As we say so long to 2020 and get ready to welcome 2021, we take a look back on some of IAB Europe’s highlights from what has been a great (albeit very different) year.
From navigating the post-third-party cookie era to creating definitions and best practices for new emerging channels, right through to learning how to adapt in exceptional times, no topic was left unexplored. We’d like to say a big THANK YOU to all of our members that came together and helped drive the industry forward, despite the increased workloads and lockdowns we faced. 2020 has further cemented what we already knew, that our members are the foundation of our organisation and we very much look forward to working with you all in 2021.
With that, and to wrap everything up, we’ve put together our top 5 focus areas for 2020, so you can catch up on what was discussed, debated and delivered throughout the year.
1. Digital Advertising Research, Definitions, and Best Practices
Measuring the value and growth of our industry across Europe has been of huge importance to us this year. Which is why, in collaboration with members of our Research Committee, we have undertaken benchmarking projects and shared a number of pan-European studies and surveys to help gain a deeper understanding of key topics such as Digital Video Advertising, Programmatic Advertising, and more.
Discover some of our top 2020 research projects below:
IAB Europe’s Channels and Formats Taskforce (a part of our Brand Advertising Committee) has also been on a mission this year. Looking to increase awareness and drive investment by providing best practices and guidance in emerging and established digital advertising channels and formats. Helping brands and buyers to navigate the opportunities new platforms bring, it has been a collaborative effort to create harmonised definitions and provide best practices across Europe for some of the most exciting new channels: Connected TV, Programmatic Out Of Home (OOH) and Digital Audio. Check out our 101 guides below, and keep an eye out as we look to take a deeper dive into these channels next year.
2. Post Third-Party Cookie Education and Guidance
Back in January, IAB Europe sought to unearth what we can expect from the post third-party cookie era, and what we can do to work together as an industry to navigate it. Working in close collaboration with our Programmatic Trading Committee, we covered a series of webinars and panel discussions and even released a Guide to Navigating the Post Third-Party Cookie Era, to ensure everyone was up to speed. An update to this guide is due to be released in January, with key work continuing through 2021, so be sure to keep an eye out for this.
In 2020 we also launched a new joint Post Third-Party-Cookie taskforce with IAB France, open to all National IABs and their members. Its mission is to enlist a broad network of European stakeholders to support the emergence of a technical outcome or outcomes, in which comprehensive individual privacy control and responsible addressable internet advertising coexist safely and comfortably, to support a rich and diverse universe of online content and services available, at low or no cost to users. Meeting bi-weekly, it’s been a great forum for everyone to keep up to date and provide input to this new digital era, with this work set to continue well into 2021.
If you’re interested in joining the taskforce, please use this form.
3. Digital Advertising Trust and Transparency
Trust and transparency is fundamental to a sustainable future for digital advertising. As such, in collaboration with our Quality and Transparency Taskforce and Programmatic Trading Committee, IAB Europe took the time to assess quality and transparency concerns and address the challenges that the industry faced across 2020. Taking a deep dive into everything from Supply Chain Transparency to Brand Safety and Suitability, we looked at how to overcome some of the industry’s biggest hurdles and to see how we can fuel consumer trust and brand investment in the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem.
Take a look at some of our top 2020 trust and transparency outputs below:
4. Policy Advocacy and Legal
As always, IAB Europe represents the interests of Europe’s digital marketing & advertising industry to ensure that future EU policy and regulation enables continuing innovation and sustainable media, while maximising the industry’s potential to contribute to Europe’s digital economy.
5. Creating a Platform for Continued Collaboration
As many of us were in lockdown and forced to practice social distancing, it was more important than ever to enable people to connect and benefit from the digital infrastructure. IAB Europe is known for hosting virtual events and webinars to bring people from across Europe and beyond together. In 2020 we increased our number of virtual events by 150%, reaching over 10,000 people! All of the events were recorded and can be accessed from our knowledge hub. Key highlights included:
Once again a big thank you to each and everyone of you who got involved in our initiatives this year, and made all of our outputs such a huge success. We hope you have a wonderful break and look forward to collaborating and continuing to drive the industry forward with you in the new year.
16th December, 2020, Brussels, Belgium — The European Commission published its Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), draft EU legislative acts to create a safer digital space for users of digital services, as well as a level playing field so that digital businesses can grow within the single market and compete globally. IAB Europe notes the Commission's interest in ensuring a sufficient level of transparency in digital advertising.
Against this background, we wish to reaffirm the industry’s commitment to maintaining transparency and quality across the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, for all forms of trading. We continue our investment in industry-driven approaches and technical standards to generate said transparency and increase trust.
IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) is but one example of a standard which contributes to these objectives, by operationalising the already significant transparency and accountability requirements under the GDPR. Its transparency mechanisms empower users to make informed choices regarding the processing of their personal data as well as identities of companies that process the data in connection with the delivery of digital advertising and measurement, while its due diligence record keeping requirements contribute to accountability of the parties involved in the ad placement process.
