A panel discussion held during the recently concluded CoinGeek Conference broadcasted live in Zurich, Switzerland that garnered over four million views explored the persistent issues that plague the fields of advertising and marketing, and how blockchain can resolve these issues. Frank Vertolli, co-founder and managing partner of Orlando-based advertising agency Net Conversion, Lee-Ann Johnstone, CEO and founder of affiliate marketing firm AffiliateINSIDER, and Luke Rohenaz, co-founder and CEO of promotion marketplace TonicPow complete the expert panelists who gave their views on the topic.
The long-standing problems that are revealed include lack of data transparency to make up for discrepancies, delayed payments that cause inefficiencies in affiliate programs, and the urgent need for more objective and broader spectrum organization and analysis of data for more effective advertising. Because the BSV blockchain is a public and timestamped ledger that offers transparency, integrity and security of data, it immediately resolves the issue of transparency.
“So, there’s always going to be discrepancies. And I’m pretty sure that the paid advertising industry also experiences these things. But this is where I see blockchain really coming to the full because the actions are transparent and they’re immediate. So there is no tampering because it all happens within the blockchain, within the actual configuration. So I think, for me, this is where it’s going to make a huge difference in the affiliate space because there’a always been this kind of distrust with the data that gets reported between what sits between the affiliate and the operator. And I think this is where it’s probably going to be one of the biggest revolutionary steps that we take if we can incorporate this new technology into businesses,” Johnstone said.
Because the BSV blockchain can be scaled infinitely—and it continuously does so—it makes possible the handling of big data and the processing of instant micropayments, which are the cheapest the market can offer. The current median fee per transaction is only at $0.000086, and it is expected to further be lowered when the Teranode project is released later this year. This makes for probably the most cost-efficient system that allows for even the smallest amounts to be sent instantly—something the affiliate marketing industry badly needs.
“The benefit is that the money earned can be redistributed and reinvested to scale campaigns because you’re receiving payment immediately and not a month later. I think that’s probably one of the biggest touch points that is still a problem in the affiliate space… Because the payment system takes so long to credit, they can’t scale when [affiliates and influencers] are on to something good,” Johnstone pointed out.
Organizing and analyzing the massive amount of data being generated on a daily basis is also made easier with this kind of global, public ledger, where all stakeholders may be given access to all data updated in real time. This allows for interoperability between companies and provides a more comprehensive analysis of brand and consumer data, which then translates to higher efficiency and effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns.
“In a lot of ways, Bitcoin [SV] can be thought of as a sort of a neutral database that many companies can all access. And if you structure data in the same way from one company to another, then you can read it and process. And so, there’s a natural fit for data interoperability,” Rohenaz explained.
“It’s back to the fundamentals—reach the right person with the right message at the right time. Advertising for the longest time has become who can scream the loudest, who has the biggest splash or buys the most impression; and it has created an incredibly noisy environment. If you as an advertiser could reach fewer people, but the better people—it’s always this balance of scale and quality. You have to reach a certain number and they have to be somewhat qualified, it’s finding that right scale. But I think what [the BSV blockchain] can do is lower that. You don’t have to reach as many people because you’re reaching more qualified people that are more receptive to the message. And that will make the entire ecosystem better for consumers, for advertisers, for the platforms in between,” Vertolli concluded.