I will preface this by confessing that I am no expert on digital transformation. For the sake of the argument, think of me, if you will, as you would one of those organisations of a few years past; organisations which suddenly look up from their indexed notes and reports, their customer ledgers and accounting books, their Sunday paper print ads and radio spots, and suddenly realise that a new age has dawned (quite a bit of time ago), one that is fundamentally digital. Experts we have. In fact, some of them will be speaking in an upcoming webinar hosted by IAB Europe on this very topic. Digital giants and professionals whose remits span from Northern Europe to its central and southern regions will launch into a foray on digital transformation and its vital aspects. Until then, however, I will assume the role of one of the organisations of old (and new) which first come to grips with this brave new world of digital transformation.
Let’s start with the obvious: what is digital transformation? Simple enough task, seemingly; I mean the definition is right there in the two words, right? While digital transformation does indeed mean the fundamental shift of business operations to a digital environment, the process itself is so far-reaching, so complex, and so inclusive of all departments and management levels in an organisation, that it entails practices and approaches extending far beyond the limited scope of just a technological company-wide update. What was once a focus on solely digitalisation, in today’s world the striving for “achieving” digital transformation encapsulates the need for a radical change of attitude and of the way we do business. We are noticing a transition from the material - the software, equipment and technologies equated to digitalisation - towards a metamorphosis of the business mind. In fact, digital transformation is no longer a technological issue; it is a cultural shift. So let’s agree that digital transformation is the sum of all practices that an organisation implements on an ongoing basis, at all levels, to maximise efficiency and improve the bottom line in an-ever evolving digital environment.
Ah, the bottom line! In a 2017 study by Constellation Research, 64% of organisations identified digital transformation as “essential to driving profits”. The same report had nearly 70% of respondents answer in the affirmative to the question whether they have a digital transformation strategy in place. A 2018 report by Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute, however, showed that only 39% of businesses feel they have the digital capabilities, and only 35% the leadership capabilities needed to make their digital transformation journey a success. It seems, therefore, that while organisations understand the importance digital transformation can have on their bottom line and are willing to spend a pretty buck to achieve it (to the tune of GBP 1.2 trillion - with a “T(r)” - worldwide by 2019), the journey itself is fraught with hardships.
While we’re on the topic of difficulty, let’s take a moment to discuss what lies at the end of the rainbow, and whether digital transformation can ever be fully achieved. You invest all these trillions - with a “T” - you hire the right CEOs and CMOs and all the other C-suite execs to drive your digital transformation, but do you ever come to a point where you go “That’s it, I am digitally transformed!”? Experts tend to agree on “not really.” That is simply because the digital environment expands, innovates and transforms at such breakneck speed that is nearly impossible to keep abreast and implement all of the technologies that could have a beneficial impact on your business. Yesterday it was VR, AR, today it’s blockchain, ML, AI, IoT, and a host of other acronyms that are probably on the verge of becoming the new digital buzzword. What is clear, however, is that digital transformation is not an end-game as much as it is continuous evolution. Quoted by WARC, Rahmyn Kress, chief digital officer at Henkel stated at dmexco that “no one is doing digital transformation particularly well”. On a scale of 1 to 5, he rated Henkel at 2 and claimed that “five does not exist,” while even four is “incredibly ambitious.” Is it difficult? Yes. Is it worth it? The experts certainly think so.
Digital transformation is also as unique as the company implementing it, and while I will not delve into specifics that will be covered in our webinar, there are a series of common areas that are generally seen as pivotal in ensuring a company is well on its way on the digital transformation journey:
In conclusion, join us for our upcoming webinar on Digital Transformation, where leading professionals from digital, i.e. people who actually know what they’re talking about, will discuss digital transformation, with insight based on vast experience, and present concrete case studies of success stories.
The IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework is an open-source, not-for-profit industry standard that helps all parties in the digital advertising chain ensure that they comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and ePrivacy Directive when processing personal data or accessing and/or storing information on a user’s device, such as cookies, advertising identifiers, device identifiers and other tracking technologies.
With this webinar on 25 September, IAB Europe offered a complete overview of the Transparency & Consent Framework to date including a deep dive into:
Speakers included:
Watch the webinar recording here.
Join this webinar to gain insight into best practice in consumer behaviour research and media planning from the winners of the IAB Europe 2018 Research Awards.
This is the second of two webinars showcasing the winners of the IAB Europe 2018 Research Awards which recognise and celebrate the research projects and the contribution they have made to the development of the digital advertising industry.
The winning case studies of the Consumer Attitudes and Behaviours and Digital Advertising Formats categories will be presented.
