Brussels, 27 October 2021 -- IAB Europe, representing the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, today launched its #NoEasyWins campaign, highlighting how a ban on targeted advertising would be an ‘own goal’ for digital Europe with clearly foreseeable negative consequences for consumers, small businesses and small publishers alike.
As the negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) package reach a climax in the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee (IMCO), the campaign corrects some of the untruths originating in some political circles in Brussels. Building on a wealth of existing evidence about the value of targeted advertising, it reminds policymakers that there are no easy wins in the complex area of digital policymaking.
Proposals to ban or restrict targeted ads in Europe would have serious, far-reaching consequences. Data-driven advertising is crucial for the small businesses that depend on it to find customers, for the publishers who rely on it for revenues, and for the millions of users across Europe who want the freedom to choose which online content and services they pay for via subscription and which they access in exchange for a willingness to receive advertising.
The digital campaign features short videos asking viewers to consider who really loses out when access to highly effective, low cost tools is taken away from businesses. The videos are available on a dedicated landing page here and will be shared extensively online.
Commenting on the campaign, IAB Europe CEO Townsend Feehan said: ‘‘The aim of the DSA - to make the internet a place European consumers can navigate with confidence, including by reducing the incidence of online disinformation - is a crucial one that the online advertising industry supports on the merits and out of self-interest. We fully endorse provisions in the original DSA proposal such as mandatory information disclosures on the identity of the advertiser, including for issue-based and political advertising, that go beyond what is already laid down in EU privacy and data protection law.
But a move to ban “targeted” advertising would penalise SMEs and small publishers without necessarily having any material impact on online disinformation. As often in politics, there are no easy wins. We hope these short videos will encourage MEPs to resist the temptation to lay on more rules and instead insist that the existing rules be effectively enforced.”
The #NoEasyWins campaign highlights how targeting is essential to growing advertising revenue which has become even more important for Europe’s SMEs and other data-driven businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing them to shift their marketing exclusively online. Earlier this year, in an open letter these businesses - from the worlds of digital media publishers to content creators, entrepreneurs, and software developers - voiced their firm opposition to a ban on targeted ads, instead calling on the EU policymakers to focus on effective enforcement of the EU’s current data protection framework.
Attesting to the critical importance of ad revenues for smaller players, Benedikt Blomeyer, Director EU Policy at Allied for Startups, said: ‘‘For startups, targeted ads are a great equalizer, enabling them to challenge big incumbents on the basis of their product. Many startups run targeted ads, almost all startups use ads. An outright ban on targeted ads would ultimately make it harder for innovative products and services to reach businesses and consumers in Europe.’’
Confirming ad-related growth opportunities in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and smaller markets, Marcin Nowacki, Vice-President of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers and the President of European Enterprise Alliance, acknowledged: “Targeted advertising supports thousands of small and medium businesses in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) allowing them to connect with new customers and helping them to grow. There are no easy wins in digital policymaking, but a ban on targeted advertising would be extremely short-sighted and would ultimately harm the CEE economy at a particularly fragile time.”
Finally, Tamara Daltroff, Director General of the European Association of Communications Agencies, shed some light on the broader, wide-ranging value of advertising: “Targeted ads are a valuable tool used by businesses of all sizes, including start-ups and SMEs, NGOs and publishers across Europe. A ban on targeted ads would deprive them of reaching local and relevant customers, clients and supporters. Also, targeted ads play a critical role in funding a free and pluralistic internet and keeping the digital economy and information accessible to all.”
The #NoEasyWins campaign is a digital campaign centred on a number of videos which are available at the following site: www.noeasywins.eu.
A recent report issued by the European Parliament’s Greens/EFA group nicely crystallises why the debate about whether to use the Digital Services Act (DSA) to impose a ban on personalised advertising is both highly emotional and almost completely unproductive.
The “Future of Online Advertising” report shows people of good faith trying to wrestle with a societal challenge – online disinformation – that is of such scale and consequence that even another week without an effective policy solution seems intolerable. But the key arguments it makes – that an outright ban on the use of personal data in advertising is needed and that moving the EU to a “contextual-only” digital advertising paradigm will save our democracies – rest on assumptions that are factually wrong. Policymakers trying to make sense of all this cannot make sound decisions based on fundamentally flawed assumptions. And new laws cannot right wrongs that arise from poor enforcement of existing ones.
