Nobody minds an ad for something they need. Everybody minds an ad that seems to know why.
Identity is how brands strike that balance: reaching the right person, without getting too personal. It's also one of those topics that sounds simple, until someone starts explaining it.
For the Future of Advertising event, we built The Trade Desk's first identity experience: room after room of glowing walls. Guests didn't sit through identity. They walked through it, and found themselves right at the centre.
By the last room, nobody needed the slides. (The rest of the world got the explainer video.)
P.S.My ads know about the rabbits and Limp Bizkit. Lately, they've started selling me an app to keep me off my phone, which feels a bit personal.