We encourage endorsement of industry-driven approaches by the EU policymaker, as it helps in driving the market participation, and ensuring the continued uptake of market solutions. Any successful action in the digital ads ecosystem must be a collective effort shared by the whole supply chain, requiring investment from all parties involved: marketers, agencies, publishers and technology companies alike.
We look forward to engaging with the EU policymakers and legislators on the DSA dossier, to ensure that digital advertising can continue to support a pluralistic media and Europeans’ access to the free and open internet dependent on ad-supported content.
For more information, please contact:
Greg Mroczkowski, Director, Public Policy - mroczkowski@iabeurope.eu
Helen Mussard, Marketing & Industry Strategy Director, IAB Europe - mussard@iabeurope.eu
Authored by Industry Leaders from Across Europe
Provides Valuable Insights and Preventative Measures to Ad Fraud in the Digital Advertising Ecosystem
8th December 2020, Brussels, Belgium: IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, has today released its ‘Guide to Ad Fraud’, to help drive media quality and effectiveness in the digital advertising industry.
This guide has been developed by experts from IAB Europe’s Quality and Transparency Taskforce (a part of the Brand Advertising Committee). It defines specific types of fraud in digital advertising and outlines how verification companies work to combat new and emerging types of ad fraud across all channels. It also provides top tips for buyers and planners to prevent Ad Fraud in their next campaigns and serves as a call for action to the industry to follow best practices to tackle ad fraud.
Brands in Europe are now spending around €4.7 billion on digital advertising, and they want to know that this significant investment isn’t squandered. But with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) estimating that by 2025 over $50 billion will be wasted annually on Ad Fraud, it is vital for all stakeholders to ensure they have the right preventive measures in place. A key part of the guide therefore focuses on the importance of rapid detection, which includes the stages of ad fraud detection that companies should follow. Commenting on the importance of Ad Fraud detection, Diana Romero, Manager, Digital Standards and Partnerships, at Publicis Media Exchange said "Publicis Media agrees with and supports the industry's best practices to prevent Ad Fraud, which mandate that marketers should work with at least one verification provider and TAG-accredited partners; take advantage of tools like ads.txt and app-ads.txt; and stay up-to-date on potential threats in new channels that may not be addressed yet by verification providers."
It has been a collaborative effort to produce this European-level guide for Ad Fraud, with contributors including Integral Ad Science (IAS), DoubleVerify, Oracle Data Cloud, Group M, Pubmatic, and Publicis Media. Agora S.A also contributed their knowledge on behalf of IAB Poland.
Commenting on the importance of the guide to help tackle Ad Fraud, Nick Morley, Managing Director EMEA at Integral Ad Science said “The fight against ad fraud is ongoing and ever-changing. As fraudsters become more sophisticated, it is imperative that advertisers and publishers ramp up their fraud prevention technologies to stay one step ahead. Integral Ad Science welcomes collaborative, industry-wide efforts to combat ad fraud and is proud to be a part of this IAB industry guide, alongside key partners. The guide serves as a vital resource to understand the numerous forms of ad fraud, its challenges, and provides actionable solutions to the digital advertising community.”
Mark Kopera, Head of Product for Moat by Oracle Data Cloud echoed this point, commenting that “Oracle Data Cloud is committed to both educating the industry through initiatives like this collaborative paper, and providing sophisticated ad fraud solutions to arm marketers against known and future threats. We’re proud to work with IAB Europe on this piece, and hope it serves to jumpstart conversations around the various types of ad fraud, the solutions available today, and the importance of choosing the right partner to fight this battle.”
In order to build a sustainable future for digital advertising, it is essential that the industry collaborates to build solutions that limit the influence of fraud across all channels, formats, and devices. Commenting on IAB Europe’s focus to raise quality and transparency in digital advertising, Helen Mussard, Marketing & Industry Strategy Director at IAB Europe said, “When we set out with the work of this Taskforce in January, our main focus for the year was to build confidence and trust in digital advertising and marketing. With the threat of Ad Fraud ever-present and ever-evolving, we have seen just how fundamental this type of work is to the future of our industry - building trust through sharing best practices. Wide advances in verification tools and machine-learning technology capabilities are enabling us to tackle this threat, and being able to provide a space for members to collaborate on this work is vital if we want to beat the bots. The Ad Fraud Guide is proof that industry initiatives work to create collaborative success.”
IAB Europe continues to work with its members to shed light on key topics around quality and transparency, ensuring our industry is built on trust.
IAB Europe’s Guide to Ad Fraud can be downloaded from IAB Europe’s website here.
Today, IAB Europe has submitted its written response to a preliminary report issued by the Belgian Data Protection Authority’s (APD) Inspection Service in mid-October.
The preliminary report contained the conclusions of an investigation conducted by the Inspection Service and alleged that IAB Europe violated the GDPR and Belgian data protection law. The report was issued following receipt of complaints from commercial and civil society organisations lodged with a number of EU Member State Data Protection Authorities in 2018 and 2019. These complaints contained sweeping allegations of non-compliance with EU law in connection with real-time bidding (RTB) for digital advertising, but also challenged the legality of the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), a standard developed by IAB Europe to enable companies to comply with certain requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive.
