On 3rd June, IAB Europe will be hosting our flagship event Interact, virtually! This free-to-attend virtual conference will allow the digital advertising and marketing industry to interact online! It’s never been more important to come together to help support, build and sustain our innovative industry. Expert speakers include senior executives from Coca-Cola, Zalando, Google, ProSieben, RTL, Group M, OMD and OneTrust.
In the run up to the event, we wanted to introduce you to some of the great speakers that will be discussing and debating the latest industry topics in our panel sessions.
First up, is Stephanie Hanson, Offering Manager, OneTrust
Q. Firstly, thank you for supporting Interact Online. Thanks to the help of our sponsors, we’ve been able to create a free event for all of the industry to join. Apart from your own session, what are you most looking forward to seeing at Interact Online?
Stephanie: Thanks for having me! I am looking forward to the discussion amongst all of the speakers and the engagement from the audience. It’s important for us all to stay connected with the unanticipated trajectory the year has taken thus far.
Q. What is your role at OneTrust and what’s been your personal focus so far this year?
Stephanie: I lead our line of business focused on Publishers and AdTech across Sales & Marketing, Product Development and Customer Success. I have the privilege of working directly with our customers and partners to ensure their needs are being met and that we are continuing to build the technology Publishers need to incorporate their privacy and compliance programs into their business functions. My personal focus recently has been making sure our customers are well supported in the transition to TCF v2.
Q. Outside of work (and before the lockdown!), what do you most enjoy doing in your free time?
Stephanie: I am very fortunate to have a happy, healthy 4 month old baby, so all of my time these days outside of work is devoted to being a new mom and reading lots of storybooks.
Q. OneTrust has been working very hard to educate publishers on the importance of the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) v2.0. Aside from the TCF, what else is OneTrust currently working on?
Stephanie: In addition to the TCF, we are still seeing global organisations strengthen their support for CCPA consumer rights and opt-outs ahead of the enforcement period. We are also seeing a lot of focus on how to present notice and collect consent across devices and within the OTT landscape.
Q. You will be joining the Sustainable Advertising in a Privacy-Centric World panel, which will be looking at how we can ensure that privacy remains a core focus for the industry when current challenges impact operations and revenue. Can you share some of your thoughts ahead of the session?
Stephanie: Privacy by design and a culture of compliance are crucial to incorporate into business operations today. Global organisations face the challenge of navigating differences in regulations across geographic regions and it is important to consider how transparency and consent are addressed in your organisation’s approach.
Q. The panel will also discuss the impact of a third-party cookie-less world on consumers and our industry. What do you see as the biggest opportunity and challenge?
Stephanie: With the removal of third-party cookies there is an opportunity to increase general knowledge of the value exchange between publishers and their audience. A reliance on incremental first party data is important in order to maintain addressability and retain revenue, but also presents the opportunity to change the relationship and deliver more aligned content.
Q. Why should people attend Interact Online?
Stephanie: Though we cannot attend in person events at the moment, it’s important to stay connected and understand the projections for 2020 in order to take those learnings back to our respective organisations and lead through these times.
Q. Finally, what’s been your favourite TV show or film you’ve watched during lockdown?
Stephanie: I am enjoying and highly recommend The Last Dance series on ESPN covering the history of Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.
For more information on Interact Online and to secure your free registration, please visit stg-iabeurope-iabeuropeold.kinsta.cloud/interact/
Guest Blog Post written by Alex Gevers, Senior Insights Manager from Comscore
As Senior Insights Manager at Comscore, Alex Gevers is responsible for analysing Comscore's rich data to identify market trends and to create industry insights that help businesses take informed decisions. Prior to Comscore, Alex’s career has included a broad range of market research and generalist marketing roles in startups, consultancies and multinationals. When not working, he studies pure mathematics and statistics to relax.
The Stage of the Pandemic
As historians point out, pandemics have existed for as long as humanity has existed, and at times have reshaped societies in their wake. It is, of course, too soon to anticipate the ramifications of the latest pandemic, but it will surely go down in the annals of history as the first truly digital pandemic.