The winning case studies to be presented are:
The speakers are:
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Watch the recordings of other IAB Europe webinars on our YouTube channel here.
Brussels, 26 September 2018 – The full version Code of Practice on Disinformation, drawn up in a process in which IAB Europe participated alongside other stakeholders from online advertising and platforms sectors[1], was unveiled today. European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel (Digital Economy and Society) welcomed this milestone as a step in the right direction, recognising it as the first tangible outcome of the Communication which the Commission adopted in April[2].
“Online disinformation is a major social challenge that has exposed the fragility of our democratic institutions,” said Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO. “The exercise of drawing up this Code has confronted everyone involved with the sheer, confounding complexity of the problem. It has shown up the critical importance of enlisting the broadest possible scope of well-meaning actors if we are to have any hope of tackling it, and the limits to what we will be able to achieve if we do not”, warned Feehan.
Cross-industry investment in brand safety and further development of tools with the help of relevant third-party partners can result in substantially diminishing online disinformation. “We are glad to reaffirm our long-standing commitment to brand safety. Giving brands confidence that they are buying authentic inventory and placing ads in a safe environment helps safeguarding sustainability of the digital advertising business model, which at its core supports rich range of information sources for citizens, including quality content produced”, said Feehan.
IAB Europe also encourages continued EU-level investment in research to better understand the scope and nature of online disinformation, and in consumer education, notably in the area of media literacy, to increase people’s ability critically to assess information they receive.
We are looking forward to evangelising our industry about the Code, and to continued collaboration across the digital ecosystem on this major challenge.
Contact
Greg Mroczkowski, Public Policy Manager at IAB Europe (mroczkowski@iabeurope.eu, +32 4830 58 203)
About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.
[1] Working Group comprises of the following members: AIM, EACA, EASA, EDiMA, Facebook, Google, IAB Europe, Mozilla, Twitter, WFA.
[2] Communication ‘Tackling online disinformation: a European approach’; https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/communication-tackling-online-disinformation-european-approach.
This working paper on controller and processor definitions has been prepared by the members of the IAB Europe GDPR Implementation Group under the leadership of Alan Chapell, of Chapell & Associates. The purpose of this paper is to aid companies in the online advertising ecosystem to understand the definitions of controllers and processors under the GDPR, and to provide some criteria by which they can help understand what their respective role is in relation to their partners.
This is the fifth in a series of working papers published by IAB Europe’s GDPR Implementation Group. IAB Europe’s GDPR Implementation Group brings together leading experts from across the digital advertising industry to discuss the European Union’s new data protection law, share best practices, and agree on common interpretations and industry positioning on the most important issues for the digital advertising sector. The GDPR Implementation Working Group is a member-driven forum for discussion and thought leadership, its important contribution to the digital advertising industry’s GDPR compliance efforts is only possible thanks to the work and leadership of its many participating members.
The working paper can be read or downloaded HERE.
Traditionally, the digital marketing industry collects and uses Pseudonymous Data for its services. Often, these technology companies also do not have a direct relationship with individuals. These two factors have led to a number of open questions as to how the digital marketing industry can comply with certain aspects of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In particular, data subject rights (Article 15-22 of GDPR) are principally challenging to these companies since they do not use or store directly identifiable personal data. How do ad tech companies respond to a data subject access requests if they do not have the data subject’s name and address on their system to pull the data from their system? Instead, they store the individual’s cookie and mobile ID. How do they subsequently verify that the cookie ID belongs to an individual without the individual’s name and email address, for example? Most companies would need to take an additional step to get their data subject’s name and address to truly identify the individual.
IAB Europe’s GDPR Implementation Group commenced a working group with the collective minds of data protection officers and technologists from various companies helping to think through these issues. The discussions helped craft this guidance document with options as to how to verify a data subject’s request and respond to data rights requests.
Some issues we covered:
The five steps for digital marketing companies to take now:
It is crucial to emphasise that every technology platform in the digital marketing sector is unique, providing various services to its clients. Consequently, each company will implement processes and procedures that are particular to that company, resulting in different responses to data subject rights obligations.
The working paper on Data Subject Requests can be read or downloaded below:
By Pinar Erdal, Customer Lifecycle Executive, Turk Telekom
The media landscape is shifting to a digital first environment. Worldwide media ad spend reached $232bn in 2017 (according to emarketer.com). Furthermore, this number is estimated to hit $427bn by 2022. As building a strategy on digital becomes the norm, not having a digital marketing strategy will force your brand by the wayside.