Contextual advertising is relevant but not a panacea
The first flawed assumption is that locking Europe into a contextual-only paradigm will create a level playing field amongst the various forms of online content and services – from large publishers and platforms to smaller publishers and millions of other sites – that are competing for advertiser spend. There is no basis in logic for this claim. Contextual advertising only makes sense if you have niche content (say, a site about taking care of dogs or mountain-biking), a search engine (as the report itself acknowledges, Google Search is a prime example of contextual advertising), or the financial muscle to produce lifestyle features or other consumer-focused content that lends itself to such advertising.
Local news media doing investigative reporting to hold power to account do not fall into any of these categories, yet they need to fund journalists. Most publishers will tell you that they struggle to find advertisers willing to promote their products next to articles about difficult, controversial or even just political topics, which creates incentives for these topics to simply not be covered. Is relying exclusively on this type of advertising really, as the report’s authors claim, a good strategy for sustaining our democracies? I fear not.
The report cavalierly acknowledges that there will be short-term losers in the “complex transition” to a contextual-only world, but neglects to mention that these will certainly include small, generalist news organisations that cannot compete with larger, more data-rich sites. As the European Innovative Media Publishers Group argued in their response to the report, “introducing more barriers to succeed and grow will only have one effect: less media plurality.”
Dismantling disinformation
The second flawed assumption is that a ban on the use of personal data in advertising will greatly reduce online disinformation. This argument ignores the fact that contextual advertising can also be used by bad actors to find users who are likely to be receptive to disinformation (digital news outlets with an extreme political orientation, websites catering to gun enthusiasts, social media communities with shared fears or passions, etc.). And, of course, individuals who are drawn to conspiracy theories or share pernicious political convictions can find each other without any advertising at all.
That said, we welcome the fact that the European Commission is preparing a proposal to boost transparency in the use of paid political advertising and look forward to engaging with policymakers on this important topic.
Dealing with data
The third flawed assumption is that contextual advertising does not entail the processing of personal data. This is factually incorrect. At the very least, contextual advertising requires processing of users’ IP addresses, which the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has found to be personal data. Moreover, for advertising to have any commercial value, its effectiveness must be susceptible of being measured, which, again, will necessitate personal data processing. It is unhelpful and misleading to claim that a move to contextual ads will put us in a “post-personal-data” space.
The report also contains a grossly misleading description of ‘how personalised advertising works’, describing a scenario that entails multiple breaches of existing data protection law and presenting it as somehow permitted or common practice. In the scenario, personal data – including sensitive data – is processed without user knowledge or agreement, something that would be a severe breach of the ePrivacy Directive and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). How can MEPs make sensible decisions about new law on the basis of a picture that completely ignores what is already in existing law?
Sustainable solutions
Solutions that actually move the needle are likely to include more effective enforcement of the existing rules, greater transparency about where funding for both advertising and content online comes from, and bigger investments in improving media literacy amongst the general public.
These may seem less satisfying in the short term than banning something, but they would have the merit of genuinely and sustainably addressing the pressing problems we face, and which the authors of the Greens/EFA report, like all of us, are working in good faith to solve.
Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe
Prior to joining IAB Europe, Townsend worked for Microsoft Legal & Corporate Affairs in Brussels and ran EU industry associations in the ICT, consumer electronics and biotechnology sectors. She previously represented Microsoft on IAB Europe’s Board. Townsend has an M. Phil. in European policy from the University of Edinburgh.
On 21st October, IAB Europe hosted its second Virtual CTV Event of 2021, and with over 350 people in attendance, it was a huge success!
Featuring a series of panel discussions and market deep dives from IAB Europe and IAB Europe member companies, the event uncovered key topics such as the CTV landscape in 2021 and beyond, the challenges and opportunities that come with measuring CTV campaigns, brand safety, and brand suitability for CTV, and the latest updates for capturing user consent in this channel.