Clearly, the internet has remained the main channel through which people communicate, access content, and share experiences. Online alternatives that once sounded quirky have now been adopted with gusto (live virtual fitness classes in the living room anyone?). Another noteworthy observation is that the world is undertaking an experiment in remote working on an unprecedented scale.
Moreover, as a 21st century pandemic in a globalised world, events have unfolded in hours, days and weeks, instead of months and years. Events that took place on the other side of the planet were broadcast live, on news outlets as well as on social media. As reality sunk in, priorities evolved, and so did online consumer behaviour – in the case of Europe, in a relatively synchronised fashion. This evolution happened in three stages, which we now describe.
STAGE 1. AS A DISTANT PROSPECT BECOMES REALITY, NEWS CONSUMPTION EXPLODES
January 13 to March 08, 2020
Early in January 2020, consumers across Europe were mostly focused on getting back to their pre-holiday routines. News of the coronavirus, however, which had first emerged in China at the end of December 2019, grew persistently. But things really took a turn between February 23, 2020 and March 9, 2020, during which time, Italy went from quarantining small towns in the north to implementing a full-blown national lockdown. As consumers rushed to wrap their heads around the enormity of the unfolding events, visits between the weeks of Jan 13-19, 2020 and March 02-08, 2020 to sites and apps in the “News/Information” category surged. While news sites helped consumers stay informed, other sites provided complementary information to plan ahead. Visits to sites and apps in the “Government”, “Health”, and “Education” categories increased markedly during that same period of time.
STAGE 2. CONSUMERS RE-FOCUS ON THEIR COMMUNITIES
March 09 – April 05, 2020
During the month of March 2020, countries across Europe, in quick succession, declared stringent restrictions of movement. In reaction to this, activity moved online. But a defining feature of that period is the prominence of social communities. As citizens reconnected with their loved ones and shared experiences and memes with their friends and family, activity on sites and apps in the “Instant Messenger” and “Social Networking” categories surged. Also noteworthy is the increase in traffic to the “Family & Youth” category, which reflects the fact that many parents had the dual and challenging task of both educating as well as entertaining their children.
STAGE 3. PLANNING FOR LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC
April 06 – current
As governments gradually begin to ease restrictions, there are tentative signs of renewed activity across some of the content categories that were among the worst hit by the pandemic. Chief among those are the “Automotive”, “Travel” and “Real Estate” categories. However, the partial recovery in traffic measured between the weeks of April 06-12, 2020 and April 13-19, 2020 must be interpreted with caution. First, this increase is relative to a low base, since it follows a period of sharp decrease in traffic. Second, the uplift in traffic to travel sites could also reflect that consumers are cancelling plans or rescheduling, as opposed to planning new trips. Still, with higher temperatures, sunny days, and the prospect of greater freedom of movement in the coming months, it is possible that a growing proportion of consumers are anticipating life after the pandemic and planning accordingly.
The coronavirus pandemic is far from over and remains a continuously evolving situation of unprecedented scale and unknown destination. It seems unlikely, however, that once the crisis has subsided things will go back to the way they were before. Partly caused by, and partly as a consequence of, the pandemic, consumer behaviour is rapidly evolving. Certainly, our lives have become a little more digital as a result.
The digital advertising and marketing industry is by definition ever-evolving. The rise of programmatic, the introduction of the GDPR, we have all had to be agile, adapting quickly to the constantly evolving ecosystem. However, COVID-19 will test our industry more than ever. With these challenging times that look set to impact a lot of people and businesses we care deeply about, IAB Europe wants to assure members and the wider industry that we remain committed to leading political representation and promoting industry collaboration for all stakeholders across Europe. See below for details on all of the events and initiatives we have put together to support and guide members throughout the pandemic.
