Marketers are just about there in having the ability to measure, in a multichannel campaign, the type of media that drives foot traffic into a store.

"Blockchain, much like the internet in the late to mid-1990s, isn't a cure all for which you can apply pixie dust over a client-server system and have things magically happen," Charles Manning, CEO of Kochava, said. "There are a bunch of components and parts."

Is personal consumer data still a viable option to use for ad targeting if only a limited amount of a brand's customers give consent to use it?

With marketers still confused by how blockchain will support the advertising industry, research advisory firm Kaleido Insights has put together a detailed report, "The Internet of Trusted Things," that discusses the benefits and challenges of the technology.

It's easy to hear the enthusiasm in the voice of John Bates, director of product marketing at Adobe Analytics Cloud, when talking about blockchain technology, despite numerous challenges. Blockchain technology aims to automated the entire media supply chain, from creatives to contracts. Bates says the industry will shift away from focusing on the underlying technology and toward business process and applications that solve real world problems. He spoke with Data & Programmatic Insider to talk about some of the changes and challenges the advertising industry should expect to see in 2018.