A big thank you to our event partners Magnite and OneTrust for helping to make this event possible.
In this post, you will find an overview of each of the sessions covered, as well as video recordings for you to view in your own time. Enjoy!
Watch the full event recording here.
Opening Keynote: The CTV Landscape
Daniel Knapp, Chief Economist, IAB Europe
In the opening keynote, our Chief Economist, Daniel Knapp presented an overview of the latest stats and facts from the CTV ecosystem.
Watch the session recording here.
Panel 1: The CTV Landscape in 2021 and Beyond
The first panel session of the event addressed the latest developments helping to shape the CTV landscape. They looked at partnerships, players, and performance in CTV advertising.
Daniel Knapp, Chief Economist, IAB Europe moderated this panel and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel 2: Challenges and Opportunities for Measuring CTV Campaigns
In this panel, experts discussed the biggest challenges for our industry when it comes to CTV and cross-screen measurement. They discussed what hurdles currently exist and what needs to be done to overcome them. Can the industry come together to tackle this? Who is best placed to lead this initiative?
Anita Caras, Research Director, Yahoo! moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel 3: Brand Safety and Suitability For CTV
Following on from the release of IAB Europe’s Guide to Brand Safety in CTV, the panel discussed the latest technological advancements for ensuring brand-safe placements in CTV. They also discussed how brand suitability can be applied to CTV campaigns, sharing best practices and examples.
Justin Adler-Swanberg, Director, Marketplace Quality, MediaMath moderated this panel and was joined by:
Watch the panel session here
Closing Keynote: How to Collect Consent & Preferences in CTV Applications with OneTrust
In this session, Lukas Rottleb, Solutions Engineering Lead from OneTrust discussed the immense growth, opportunities, and challenges for OTT, and receive a deep dive into OneTrust’s OTT App Compliance solution that enables publishers and advertisers to capture consent and preferences from within OTT applications and CTV environments to support compliance with GDPR, CCPA, IAB TCF 2.0 and more.
Watch the session recording here
IAB Europe is excited to announce the launch of the IAB Europe Technical Committee and is inviting interested IAB Europe members to join and to help shape its agenda over the coming weeks.
The Technical Committee will ensure that work done by other committees and taskforces, whether on the policy & legal compliance side or the industry promotion side, is grounded in a thorough understanding of the technology that underpins digital advertising delivery. It will be a forum for information exchange and technical projects, on how new technology trends in data processing, ad delivery, measurement, brand safety, ad fraud, ad serving and the whole programmatic ecosystem are affecting, and are expected to affect, the digital advertising business in our region and IAB Europe’s ability to support the industry to address the needs of consumers, clients and regulators
It will also ensure that IAB Europe's engagement with external bodies on technical topics, including the IAB Tech Lab, W3C and similar international standardisation fora, is informed by the necessary technical analysis and insight.
Participants should be technologists or software engineers, or others in a technical role within agencies, ad tech companies and publishers. National IABs who wish to participate but do not feel they have an in-house head who fits this profile should contact me to see what solution we can find.
Although the IAB Europe team have already prepared a ‘starter list’ of topics to be addressed by the Committee, we would be pleased to hear bilaterally from anyone who has a suggestion, question or an idea. Please send them to IAB Europe's Technical Director, Alexandre Nderagakura (nderegakura@iabeurope.eu).
IAB Europe is excited to be getting this new forum underway, and looks forward to working with you in it.
To join the committee, please use this sign up form here.
Brussels, 14 October 2021 - IAB Europe is dismayed by a new campaign and report, launched by the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament, that paint huge swathes of the internet economy as ‘manipulation’, and call for an outright ban on the use of personal data in advertising that would spell disaster for European media, start-ups and small businesses.
The campaign presents a misleading view that data-driven advertising, and personalised advertising in particular, is uniquely harmful and escapes user control.
It draws on a report that proposes to unequivocally outlaw the business practice, completely disregarding the full applicability of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to any business activity underpinned by personal data.