Virtual events and webinars
As many of us remain in lockdown or are practicing social distancing, it’s more important than ever to enable people to benefit from the digital infrastructure. IAB Europe is known for hosting virtual events and webinars to bring people from across Europe and beyond together. Following on from our Virtual Programmatic Days, TCF workshops and educational webinars - all delivered online - we want to continue to support and guide our members during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, IAB Europe will be hosting more virtual events so the industry remains connected and keeps collaborating and innovating. Please click here to see what's coming up.
Economic Trends Forum
Led by Dr. Daniel Knapp, IAB Europe’s Chief Economist, The Economic Trends Forum (ETF) offers market analysis and industry insights for our corporate members and network of National IABs. Throughout the pandemic, we will be focusing all ETFs on the Impact of COVID-19 on our industry. Daniel will provide an economic outlook for the digital marketing and advertising industry based on his analysis of market trends and financial reports. These are must attend sessions for anyone working within the industry who wants to see what immediate changes COVID-19 will bring and how this will impact businesses across the value chain. Click here to access the webinar recordings and register for upcoming events.
Interact Online
Given the current circumstances regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, IAB Europe has taken the decision to postpone its flagship annual event, Interact, until 2021, and will instead be hosting a virtual event on 3rd June. This free-to-attend virtual conference will allow the digital advertising and marketing industry to interact online! It’s never been more important to come together to help support, build and sustain our innovative industry. Expert speakers include senior executives from Coca-Cola, Zalando, Google, ProSieben, RTL, GroupM and OMD. Click here full event details and registration.
Committee Meetings
Our committees are the backbone of our organisation. These groups bring together industry leaders and experts to support the growth and development of digital marketing and advertising in Europe. It will be business as usual for our monthly committee and task force meetings. All of these currently take place online and we will continue to follow the action packed work plans which have some great outputs planned for Q2 including a Post-Cookie Navigator, European level Brand Safety definitions, Effectiveness Measurement Framework, Connected TV best practices and Policy and TCF related programmes. So if you would like to continue to network and collaborate from the comfort of your home, the committees look forward to welcoming new members, also to benefit from relevant best practices undertaken by the industry as we are adapting to the current situation. Find out more about the committees here. Participation remains free to IAB Europe members.
Resources & Support
Our Knowledge Hub features IAB Europe and member research reports, webinar recordings, white papers, case studies and infographics. It’s a one stop shop for market insight and guidance on a range of topics including advertising spend, consumer attitudes, media consumption, brand advertising and measurement. Any exclusive ‘members only’ content will be available for free during COVID-19. You can access the Knowledge hub here.
In our Economic Trends Forum webinar on 21st April, IAB Europe Chief Economist Dr. Daniel Knapp provided an economic outlook for the digital marketing and advertising industry based on his analysis of market trends and financial reports. The recording is available here and the slides available to members here.
Alongside the economic perspective and outlook in this webinar we have undertaken an industry poll to understand industry opinion on the impact of COVID-19. The results of this poll are available here.
Stay Updated & Informed
From our weekly newsletter (sent to over 11k people) and our social media channels, we will be providing daily updates on the latest news and views from us and the wider industry. If you have any news, research or thought leadership you’d like to share, please email Helen Mussard mussard@iabeurope.eu or Marie-Clare Puffett puffett@iabeurope.eu.
For any additional information or support from the IAB Europe team, please contact communication@iabeurope.eu.
We hope you all keep safe and well,
Your IAB Europe Team
The digital advertising and marketing industry is by definition ever-evolving. The rise of programmatic, the introduction of the GDPR, we have all had to be agile, adapting quickly to the constantly evolving ecosystem. However, COVID-19 will test our industry more than ever.
To measure the impact that the pandemic is set to have on our industry, IAB Europe conduced some research in April. Through an online poll, respondents were asked a series of questions to measure the impact of COVID-19 on employment, investment and market confidence. This research is a part of IAB Europe's commitment to support and inform members with the latest economic insights and forecasts on the impact that COVID-19 will have on our industry. It follows on from the dedicated Economic Trends Forum we held on Tuesday 21st April.
