The Advertising ID Consortium, an open identity solution aimed at the digital advertising ecosystem, has announced 17 new platform partners that have joined the three founding members, AppNexus, Index Exchange and LiveRamp. In addition, The Trade Desk has agreed to support the Consortium’s identity framework, making its ID solution compatible with the Consortium’s Open Ad ID solution, which the organisation calls a major step toward consolidating an open and ubiquitous solution.

Among the platform companies on both the supply and demand sides to sign term sheets to join the Consortium are Amobee, Sizmek, Kargo, AerServ, TradeLab, Adform, Unruly and OpenX. The addition of these major ad tech platforms helps the Consortium build critical mass as it expands to include publishers, marketers and agencies.

“The Consortium is yet another example of independent companies joining forces to combat issues the programmatic industry has faced for years,” said Drew Bradstock, senior vice president of product at Index Exchange. “The Consortium, along with initiatives like header bidding and Ads.txt, will serve as long-term solutions for all facets of the industry.”

The Consortium’s two-part identity framework is comprised of a device and a people-based identifier that together aim to deliver a more seamless and relevant user experience. At launch, the solution includes an Open Ad ID, a standard for single device identification, and an Open IdentityLink, a common people-based identifier for resolving identity across channels, devices and platforms. This framework will be provided to all the new Consortium members at no cost.

The Consortium has also modified and developed important technologies to provide immediate scale for members, including the Adnxs.com domain and cookie space, which is one of the largest cookie pools.

“Companies across the programmatic ecosystem today rely on their own identifiers like platform-specific cookies,” said Jakob Bak, chief technical officer and co-founder of Adform. “Compaired with a unified approach, this leads to fragmented identities, audience loss, less reach, and – as a result – less effective advertising. The Advertising ID Consortium solves these challenges by standardising around one ID and enables people-based advertising at a scale far beyond the walled gardens. This is accomplished while also creating transparency to the level required for new privacy regulations like the EU’s GDPR.”