The paper blatantly ignores a universally accepted all-encompassing definition of ‘personal data’ under the GDPR, disingenuously putting forward a variation of ‘contextual advertising’ as a panacea to all challenges on the web, and as an alternative to data-driven advertising. But contextual ads still require the processing of ‘personal data’ to deliver and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns, and even the most informed account would admit they can only ever be one part of the mix for online publishers and advertisers.
The authors of the study claim that there exist ‘many opportunities for publishers and advertisers to survive, and even flourish, in a post personal data advertising world, despite having to navigate a complex transition’.
Yet those very same businesses – thousands of European digital media publishers, content creators, communications agencies, technology providers, eCommerce businesses, entrepreneurs, and software developers – have already firmly and collectively opposed a ban on targeted advertising, instead calling on the EU to simply recognise and enforce its already extensive legal framework for privacy and data protection.
At a time when EU legislators are negotiating in good faith to try to secure a compromise on the crucial Digital Services Act (DSA) package, this campaign can only be viewed as misleading and, indeed, manipulative. IAB Europe welcomes the prospect of the DSA boosting clarity and transparency around digital advertising, but we must remember just what it is that this legislation is scoped to do, and what impact assessments have been undertaken. At this late stage, introducing an untested and uncosted ban on one of the fundamental drivers of an open and innovative internet is a major distraction from the task at hand and would have simply immense unintended consequences for Europe’s free press, its small business ecosystem and its international reputation.
We call on all reasonable voices to reject this proposal and instead use the tools of enforcement already enshrined in the GDPR.
IAB Europe is inviting all advertisers and agencies to answer the 2021 In-Housing Survey! Take part here.
In-housing programmatic trading has gone from a nascent trend in recent years to a term that more and more brands and agencies are familiar with. But what is the current status of programmatic in-housing in Europe, and how will it evolve in the future?
If you're an advertiser or an agency, please help us to understand the current landscape by sharing your thoughts and experience of programmatic in-housing by completing this short survey.
The deadline to complete the survey has been extended to Friday 5th November, and it takes just 5 minutes to complete. Plus your response will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Help us uncover how programmatic in-housing is being adopted and what the future holds for this trend. Take the survey today!
Disinformation is not just a 2021 buzzword, it’s a worrying new social challenge that’s been on the rise over the last 12 to 18 months. As part of IAB Europe’s Quality & Transparency work track, we’ve been delving into the topic to understand more through podcast interviews and panel discussions. We now hand over the blog to investigate what disinformation is, how it has grown and what is being done by the industry to tackle it.
IAB Europe spoke to David Goddard, Vice President, Business Development at DoubleVerify, Harriet Kingaby, Co-founder of The Conscious Advertising Network & Paul Nasse, Managing Director, Northern Europe at Integral Ad Science (IAS), to ascertain their insights.
David Goddard is DoubleVerify’s Vice President, Business Development, based in the London office and is responsible for expanding partnerships with digital media and technology companies. He is also Chair of the IAB Europe Programmatic Trading Committee, a multi-stakeholder group that aims to increase understanding of the programmatic ecosystem, the impact it is having on digital advertising, and influence industry initiatives to improve. Prior to DoubleVerify, David spent 5.5 years at BBC Global News and BBC Studios (formerly known as BBC WorldWide), as Vice President Global Programmatic Strategy & Commercial Development. Leading a global team of programmatic specialists tasked with driving the adoption and growth of Programmatic revenue.
Harriet Kingaby is an activist, working at the intersection of advertising, AI and misinformation. She co-founded The Conscious Advertising Network with Jake Dubbins of Media Bounty in 2018 and has since seen it gain international recognition, work with the UN, and grow to over 150 members from O2 to Accenture Interactive. She is also Insights Director at ethical ad agency Media Bounty.
Paul Nasse joined IAS in 2013 as one of the first team members to establish Integral Ad Science outside of HQ in New York. He is the Managing Director for Northern Europe, overseeing the UK, The Netherlands and Nordics. In the UK and beyond, Paul Nasse is responsible for driving the business and partnerships for the European Region. Paul works directly with IAS’s largest clients to ensure that IAS offers the best-in-class solutions and promotes robust cross-industry collaboration with the world’s biggest agencies, advertisers, publishers and industry bodies. Paul has been part of the advertising industry for over 20 years, starting his career at ZenithOptimedia as a Print Buyer and rising through the ranks to Media Buying Director. He was responsible for the largest accounts within the group and developed the first digital advertising strategies across multiple global clients.
