Hershey’s, the world leading chocolate brand has anticipated in blockchain-based protocol AdLedger, reported by US-based marketing news outlet Adweek on March 26.

Vincent Rinaldi, Head of addressable media and technology for The Hershey Company, said that the company once contributed most of the advertising on traditional TV.  However, Hershey is shifting into digital platforms that can target customers and measure outcomes like Twitch or Snapchat.

“Right now, it’s the audience focus, but there are a lot of nuances that we’re trying to implement,” he said. “We’re this huge iconic brand, but we’re trying to take the approach that D-to-C companies take to media buying.”

For The Hershey Company, the blockchain-based digital platform could go above advertising and into the chocolate productions. That could mean tracking cacao “from bean to bar,” which Rinaldi said would be an essentially massive shift in the company strategy.

Founded in 2018 by IBM, Tegna and blockchain company MadHive, AdLedge is a nonprofit consortium that promotes blockchain technologies for digital advertising. Following Hershey, Publicis Media and The Global Audience Based Buying Conference & Consultancy (GABBCON) are teaming up with AdLedger.

“Blockchain is still one of the shiny objects in the room,” Yale Cohen from Publicis Media digital investment and standards department said, continuing, “I think the promise of being able to solve for numerous solutions helps to keep the conversation going.”

He also claimed that joining the partnership is a way to create common blockchain standards and to build trust in the advertising industry through reducing fraud in the marketplace. However, he said there are still a lot of questions about what blockchain can and can’t do.