However the shift isn’t without its challenges. For advertisers, assessing ad quality requires substantial understanding of the data provided and it is important to ensure we receive effective and clear data. Ultimately, we need to know whether our ads are placed in a brand safe environment and are viewable by a human. Therefore, for advertisers, interpreting measurement results and calculating ROI of their actions while eliminating misleading information can be a huge challenge.
It is also important to note that there are several factors that can be addressed from our side in terms of ad quality. Being a consumer, we all know that a successful ad should draw attention while delivering a message in a relevant place for a sufficient amount of time. Consequently, in 2015 the MRC stated a new definition for the viewiability of the ad: “50% of their pixels are in view for a minimum of one second and for desktop video that standard is 50% for 2 seconds.”
Several publishers began to adapt their strategies to ensure maximum ad viewability on their sites. However, the conflict between publishers and advertisers is clear – publishers aim to enhance the performance of their inventory whilst advertisers strive to understand the actual value of an impression. Meanwhile, the measurement of ads for viewability has been in development with notable disparities amongst methodologies and reporting which causes further confusion amongst both publishers and advertisers.
However, enhancing ad quality takes far more than furnishing alignment among parties. Ad fraud causes gigantic exaggeration in traffic and click figures. According to Juniper research, advertisers will lose an estimated $19bn to fraudulent activities next year, equivalent to $51m per day. Further, campaign statistics originated from ad fraud have a huge impact on the decision-making of companies. Key learnings retrieved from such data can become misinterpreted as campaign performance, responsive/non-responsive customer profile and target group behavior.
In addition to ad fraud, it is important to state another factor that impacts ad quality. A successfully displayed ad might be detrimental to the brand if it appears next to undesirable content. Ads bought based on demographic data as opposed to specific site or URLs could be at higher risk. Another thing to note is that websites containing various irrelevant ads might irritate or confuse customers. It is evident that brand safety can cause a massive amount of damage to brand perception, which takes a great deal of cost, time and effort to build.
So, who shares the responsibility of improving ad quality? For the purpose of developing a sustainable industry, it should be any stakeholder in the advertising supply and delivery chain. On the demand side, it is important for advertisers to observe performance from various points of view and ensure they are up to date with the latest viewability, ad fraud and content verification technologies. On the other hand, publishers should also ensure their website traffic and inventory is analysed accurately. Ultimately, both parties should agree on the same ad quality standards.
In this equation, advertisers shoulder a great monetary pressure while being challenged with environmental threats. Reinforcing customer engagement with suitable content-placements is essential to maximise ROI of ad spend and ensure the market continues to grow.
This partnership requires a strong collaboration. And one word that is important to any relationship is trust.
Contact the author:
This webinar aims to answer three vital questions tied to digital transformation: what it is, why it is important, and how it can be achieved. With high-calibre speakers from across Europe, discussing not only the theoretical dimension, but exemplifying it with concrete case-studies, this webinar promises to deliver vital insight into what is becoming a necessity for companies and organisations regardless of their business focus.
Speakers confirmed so far:
Have a look at our other events and webinars here.
The IAB Europe Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising Report shows that advertisers continue to demand transparency, greater control, access to quality environments and inventory and are developing in-house strategies to achieve these. According to the research, in-house is now the favoured advertiser model with nearly 40% executing their programmatic trading via in-house operations. It also remains the primary model for publishers (50% now have an in-house model) and agencies (62% now have an in-house trading desk).
Now in its fourth year, the research highlights four key findings:
The amount of display, mobile and video inventory that agencies and publishers trade programmatically has continued to increase whilst the level of investment from advertisers has seen weaker growth. However, more than 90% of all stakeholder groups state that they think their programmatic investment will increase over the next 12 months.
Register and download the report below:
The European Programmatic Market Sizing Report produced in collaboration with IHS Markit reveals that the total programmatic display advertising market in Europe experienced another year of double-digit growth jumping 27.1% to €12bn in 2017.
Pertaining to this growth, 62% of European display ad spend was traded programmatically in 2017. Mobile continues to be the ‘most’ programmatic format as more than 80% of mobile was traded programmatically whilst video catches up – 74.1% of video was traded programmatically. Further, programmatic video is the force behind the growth as it saw 64.6% growth followed by programmatic mobile at 53.2%.
Whilst CEE is still small in size it continues to make large gains and grew by 65% compared to Western Europe which grew by 24%.
Programmatic revenues by format:
Programmatic revenues by region:
Register and download the report below:
COLOGNE, Germany – 12 September 2018 – IAB Europe, the industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem in Europe, announces the development of the Consent Management Platform (CMP) Validator, a tool that validates whether a CMP’s code conforms to the technical specifications and protocols detailed in the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework (Framework). Developed by The Media Trust, CMP Validator supports CMPs registered with the Framework. While currently in beta, the tool will be available on October 1 this year.
