#AdEx is a #decentralized ad exchange built on #blockchain and smart contracts. The network
places an emphasis on the entertainment industry and in particular on video streaming
services as publishers. The AdEx platform is designed to disrupt and replace the traditional
digital advertising models by providing a transparent, focused solution for advertisers to
collaborate with ad publishers and reach potential clients.
The core feature of AdEx will be the so-called AdEx Profile - a personalized page that allows
every end user to understand and control the ads delivered to them. Giving more control to
the user is highly beneficial for advertisers: users voluntarily provide information about their
preferences and consumer behavior, about their shopping habits and purchase intent, etc.
This means that with the help of the AdEX Profile advertisers achieve surgical precision for
ad targeting and ensure a high return on ad spending (ROAS).
The technology of AdEx leverages blockchain and smart contracts, thus eliminating the
complexity of existing ad serving networks. The network is regulated by the users and the
users only, taking care of the most common issue advertisers today are facing: lack of
transparency and incorrect/unclear reporting of advertising campaign results
What makes AdEx special: Solving the problem of online advertising :
Global advertising and marketing investments continue to grow exponentially around the
world, and since last year we see a significant shift in the importance carried by different
advertising mediums: while TV has always until now been king for advertisers, it is slowly
being outrun by online & digital channels.
In 2017, global online advertising will outspend the ad king - television for the first time.
Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts report (September 2016) predicts an average
growth of 14% for internet advertising in the period 2015-2018.
The report stipulates that by 2018, the internet would account for 38.6% of all global
advertising investment. In 2018 alone, advertisers are expected to spend more than $220
billion, up 11.7% from the 2017 projection of $198.8 billion.
Despite its huge growth, however, the online advertising industry struggles with a lot of
issues. We have identified the ones that affect it the most.
The AdEx Profile :
As we mentioned earlier in this paper, each and every user, to whom AdEx serves ads, will
have their own profile where they can be as precise as they want outlining their interests and
preferences. This profile will ensure that consumers only see ads that are relevant to them.
For advertisers this means more precise targeting, less opportunities for mistakes when
setting their campaigns, and higher conversion rates.
Blockchain ensures anonymous use of big data :
The blockchain technology, which AdEx utilizes, allows to anonymize large chunks of data
so it is only used for statistical purposes. Put simply, with the help of blockchain, advertisers
still get to receive and process data about their target audiences and consumers in the form
of statistics only - without compromising the privacy of these consumers.
A decentralized exchange that can be audited :
Due to the fact that AdEx is based on blockchain, advertisers can easily trace every
click/view and verify every component of a campaign (participants, ad placements,
impressions and clicks, etc.). The information is decentralized so it can’t be hogged or
manipulated by the ad exchange so advertisers are only paying for actual results.
As you can see, there are way too many things wrong with the current state of the online
advertising industry. That means that the time has come for an impactful disruption of that
landscape, and this is where decentralized ad exchanges such as AdEx come in.
With these new solutions, advertisers will be able to regain control over their advertising
spend, they will be able to limit their exposure to potential ad fraud and will be empowered to
achieve higher return on their marketing spending.
Publishers will benefit from more interest from advertisers, more targeted ads and higher
level of end user satisfaction and ultimately - higher advertising revenues.
Last but not least, end users will finally have an online environment where they can receive
targeted, tailor-made ads without compromising their privacy and personal data.
Decentralized ad solutions :
А couple of other similar projects related to advertising with smart contracts have been
announced recently: Brave Software’s Basic Attention Token (BAT), NASDAQ’s NYIAX,
qChain, adChain.
While all these ad exchanges come from strong teams, the truth is we are all sailing in
uncharted waters here. This is why it is extremely important to have exceptional
understanding of both cryptography and ad tech, as well as to stay as open in possible in
terms of platform and device availability.
On top of this, the more decentralized ad solutions, the more viewpoints will be introduced to
solving the issues of existing ad networks, and the more the different networks will be able to
learn from each other. By doing so, we will accomplish a positive and empowered
ecosystem.
Last but not least, some of these solutions are restricted in one way or another: for example,
BAT is limited to the Brave browser only; NIYAX is targeting the financial industry, etc. This
will have a negative impact on their adoption speed and range.
We are excited about the fact that we do have competition as this will push us to deliver a
service superior to the others. Competition is healthy and will benefit the entire advertising
ecosystem.
AdEx Adoption :
Once the AdEx is fully operational, it will kick of with Stremio as the exchange’s first
publisher. The expertise in the video entertainment industry that we have will help us quickly
attract other similar publishers looking for an efficient way to monetize.
Advertisers will be attracted by the platform’s merits - clear and transparent reporting, limited
to no possibility of ad fraud, cross-platform/device availability, exceptional user targeting, etc.
Further to that, AdEx token holders will be incentivized to bring more advertisers to the
platform as they would benefit from a more active ad property marketplace.
Last but not least, we will invest a significant effort working with ad blocker providers in order
to get AdEx ads whitelisted. We are positive that this effort will be rewarded as AdEx will
stand for “clean”, targeted and meaningful advertising, and will offer ad blockers the option to
monetize whitelisting the rewards via smart contracts.