The following results are based on the responses from the 183 people from across Europe who completed the poll. Key results are enclosed in the following interactive infographic. You can see the buy and sell-side responses by clicking between the two stakeholders on the graphs. The full results are available to logged in IAB Europe members here.
Want to know how one Vendor has successfully implemented version 2.0 of the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF)? Then read our Q&A with Thomas Mendrina from Xandr.
As Senior Director, Thomas Mendrina is responsible for Xandr' sell side business in Central Europe. One of his main goals is to strengthen the relationship with all publishers. In his previous position as General Manager International he was in charge of the development of the consent management platform Sourcepoint in Europe. Previously, Mendrina led the Media Publishing business unit at Google in the DACH region and, as Head of Marketplace Development, also accelerated the programmatic growth of the Google Ad Exchange. As Head of Commercial Development at Axel Springer, he developed and was responsible for non-traditional digital marketing activities. He represents Xandr as Chair of the Steering Group for the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF).
What has been Xandr’s role in the TCF?
Xandr has been involved in the TCF from the beginning in order to create a safe marketplace for buyers, sellers and users that is built on transparency around privacy. We believe that digital advertising needs a trusted and standardized signal that enables market actors to conduct advertising transactions, that allows flexibility to account for different national legal interpretations and balances different market forces. With a small number of other companies, Xandr was among the first to provide resources to IAB Europe to standardise the TCF technical specification. In our role as chair of the steering committee we launched TCF v1.1 and TCF v2.0 successfully with strong market support.
Why should publishers transition to TCF v2.0 CMPs?
Publishers are responsible for obtaining user consent when processing personal data, where required under applicable law. The latest version of the TCF provides enhanced disclosure and consent management tools to meet publishers’ consent related needs. TCF v2.0 is a substantial improvement over TCF v1.1 for publishers, both in flexibility and in the publishers’ control over how and by whom their inventory can be monetised within a privacy-protecting framework. For example, under TCF v2.0 publishers can designate precisely which vendors are permitted to process personal data and for which purposes. Publishers are critical to the success of TCF v2.0 and this is reflected by their central role in TCF v2.0.
What advice would you give to publishers who are concerned about the required work to make the transition?
For publishers that are already on TCF v1.1 the migration to TCF v2.0 is easy. Most publishers are using one of the IAB-registered CMPs who have done the hard work of supporting TCF vv2.0 so the publisher itself doesn’t have to. But for sure, there is some work to do in order to implement the CMP on the publisher website and also to set up the CMP in a way that’s most useful for the requirements of the publisher. Publishers that have not yet adopted the TCF will need to evaluate an adoption plan, similar to what publishers that have already adopted TCF did months ago.
When did you start planning your TCF 2.0 switch over?
Xandr as a platform has already rolled out support for the TCF v2.0. Xandr contributed to the development of the open source TCF string parsing libraries, the Prebid Server engineering, the Prebid.js development, and the work required to make Prebid SDK support TCF v2.0, so we understand how to integrate with nearly any publisher integration without skipping a beat. Our main focus in the next quarter is to make sure all our upstream publishers and downstream vendors are set up in a way that kick ups in the monetisation are avoided.
Which teams should be involved in the switchover?
Publishers often involve both the monetization team and the data privacy team in the switchover. For monetization it is important that the most important vendors are included in the CMP, so that legal basis can be established for those specific vendors. The yield management team needs to be involved to analyze the influence of missing vendors on monetisation. Similar to the era before TCF v2.0 the data and privacy team needs to make sure that all legal aspects are covered.
How long does the transition process take?
At the launch of the TCF v1.1, we saw transition take as little as one week and as long as several months, depending on complexity of the set up and client speed. For those upgrading from v1.1 to v2.0 it might be much simpler.
What are your top three pieces of advice about switching over to TCF 2.0?
