digital video, including TV viewership data, campaign performance insights and buy optimization.

This year, the company raised up to $75 million from Capital IP, comprised of $50 milli0n in debt with an option on a further $25 million.

Although its valuation is now increasing, McCray says he has no intention to join the latest wave of ad-tech sales.

“We’ve seen a lot of companies sell early and cut themselves too short,” he says. “We really want to be able to create a long-term vision of creating a new system and alternative currency of how media is bought, sold and valued.

“We’ve been approached over the years, many times for acquisitions, but it just doesn’t make any sense. We really want to win, and we want others to be able to count on us for that long-term vision.”