Publishers and tech vendors use CMPs to provide transparency, and collect, store, and, where appropriate, share consent information across the advertising ecosystem in order to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Today, more than 150 CMPs are registered with the Framework and fall under two categories: (1) those provided for use by multiple publishers and (2) those built in-house by publishers. A CMP’s failure to accurately read and record consumers’ choices could not only subject publishers and their tech vendors to financial penalties but also reduce publishers’ revenue and buyers’ opportunities.
“As processing a user’s personal data in compliance with the GDPR requires close cooperation between players in the advertising ecosystem, setting standards for how data is processed and ensuring the technologies being used are implemented according to those standards will benefit everyone across the digital advertising supply chain,” says IAB Europe CEO Townsend Feehan. “CMP Validator exemplifies our commitment to support the industry’s compliance with GDPR and, in the long run, will help the industry achieve greater transparency and accountability while providing publishers and their users the control and choice they want.”
“As regulations reshape the industry in the coming years, CMP Validator will help companies maintain continuous compliance with the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework and also provide more transparency to users,” says The Media Trust CEO Chris Olson. “Supporting the development and implementation of CMP Validator aligns with our mission to fix the internet by helping industry participants better manage the risks present in their digital environment.”
CMP Validator uses The Media Trust platform to compare CMP code to publicly available Framework specification requirements. Users can test their CMP code and receive real-time insight into any failures. By doing so, they are able to validate their CMP is effectively delivering on its intended benefits. Used industry-wide, the tool will reduce any friction in CMP adoption and give publishers and their digital partners greater confidence in their ability to stay compliant with GDPR.
Media contacts
Colombe Michaud - IAB Europe / T: +32/495193830 E: michaud@iabeurope.eu
Rowena Figueroa - The Media Trust / T: +1 703-893-0325 E: rfigueroa@themediatrust.com
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About IAB Europe:
IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe. www.iabeurope.eu
About The Media Trust:
The Media Trust is fixing the internet by creating better digital ecosystems to govern assets, connect partners and enable digital risk management. Established in 2005, The Media Trust leverages a physical presence in 65 countries and 500 cities to detect and remediate security, privacy, ad quality and performance violations executing on websites and mobile apps. More than 600 media publishers, ad tech providers, agencies, retailers and enterprises—including 40 of comScore’s AdFocus Top 50 websites—rely on The Media Trust to protect their digital environment, their revenue and, most importantly, their brand. Learn more at www.mediatrust.com.
Cologne, 12 September 2018 – AT DMEXCO today, IAB Europe released two new research reports providing insight into the programmatic advertising landscape in Europe.
The IAB Europe Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising Report1 shows that advertisers continue to demand transparency, greater control, access to quality environments and inventory and are developing in-house strategies to achieve these. According to the research, in-house is now the favoured advertiser model with nearly 40% executing their programmatic trading via in-house operations. It also remains the primary model for publishers (50% now have an in-house model) and agencies (62% now have an in-house trading desk).
Now in its fourth year, the research highlights four key findings:
The amount of display, mobile and video inventory that agencies and publishers trade programmatically has continued to increase whilst the level of investment from advertisers has seen weaker growth. However, more than 90% of all stakeholder groups state that they think their programmatic investment will increase over the next 12 months.
In actual terms, the European Programmatic Market Sizing Report produced in collaboration with IHS Markit revealed that the total programmatic display advertising market in Europe experienced another year of double-digit growth jumping 27.1% to €12bn in 2017. Pertaining to this growth, 62% of European display ad spend was traded programmatically in 2017. Mobile continues to be the ‘most’ programmatic format as more than 80% of mobile was traded programmatically whilst video catches up – 74.1% of video was traded programmatically. Further, programmatic video is the force behind the growth as it saw 64.6% growth followed by programmatic mobile at 53.2%.
Whilst CEE is still small in size it continues to make large gains and grew by 65% compared to Western Europe which grew by 24%.
Programmatic revenues by format:
Programmatic revenues by region:
In spite of the positive outlook, there are potential warning signs that could impact growth in the future such as not having access to the necessary resources. The attitudes research highlights that advertisers, agencies and publishers all see challenges around recruiting people with the right skill-set as well as providing relevant training to drive their businesses forward.
The ongoing challenges around campaign measurement for advertisers and a focus on sales KPIs for evaluating programmatic investment are also highlighted. This suggests that brand-specific metrics important to advertisers are still not being adequately addressed in a digital environment such as programmatic that has traditionally been direct-response led.