As the TCF touches business, data, legal, tech, marketing etc. make sure to create a cross departmental initiative. Due to its complexity it’s important to have C Level support to get the ressources when they are needed. Finally, create a project plan that is realistic and includes information about code freezes and sprints.
As we approach the switch over from the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) v1.1 to TCF v2.0, we wanted to update you on the revised timeline which has taken into account the impact of COVID-19 on stakeholder’s operations.
In their recent monthly meeting, The TCF Steering Group (SG) discussed revising the timeline to accommodate requests from some group members who had asked for more flexibility in the timeline due to the unexpected pressures of the pandemic.
Please see below the revised timeline that we hope will allow CMPs, Vendors and Publishers more time to successfully implement TCF v2.0. We remain committed to supporting all stakeholders during the switchover to TCF v2.0, so will be monitoring the pandemic situation closely.
In our recent blog post, IAB Europe wrote about the need to support European Journalism during COVID-19. Every day, people are visiting their trusted news sites for the latest facts and information about COVID-19. Journalists are working around the clock to deliver. This spur in heightened traffic should be delivering the financial results to reward trusted journalism. Alas, in many cases, the opposite is happening. In the case of the UK, newspapers face losing £50m in digital revenues as advertisers use “blacklist” technology to block ads from appearing next to all stories that mention the coronavirus pandemic.
Premium and local European publishers, who are the backbone of the National IABs, offer a rich range of information sources for citizens, further supporting our democratic society. They need to be rewarded for that. Advertisers, agencies, and the ad tech companies that support them need to lean in and support quality journalism now more than ever.
Today, Google announced the fee relief programme they have put in place to support their news partners during COVID-19. News publishers that use Google Ad Manager to support their digital businesses with advertising will have their ad serving fees waived on Ad Manager for five months. Over the coming days, Google will notify their news partners that meet the requirements about the details of the program, and what they can expect to see in their account statements.
This builds on The Google News Initiative work which this week launched the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund, to deliver aid to thousands of small and local news publishers globally.
PROVIDES CLARITY & ADDRESSES BARRIERS FACED BY DIGITAL MEDIA INVESTORS
16th April 2020, Brussels: IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, today announced the launch of its new Digital Advertising Effectiveness Measurement Framework. The first version of this Framework provides a set of harmonised definitions, measures and metrics which aim to resolve the on-going confusion for investors when buying digital media research.
The rapid pace of digital disruption within marketing and advertising has given rise to a myriad of complex interpretations and explanations when it comes to knowing what to measure, which in turn has resulted in highly fragmented language throughout the industry. Up until now, there has been no common framework of language or definitions in the industry.
Commenting on the need for IAB Europe to address these challenges, Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe said “As most research companies use different definitions and methodologies, it can be confusing for stakeholders to understand what research they should undertake to measure their advertising effectiveness and be able to compare like with like. We believe a common ‘lingua franca’ and set of standards, as proposed within our Digital Advertising Effectiveness Measurement Framework, will remove this fragmentation and help accelerate more investment and understanding of digital advertising research.”
IAB Europe previously undertook an Effectiveness Measurement survey, which was the largest regional study of its kind, consisting of senior executives from across 14 major companies and boutique agencies that provide measurement solutions across EMEA and globally. The results were a stark indicator that there is little-to-no commonality across solutions. Ultimately, the research brought to light a complex and incoherent ecosystem that is difficult for even the most initiated buyers to navigate.
The new Framework has been developed to address this incoherence and complexity by providing a harmonised set of definitions, measures and metrics in three key areas of digital advertising effectiveness measurement: media, brand and sales effectiveness. Additionally, IAB Europe’s multi-stakeholder Research Committee and Effectiveness Measurement Task Force has worked closely with measurement companies within its membership to provide a map of suppliers operating in these areas in order to enhance industry understanding of the research methodologies and products available.
Following the release of the Framework, Mike Mulholland, Partner Measurement and Reporting, Mindshare commented “Media planning, execution and measurement continues to become more complex, whilst data governance and the ability to establish privacy-safe ways to handle ad impression data across publishers adds to this complexity. We hope the IAB Europe Effectiveness Measurement Framework will help the buy-side and sell-side better navigate some of this complexity.”
