We tracked press mentions across the top 20 identity resolution vendors for the first quarter of 2026.
LiveRamp dominated. The rest were functionally invisible.
The pattern is consistent with what shows up across other AdTech sub-categories. A small number of vendors establish category authority through structured communications. The rest depend on event-driven coverage that does not compound. In identity resolution specifically, a trust-dependent category, the communications gap is particularly costly. Buyers evaluate trust through visible markers, and one of the most important visible markers is consistent, substantive press presence.
Part of EPR's AdTech and MarTech in 2026: The Stack. For how vendors communicate across the category, see AdTech PR strategy.
The category
The identity resolution category includes several vendor types.
The standalone identity platforms. LiveRamp, ID5, Optable, Permutive, InfoSum. Each built independent identity capabilities. Several are public or have significant venture capital backing.
The buy-side platform anchored. The Trade Desk's UID 2.0 is the most prominent. UID 2.0 is technically open-source but TTD-led, and TTD's commercial weight defines its market positioning. Its alumni are profiled in Evertune.
The clean room platforms. Snowflake Data Clean Rooms, Habu (acquired by LiveRamp in January 2024), AWS Clean Rooms, Google Ads Data Hub. The clean room layer is adjacent to identity but increasingly central to identity-based addressability.
The retail and walled-garden identity layers. Amazon Marketing Cloud, Meta's identity layer, Google's first-party identity infrastructure. Each represents a closed identity environment with significant scale. See Retail Media in 2026 for how retailers use the same data.
The newer entrants and adjacent vendors. A long tail of vendors offering identity resolution components: deterministic matching, probabilistic matching, clean room interoperability, consent management.
What does the identity stack look like without third-party cookies?
The 2026 identity stack is a portfolio of five surfaces, because no single identifier replaced the third-party cookie. Safari has blocked third-party cookies by default since March 2020 and Firefox since 2019, and Google confirmed on April 22, 2025 that Chrome would keep them, as reported by VideoWeek. TechSpot later reported that Google retired Privacy Sandbox due to low adoption.
| Surface | Examples | What it does |
|---|
| Universal IDs | UID2 (The Trade Desk), ID5, LiveRamp RampID, Lotame Panorama ID | Match users across DSPs, SSPs, and publishers, mostly through hashed email addresses |
| First-party data and CDPs | Klaviyo, Iterable, Braze, mParticle, Treasure Data, Segment, Tealium, ActionIQ | Activate brand and publisher customer data for targeting |
| Clean rooms | Snowflake, AWS Clean Rooms, InfoSum, LiveRamp Habu, Google Ads Data Hub | Join two parties' first-party data without exposing the underlying records |
| Contextual targeting | GumGum, Seedtag, Peer39, IAS Context Control, DoubleVerify Custom Contextual | Match ads to page content instead of user identity |
| Browser APIs | Google Privacy Sandbox: Topics, Protected Audience, Attribution Reporting | Interest targeting, on-device retargeting, and measurement without cross-site tracking |
Brands that bet on one replacement ID sit at a disadvantage to brands that run several in parallel, because DSPs support multiple IDs at once. First-party data is the foundation under every surface: universal IDs need email addresses to hash, and clean rooms need first-party records to combine.
Measurement splits the same way. Each identity surface feeds a different attribution method, which is why campaign reports no longer reconcile. See the measurement section of AdTech and MarTech in 2026 for how teams manage that, and the same page for the full stack.
The press data
For Q1 2026, named mentions of the top 20 identity resolution vendors were tracked across AdExchanger, AdAge, Adweek, Digiday, MarTech, MediaPost, and Modern Retail.
LiveRamp accounted for the plurality of mentions across the named publications. ID5 was a distant second. The Trade Desk's UID 2.0 generated significant coverage but mostly indexed to TTD's broader press profile rather than UID 2.0 as a standalone identity solution. Snowflake clean rooms appeared frequently but as platform feature coverage rather than identity-category coverage.
The remaining vendors (Optable, InfoSum, Permutive, and the long tail) generated minimal coverage relative to category share or technical capability.
The pattern that explains the gap
Three patterns separate the press-active vendors from the press-invisible.
Founder or technical executive voice. The vendors generating consistent coverage have named executives, often the founder or CTO, who communicate directly with press, publish under their own byline, and represent the company at conferences. The vendors that route press through general PR channels generate event-driven coverage but not category authority.
Primary research output. LiveRamp publishes substantive primary research on a regular cadence. ID5 publishes technical briefings and benchmark data. The vendors with the largest press footprints publish original data the press can cite.
Integration announcement cadence. Each major integration announcement is a press opportunity. The active vendors structure their integration announcements to generate category coverage, not just transactional notes. The inactive vendors announce in technical channels only.
Why identity is a trust category
Identity resolution exists because cookie-based tracking became untenable. The category replaces an opaque tracking infrastructure with a consent-mediated identity infrastructure. The buyer evaluation of vendor candidates is heavily weighted toward trust signals.
Trust signals include audit certifications, named clients, regulatory engagement, transparency reporting, and, crucially, visible press presence. A vendor that is invisible in trade press is invisible in trust-related evaluation.
The trust dimension is not a soft factor. Identity vendors get evaluated by procurement, by privacy counsel, by data protection officers, by IT security, and by the CMO's organization. Each of those evaluators looks at external visibility. The press presence shapes the evaluation across all of them.
What the press-active vendors do differently
Three operational practices set the press-active vendors apart.
Direct founder or technical executive voice. Named individuals communicate directly with press. They write under their own byline in trade press. They appear at IAB Tech Lab working groups. They engage in regulatory comment cycles publicly.
Primary research cadence. Quarterly or semi-annual benchmark data, methodology white papers, regulatory analysis. The output is dense enough to drive coverage without paid distribution.
IAB Tech Lab participation. The vendors leading the standards conversation generate disproportionate trade press coverage. Working group participation, comment letters, and named contributions to spec authorship show up repeatedly in trade press citation. See: The IAB Tech Lab Is the Most Important Trade Body You're Ignoring.
What the invisible vendors should do this quarter
Three actions.
One. Name an executive voice and equip them. Founder, CTO, or named technical executive. Build the speaking calendar. Build the long-form publication calendar. Build the press relationship calendar. The voice has to be a named individual, not a corporate function.
Two. Publish primary research. Benchmark data, methodology, regulatory analysis. The output should be substantive enough to stand on its own. Distribution through trade press, IAB Tech Lab, and direct buyer outreach.
Three. Engage IAB Tech Lab. Working group participation. Comment letters. Standards contributions. The participation is durable narrative. It survives news cycles in ways press releases do not.
In a trust category, silence is a position. Most identity vendors are taking it by default.
