IAB Upfronts 2025: Global announces cross-device measurement update

Global has revealed that Dax ID from Q1 2026 will have cross-device measurement capabilities.

The update, announced at the Interactive Bureau Advertising (IAB) Upfronts event on 15 October, uses AI to analyse data points such as location, device, and IP, triggered  when someone listens to an ad played in the audio content available via Globals’ digital ad exchange, or DAX.

An AI led device graph is then able to track patterns and connect listening moments together, providing a more accurate picture of an individual listener.

Through this, the device graph, creates a picture or profile of listeners that can be utilised in measuring cross-device activity across multiple environments and internet connections for the same brand.

Notably, this could improve the attribution of individual conversions and bridge the gap to enable audio to compete more successfully with other digital channels, which has proven to be a challenge, as attributing a conversion between different devices, environments and internet connections has not been possible until now.

Global added the device graph will also will enable advertisers to benefit from greater scale in targetable groups and improve campaign planning due to greater accuracy around key metrics such as reach and frequency.

Moreover, speaking at the IAB Upfronts, Global’s commercial transformation director, Tommy Cattell, highlighted it will lead to greater outcomes and more accurate campaign insights as the AI led device graph can provide clarity on an individual listener’s pattern of online behaviour, reducing duplications of conversions.

Cattell said: “If it’s the same IP or same device, you can easily predict it’s the same person, but when people move across different devices, it becomes difficult because you’ve got different content and devices.

“But because people’s behaviour is quite habitual, you can use AI to match a couple of these things or look at common behaviours between people, and you can start predicting patterns of behaviour.

“If it’s the same person, the AI learns that although it’s not getting the correct signals, it must be the same person; they’re going to the same locations every day, they’re sending the same signals every day.

“The more of these signals that we get, the more it learns how to spot these patterns of behaviour and the more it can predict.”

Dax ID, which launched in 2024, is a cookie-free measurement tool that works across digital audio environments and devices.

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