Phil Sumner, VP Insights Northern Europe, Teads continued “The evidence we’ve seen reveals that the language and frameworks used by each measurement company differ and in the majority of instances so too does the methodology. 73 percent of respondents to the IAB Europe Effectiveness Measurement Survey stated that clients’ knowledge and understanding of the measurement agenda and practice is critical. Along with the IAB Europe Research Committee, I am proud to bring to the market harmonised definitions, measures and metrics within the IAB Europe Effectiveness Framework to educate and inform clients.”
You can find out more about the findings of the IAB Europe Measurement Survey here. The Digital Advertising Effectiveness Measurement Framework is available to download from the IAB Europe website here.
IAB Europe is hosting a webinar on the 7th of May to provide a deeper dive into the Framework and associated measurement challenges with a multi-stakeholder panel of advertiser, agency, broadcaster and measurement supplier. Find out more and register here.
IAB Europe’s Flagship Event Interact is going virtual...
Given the current circumstances regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, IAB Europe took the decision to postpone its flagship annual event, Interact, until 2021, and is instead hosting a virtual event on 3rd June - Interact Online!
This free-to-attend virtual conference will allow the digital advertising and marketing industry to interact online! It’s never been more important to come together to help support, build and sustain our innovative industry. Expert speakers include senior executives from Coca-Cola, Zalando, Google, ProSieben, RTL, GroupM and OMD.
Confirmed speakers so far include:
Join Brands, Publishers, Tech Companies and More...
The virtual event will kick off with IAB Europe’s Chief Economist Daniel Knapp presenting the AdEx Benchmark study - the definitive guide to advertising expenditure in Europe.
Within the 2.5 hour virtual event, Interact Online will then feature a series of panel discussions and keynote speeches to discuss the accelerated change we are witnessing in our ecosystem, impacting investment, roles and responsibilities across our value chain. The event speakers from brands, agencies, publishers and tech companies will also address the impact that COVID-19 is having on our industry.
All guests will have the opportunity to Interact online through Q&As and polls during the event.
Thanks to our sponsors, registration is open to everyone in the industry and is free to attend. Register to join the virtual audience here.
Whilst the world comes together to combat COVID-19, the need for quality news media has never been greater. Every day, people are visiting their trusted news sites for the latest facts and information. Journalists are working around the clock to deliver. This spur in heightened traffic should be delivering the financial results to reward trusted journalism.
Alas, in many cases, the opposite is happening. In the case of the UK, newspapers face losing £50m in digital revenues as advertisers use “blacklist” technology to block ads from appearing next to all stories that mention the coronavirus pandemic. Across Europe, the loss may therefore run into hundreds of millions of lost revenues. This ads to other advertising monestisation challenges publishers are facing, including but not limited to campaign cancelation by advertisers who do not advertise during the crisis, ad blocking, consumers drawn to disinformation websites.
Advertisers are in a catch-22 situation of needing to still be visible but not wanting to appear alongside content whose gravity may seem incongruous with the idea of consumption or with the promotion of a particular good or service. After The Times revealed in 2017 that ads for major brands were running against terrorist content on YouTube, brand safety became the number one priority for the industry. IAB Europe’s brand safety poll at the beginning of this year revealed that brand safety continues to remain crucially important in 2020, with 77% of respondents saying that brand safety was a key priority. Fifty-seven percent of respondents also agreed that brand safety was top of mind to a greater degree than in previous years, citing increased understanding and knowledge of brand safety by advertisers.