In terms of transaction mechanisms, private marketplaces are being used by the majority of stakeholders. Automated guaranteed is also making progress, utilised by agencies looking to secure more inventory at locked-in pricing, while being less of a focus for advertisers and publishers. As quality inventory increases in demand and becomes harder to identify in a world of auctions, headers, and exchanges, a need to safely procure inventory and guarantee its delivery is emerging. Indeed, programmatic direct dominates with just over half (53.3%) of programmatic spend transacted in this way.
Simon Halstead, Chair, IAB Europe Programmatic Trading Committee and Head of Open Demand, International at Oath said: "In its fourth year, the IAB Europe Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising research demonstrates how automated buying is quickly becoming the mainstream way to buy digital advertising. Investment levels continue to rise, and more advertisers than ever are becoming directly engaged in the process - moving to new ways of buying and working with partners on hybrid models to give them more understanding and control over their spend in this channel, as we see in the growth of private marketplaces. There are still challenges facing the industry, among them GDPR which of course was heavily prevalent on people's minds as the survey was in field, with the need for greater transparency still top of mind for many as progress is made with initiatives like ads.txt and the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework to provide the groundwork for consumer consent for publishers. Talent is also highlighted as a key challenge, with the changing role of programmatic buying and selling within brands, agencies and publishers putting greater demand on marketers and planners to understand the process and benefits of programmatic more readily as bigger, brand-led advertising is brought together with the capabilities of the algorithms and analytics within platforms to drive greater ROI."
Daniel Knapp, Executive Director TMT, IHS Markit said: “While programmatic was an exciting exception just a few years ago, it has now become ubiquitous as the standard way to transact digital advertising. Our data shows that programmatic captures the lion’s share of market growth. It is already dominant in mobile, and growing strongly in video as more quality inventory becomes available.”
Gerhard Louw, Head of International Media Management and Digital Transformation at Deutsche Telekom said: “Advertisers today are looking to get the greatest possible efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and flexibility in the way they manage their media investments. As this IAB Europe report clearly shows, Programmatic advertising forms a crucial part of the transformation for large brands to future-proof their media operations in response to the ongoing digitization of the media ecosystem. Although there are still many problems to solve and challenges to face, the report also highlights that advertisers who decide to take more control of the programmatic value chain can enhance the benefits they gain.
With the implementation of our new Media Operating Model (MOM), we at Deutsche Telekom are doing exactly that: increasing active guardianship and control over our paid media placements and outcomes, including in the area of programmatic media. Positioned as a hybrid model, one of the cornerstones of our model include the strengthening the company’s internal competence to ensure media-neutral media strategy, planning & buying.”
Ina Arens, Head of Programmatic Worldwide, MediaCom said: “The programmatic buying of digital inventory still plays a significant role in our client’s media mix. Some of our clients are aiming to invest between 50-70% of their digital media dollars into programmatic. And this year we have seen a welcoming shift towards a focus of transparency, better measurement and quality over quantity.”
David Goddard, Global Head of Programmatic Trading, BBC noted: “Programmatic digital buying has witnessed another year of increased investment and growth, coupled with industry challenges, that have encouraged key publishers and tech partners to pull together in order to overcome. I believe that the IAB Europe Attitudes to Programmatic survey is quickly becoming a crucial piece of research, benchmarking not only how the industry have dealt with previous challenges, but also a useful barometer for the year ahead. Overcoming barriers will allow the programmatic ad industry as a whole to maximise ROI and look forward to continued growth into 2019.”
For more information, please contact:
Marie-Clare Puffett, Business Programmes Manager, IAB Europe (puffett@iabeurope.eu)
1 IAB Europe Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising research
In order to understand the status of programmatic adoption across Europe, and the way in which it is being used for strategic competitive advantage on both the buy-side and sell-side of the digital advertising industry, IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee developed the Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising survey in 2015. Now in its fourth year, the 2018 report shows how attitudes, adoption and strategies are evolving.
The 2018 survey is based on a survey of more than 550 advertisers, agencies and publishers from across 29 markets.
2 About the European Programmatic Market Sizing research
The European Programmatic Market Sizing research is produced by IAB Europe and IHS Markit, taking a holistic approach to aggregating the data to ensure all stakeholder perspectives were included. The numbers are based on ad spend reported by IABs, transactional data, statistical and econometric models to infer a European market size and knowledge from industry experts. This programmatic research complements the IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark Report, the definitive guide to the state of the European digital advertising market.
About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.
www.iabeurope.eu | 
@IABEurope | 
IAB Europe
