Brand Explicit Consent

The future of consumer-brand communication is here! FCC's new regulations demand express explicit consent from consumers.

Introducing Brand Explicit Consent, how publishers and advertisers can comply with these new regulations. We outline the mostly likely scenarios and the impact on the industry as a whole.

This ruling is poised to go in effect in January 2025. Read more about the ruling in our blog article or in the official FCC ruling.

What is Brand Explicit Consent?

Currently, advertisers are able to buy leads from various pages, such as comparison sites, without needing explicit consent from the consumer to be contacted by them. Brand Explicit Consent extends the current 'Ping Post' method, ensuring that consumers can give individual consent to specific advertisers, before the advertisers receive the lead.

Where is Brand Explicit Consent relevant?

Brand Explicit Consent is relevant for lead forms and comparison sites using real-time bidding actions.
There are several scenarios where Brand Explicit Consent can be implemented, that fit nicely into current pages and user flows. We've defined 4 below, but other scenario's are possible, and are considered in the implementation

There are three likely scenarios that Brand Explicit Consent will support. Please see the examples below to get a better idea.

Scenario 1
Select single brand, disclose in TCPA


In this scenario, the consumer is matched with the single highest bidder. The consumer is presented a single TCPA where the brand is disclosed. This can also be a custom TCPA provided by the brand.

Scenario 2
Display and select multiple brands


In this scenario, the consumer is matched with multiple highest bidders. The user can select these brands one by one, giving explicit consent.

Scenario 3
Display and select multiple brands, one per page


In this scenario, the consumer is matched with multiple highest bidders. The consumer can select these brands one by one, on different pages, giving explicit consent.

Use PX to connect and manage all your sources this way.

PX will support Brand Explicit Consent with large publishers and lead management systems. Using PX allows you to connect all your lead sources this way centrally, and leverage more advanced features such as a single integration points, real-time filtering, verification services, lead deduplication (including database checks), offer customization, tracking, reporting and more.

Become fully compliant with your customer acquisition practices. Contact us today.

Further reading: Standardizing communications

How do we ensure publishers and advertisers can work with multiple partners at the same time? One way to achieve this is to leverage consistent API fields, so they can be interpreted correctly by different platforms and websites. Below we've outlines what this will look like:

MatchPing Request example

Please note this may change to fit a growing set of usecases.

Example of what a request to PX could look like, to fetch advertiser names and info.

Field value definitions
  • sourceID - Source of request, publisher ID
  • leadID - Random generated UUID4
  • Hashed xxx - PII data can be sent hashed (using SHA256) so they can be checked against advertiser databases, of verification services. PX can dedupe using Hashing.
  • requestedService - Vertical
  • Custom fields per vertical - like ElectricityBill. Publishers can pass other filter values, to ensure targeted matching.


{
  "MatchPingRequest": {
    "sourceID": "XXXXXXXX",
    "leadID": "XXXXXXXX",
    "leadData": {
      "hashedName": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb924...",
      "hashedEmail": "9e107d9d372bb6826bd81d3542a419d6...",
      "hashedPhone": "da4b9237bacccdf19c0760cab7aec4a8359010b0...",
      "Phone": "+1112223333"
      "requestedService": "Solar",
      "locationDetails": {
        "zipCode": "12345",
        "State": "CA"
      },
      "electricityBill": "$110"
    }
  }
}
    

MatchPing Response Example

Please note this may change to fit a growing set of usecases.

Example of what a response from PX could look like, to fetch advertiser names and info.

Field value definitions
  • sourceID - Source of request, publisher ID
  • matchID - Unique Indentifier that stores the unique match data, which can be read.
  • leadID - Using the UUID sent on the MatchPing request
  • Offers - Formatted data about the matched advertisers. PX uses the ProviderID to ensure the data is passed to the right advertiser.
  • Custom fields per vertical - advertisers can pass back other data such as Offer data, graphics, adcopy, urls, etc.

{
  "MatchPingResponse": {
    "sourceID": "XXXXXXXX",
    "matchID": "XXXXXXXX",
    "leadID": "XXXXXXXX",
    "Offers": [
      {
        "providerName": "SunRay Solar",
        "providerID": "XXXXXX",
        "companyInfo": {
          "logoURL": "https://sunraysolar.com/logo.png",
          "customTCPA": "Consent to SunRay Solar's terms is essential...",
          "otherData" : {......}
        }
      },
      {
        "providerName": "EcoSolar Solutions",
        "providerID": "XXXXXX",
        "CompanyInfo": {
          "logoURL": "https://ecosolarsolutions.com/logo.png",
          "customTCPA": "By engaging, you agree to EcoSolar Solutions'...",
          "otherData" : {......}
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}
    

How to tackle advertiser identification

How do you ensure partners are not listed multiple times, under different names? There are several approaches and suggestions for this, which will likely require a registry. For example, company names from dnb.com can be used as unified company identifiers.

Validation of presented advertisers or partners

Once a lead is sold, how can the receiver of the lead validate that the consumer can gave the appropriate consent? This is where partners like Jornaya by Verisk play a crucial role. By recording the consent and requiring publishers to record this value independently, the consent can be validated independently of the lead posting.

Closing words 

The FCC’s proposed regulatory changes can potentially have a major impact on how the customer acquisition industry operates; there is ample time to adjust, and it will give way to novel methods of matching consumers with brands in meaningful ways.  

PX provides several solutions to this, and as always, these will be easy and straightforward to integrate, with personalized support where needed. 

If you’d like to further explore how your business can thrive during this transition and after these changes, reach out to brandconsent@px.com

We will also be hosting a webinar series with Jornaya by Verisk to dive deeper into the rule, hear firsthand from brands about how they plan to tackle this, and explore the many solutions. 

Check out these links to register:

  1. Session 1, the problem at hand
  2. Session 2, the proposed solution
  3. Session 3, Expert insights

Become fully compliant with your customer acquisition practices. Contact us today.