As with any crisis, advertisers have implemented different avoidance technologies to limit negative ad adjacencies. Some have implemented post-bid blocking, others pre-bid targeting, both of which have different revenue impact on publishers. Keyword blocking is part of the avoidance strategy. COVID-19 has caused some buyers to extend the use of their avoidance technologies to prevent some or all COVID-19 ad adjacencies. The inclusion of the exact match words such as ‘crisis', ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’ has had the unintended consequence of blocking all advertising from appearing on COVID-19 related content, thus limiting the availability of monetizable inventory to the publisher. Citing IAS data, Digiday recently reported that in February, “coronavirus” became the second-most common word on block lists for news publishers, up from eighth-most common in January .
Whilst it is important that advertisers ensure their advertising does not appear next to content that is unsuitable for their brand, they must be careful about their reliance on exact match keyword blocking which could restrict revenue flow for publishers and news sites which are fundamental to providing up to date information on the pandemic. This seems particularly relevant in light of the additional challenge of users being confronted with deliberate disinformation, making support for reliable coverage all the more important.
So how can a responsible approach to brand safety ensure that brands remain protected and quality journalism is rewarded?
IAB Europe recommends that during COVID-19 a blanket brand safety approach of blocking all Coronavirus or COVID-19 content is not applied. Brands should work closely with their media agencies, verification companies, and trusted news partners to make an informed decision by looking at the facts about the value of news environment and implementing smart solutions to ensure that their advertising continues to reach the correct audiences during COVID-19.
IAB Europe member Emily Roberts, Programmatic Trading Manager, EMEA from BBC Global News commented “Audiences are turning to us now, more than ever, with record-breaking numbers of people coming to BBC.com each week. COVID-19 is again highlighting just how important trusted news is in people’s lives, helping them understand and gain perspective on key issues and events. We have always been there to help our audiences understand the world and the same philosophy that underpins our editorial commitment also underpins our commitment to our commercial partners – we want our partners to know we are here to help and want to get through these unprecedented and challenging times together. Therefore, we are asking brands to be more nuanced with their contextual targeting and not to block news. You can access our audiences in a brand safe and brand suitable environment and at the same time support trusted, quality journalism”.
Some of the national IABs have already produced best practice guidance to support these discussions.
Premium and local European publishers, who are the backbone of the National IABs, offer a rich range of information sources for citizens, further supporting our democratic society. They need to be rewarded for that. Advertisers, agencies, and the ad tech companies that support them need to lean in and support quality journalism now more than ever.
Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe
When IAB Europe launched TCF v2.0 in August 2019, it was a huge achievement for the whole industry. It also felt like the finish line of a long marathon in which all body parts had been called to contribute intensely. Yet this was also the beginning of a new race.
Vendors and Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) then needed to appreciate the complexity of TCF v2 and figure out how to implement it and take full advantage of all its benefits in comparison to TCF v1, while maintaining their revenue streams. The main benefits of TCF v2 include 1) better adherence to GDPR requirements 2) more transparency & control for users 3) more control for publishers in their choice of vendors, and 4) additional legal bases flexibility for vendors.
Now CMPs are rushing to the finish line to get TCF v2.0 compliant and contribute to improving the level of GDPR compliance across the digital advertising ecosystem.
All new CMPs looking to participate in the TCF should register and submit their TCF v2 implementation demo as soon as possible. All new CMPs should indeed be validated before they can receive their sub-domain and their CMP ID. In parallel, all existing CMPs should request TCF v2 participation and submit their TCF v2 implementation. On 30 June, TCF v1 will be deprecated.
When CMPs are certified as compliant, they are published on a dedicated list here before they can be published in the TCF v2 JSON file here. IAB Europe also provides compliant CMPs with a seal as one of the tools they can use to communicate their compliance effort to stakeholders.
Now, just a few days after the 31 March deadline, there are already TCF v2 compliant CMPs. More have submitted their implementation and are working on updates.
On CMP compliance, the TCF Steering Group has adopted as of 7 April, two "hotfixes" to the TCF v2.0 policies, aimed at improving CMP flexibility and their ability to deliver a user-friendly experience in the first layer of v2 user interfaces. These include the introduction of five new Stacks for CMPs to choose from (Stacks 38-42); and the removal of the requirement to disclose Special Purposes and Features in the 1st UI layer.