The APD’s preliminary report contains findings that appear to relate to the TCF and findings that relate to IAB Europe itself. In particular, it asserts that certain specific aspects of the TCF violate the GDPR, and that IAB Europe – as Managing Organisation of the TCF – is a “controller” of personal data processed by participants in the TCF. The majority of issues raised in the report appear to stem from this controllership finding.
IAB Europe believes that the report demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the Transparency and Consent Framework. We reject the suggestion that the TCF violates the GDPR in any way and are confident that our response will result in the allegations being dismissed.
Clarifying the operation of the Transparency and Consent Framework
The Inspection Service report misunderstands and misrepresents the TCF, including the objectives it is intended to achieve and how it operates in practice.
It challenges the fact that the TCF allows for the processing of personal data on the basis of ‘legitimate interests’, suggesting that the TCF (and by extension, IAB Europe) “determines” this legal basis. However, it is the participants in the TCF who decide whether or not they want to rely on legitimate interests as their legal basis and for which purposes – the TCF does not decide or mandate that. And although several DPAs may not support the use of legitimate interests for profiling, the GDPR does not prohibit it. It cannot be correct to bring an enforcement action against an activity that is not prohibited.
The report also alleges that the TCF breaches the GDPR by not providing detailed rules for the processing of special category data. But the processing of this type of data is not permitted under the Framework – in fact, it is explicitly excluded from its scope. Finally the report suggests that TCF participants can simply flout the rules without any consequences and that CMPs “may” continue to transact with publishers whom they suspect of engaging in conduct that breaches the TCF Policies. This is simply untrue. The Policies explicitly require that CMPs who suspect publishers of conduct that breaches the Policies inform IAB Europe and cease working with the Publisher within TCF. They also strictly forbid CMPs from carrying out any publisher instruction that would breach the Policies.
Clarifying the role of IAB Europe
If it is unreasonable to target an enforcement action against an activity that is not prohibited, it is even more unreasonable to bring that action against an organisation like IAB Europe, which simply manages a best practice standard and which has no say in what purposes and legal bases individual companies decide to rely on.
With respect to the novel finding that IAB Europe acts as a data controller in the context of the TCF, we believe the report errs in its interpretation of the GDPR and relevant case law.
Processing decisions and operations are carried out exclusively by companies in the course of their business activities. These companies participate in the TCF to help with their legal compliance efforts but such participation is not in any way a precondition for them to process data or the reason why they process the data in the first place.
As a result, and since IAB Europe has no say in the purpose or means of data processing by participants, nor does it trigger such processing, it is not a controller under the definition of GDPR and prevailing case law and guidance.
IAB Europe has never been considered as a data controller in any Member State case law or guidance, despite the fact that multiple DPAs have issued opinions on online advertising, RTB and on the TCF itself.
It is unclear what consumer protection objective could be achieved by designating a trade association operating a legal compliance standard as a data controller.
It is also worth noting that should this highly unconventional interpretation of IAB Europe’s role in managing the TCF be upheld, it would eliminate at a stroke the possibility for any industry body to develop a GDPR Code of Conduct as no such body could sanely contemplate assuming this degree of responsibility for the actions of potentially hundreds or thousands of other organisations.
Conclusion and next steps
In conclusion IAB Europe is confident that our robust defence submitted today will ensure that these allegations will be dismissed and that the participants of the TCF will be able to continue to offer users greater transparency, choice and accountability, in full compliance with the GDPR. Data Protection Authorities have a responsibility to act in an impartial way, and we trust that the process operated by the APD will deliver a fair and unbiased ruling.
Upcoming milestones in the process are as below (timings as from the oral hearing remain speculative):
Press contacts
This year, IAB Europe's committees and taskforces have produced some incredible outputs. From producing guides on the Post Third-Party Cookie Era and Brand Safety & Brand Suitability, to creating pan-European definitions for CTV and 101s on Digital Audio, our members are driving the industry forward by sharing their expertise and best practices.
Our members have also taken part in over 50 virtual events reaching over 20,000 people!
We have a range of committees and taskforces that every IAB Europe member can join. Below, we've put together a summary of our committees so you have all the information you need to sign up today!
Why join a Committee?
Being a part of a committee will help you to expand your knowledge, network and provide valuable education and guidance to the wider community. You can stay up to date on the latest regulatory affairs and public policy initiatives that promote self-regulation, best practice and industry standards. Most of our committees organise events so you have the opportunity to become a speaker or moderator at large events which bring together hundreds of industry peers. Finally, being a part of a committee means you can influence the work we are doing to drive forward the future of our industry.
What's involved?
Each committee has a monthly conference call with a quarterly face to face meeting. The committee Chair and Vice-Chair lead each session and proactively involve members to get the very best from each meeting. The latest projects and outputs will be discussed so members can decide what they'd like to get involved with and work on. Most committees will focus on two to three key projects each quarter which could range from producing a white paper or discussing the latest policy situation to conducting industry research and market insights. For any output you are involved with, you and your company will be cited in the report and have the opportunity to be involved in subsequent PR or events.
What Committees can I join?
Please see below for an overview on the committees you can join.