Please note that the latest version of the TCF Policy document is now Version 2020-04-08.3a. The amended TCF Policies is available here. Furthermore, a few compliance failures have caught our attention so below we've provided some additional guidance to help CMPs.
CMP Compliance Guidance 101
Policy Check 2: Can users review the standard legal text?
It is required that the UI includes the standard legal text of all Purposes, Special purposes, Features and Special Features in the UI. The standard legal text does not necessarily need to be featured in the first layer.
Policy Check 10: Does the 1st layer of the UI provide an example of personal data processed?
It is required that the first layer of the UI includes an example of personal data processed. The sole mention of “cookies” does not qualify as an example.
Policy Check 12: Does the 1st layer of the UI provide information about the Purposes and/or Stacks, and Special Features used by third parties? (Updated on 7 April 2020)
Many CMPs are concerned about how much information should appear on the first layer and to not overwhelm their users. This was also a major concern for TCF v2 contributors when they drafted the TCF v2 Policies and its Data Processing purposes. This is how the concept of “Stacks'' emerged. “Stacks” are a combination of purposes allowing CMPs to provide information about TCF v2 purposes in the first layer in a user-friendly way. Also note that, while in TCF v1 it was possible to use tooltips or expansion options to show this information, TCF v2 is more stringent in that the information must be immediately visible, so it is no longer possible to use these approaches in TCF v2. As of 7 April, it is no longer required to include Special purposes and Features in the first layer of the User Interface.
Policy Check 14: Does the 1st layer of the UI provide information about the scope of the consent choice, i.e. global consent, service-specific consent, or group-specific consent?
CMPs need to send two sets of test results, one for a service-specific configuration and one for a global configuration.
Policy Check 17: Does the 1st layer of the UI advise the user of their right to object to their personal data being processed on the basis of legitimate interest (if any)?
Most CMPs mention the legitimate interest legal basis in the first layer but they fail to properly advise users of their right to “object” per se. Other ways of formulating users’ “right to object” will not be reviewed as compliant.
Policy Check 19: Is the user able to review the list of Vendors, their Purposes, Special Purposes, Features, Special Features, associated Legal Bases and a link to their privacy policy, as well as make granular choices per Purpose and per Vendor?
Many CMPs provide a list of the vendors but they fail to provide the list of purposes that the vendors process data for and its corresponding legal basis in the UI.
Policy Check 23: If legitimate interest is used by any Vendors as a legal basis, does the 2nd layer allow users to object to the processing of their personal data, per Purpose and per Vendor?
Most CMPs use separate toggle for the consent legal basis and for the legitimate interest legal basis, per vendor and per purpose (where applicable). This is what IAB Europe recommends. In case CMPs want to use the same toggle for legitimate interest and for consent, the toggle must be ‘off’ by default and as such, both the consent signals and legitimate interest signals need to be ‘off’ by default.
TCF v2 compliance is of crucial importance and we want to thank all CMPs, vendors and publishers for their efforts in the roll-out of TCF v2 to the market. For more information about registration, please contact framework@iabeurope.eu. To submit your TCF v2 implementation demo, please contact tcf.compliance@iabeurope.eu.
Colombe Michaud, Project Lead, Data Protection & Privacy, IAB Europe.
The digital advertising and marketing industry is by definition ever-evolving. The rise of programmatic, the introduction of the GDPR, we have all had to be agile, adapting quickly to the constantly evolving ecosystem. However, COVID-19 will test our industry more than ever.
IAB Europe has created a short poll to understand how COVID-19 has and will impact the digital advertising and marketing industry.
This short industry poll should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete. It will enable IAB Europe to ascertain your opinion and market insights into how the pandemic is affecting you and your business. The findings will be shared during IAB Europe’s Economic Trends Forum on the 21st April.
During these unprecedented times, IAB Europe remains committed to ensuring the digital advertising industry can continue to collaborate and connect. Your help in completing this survey is therefore gratefully received!