David - Almost 80 mobile towers have reportedly been burned down in the UK due to false coronavirus conspiracy theories that blame the spread of COVID-19 on 5G. Other similar reports include disinformation about Bill Gates and other globalists using the pandemic to implant microchips in the whole of humanity. These disturbing stories are in line with what DV’s been observing relative to spikes in our Inflammatory Politics and News Category. We see controversial events trigger spikes in disinformation. DV is able to analyse our various content categories and look at the percentage of all DV monitored ad calls that were adjacent to content classified within a specific category. This serves as a proxy for overall traffic trends.
As I mentioned before, Inflammatory Politics and News increased 83% in the U.S. in November 2020 compared with November 2019. We also observed massive surges in Covid-19 disinformation following the announcement of the vaccines. And when we look at Europe, we’ve seen similar trends emerge. In France, for example, Inflammatory Politics and News surged by 165% in February 2021 after the National Assembly passed the controversial “separatism” bill. When the U.K. finally reached a Brexit deal, Inflammatory Politics and News increased by 41% compared with the U.K. December 2020 average. In Germany, following Olaf Scholz’s nomination, Inflammatory News and Politics increased +40% compared with the German August 2020 average. What’s clear is that across the board, disinformation is on the rise, and its spread specifically spikes around polarised, controversial events.
Harriet - I think we have reached a critical stage in the sophistication of misinformation, where we are seeing profound impacts on society and people. We opened this year with the storming of the US Capitol by people that genuinely believed disinformation about the legitimacy of the elections. And we’ll finish it with COP26, the most important climate conference of a generation. The Global Disinformation Index are already reporting an uptick in disinformation every time a climate announcement is made. We cannot allow these incidents to continue to disrupt our lives and society. Brands have also come under attack. Furniture manufacturer Wayfair was hit by QAnon ‘child trafficking’ accusations surrounding furniture with women’s names. AstraZeneca was hit with a conspiracy that the monkey proteins used to develop the virus would also turn recipients into monkeys. We’ve opened Pandora’s Box, and it’s imperative that we cut off the funding model misinformation has through advertising.
However, we are also at a point where we understand it better than ever. For example, the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, have published excellent research on how misinformation and hate speech combine to dehumanise communities, which should be an excellent tool for the tech platforms to use to create more sophisticated policies that consider patterns rather than single posts. There’s also been great thinking done on how we balance freedom of expression with protecting those most vulnerable to misinformation. Leaning into the potential for civil society/corporate collaborations will bring about better policies which genuinely tackle these issues.
Paul - The last year has seen not only the most content consumed online, but also a rise in hate speech and misinformation, driven by the pandemic, a turbulent US election and global social movements. These events are often associated with reactionary risky content that is intended to polarise society, such as misinformation regarding the roll-out of vaccines. Programmatic ad spend has surpassed all other avenues at a rapid rate. Political ad spending has increased exponentially over the same period. This has further fuelled concerns around misinformation: 77% of US voters claimed that they were concerned about fake news and misinformation during the election last year.
The early days of the pandemic led to increased consumption of trusted news sources to learn more about Covid-19, so reliable journalism had to compete for attention. In fact, in February 2020, World Health Organisation’s Director-General declared: “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we are fighting an infodemic.” According to a Press Gazette analysis, based on data from SimilarWeb and NewsGuard, it found that total visits in 2020 to sites that were considered untrustworthy were up 70% compared to 2019, while the number of visits to generally trustworthy sites was 47% higher than in 2019.
David - DV protects clients from a range of disinformation through our Inflammatory Politics & News category, which provides vast coverage across over 130,000 sites that includes disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, extremist point of views and/or inflammatory political rhetoric. For example, the word ‘vaccine’ can be found in thousands of pieces of digital media every day. Many of these pieces could be legitimate pieces of content from trusted publishers and safe, suitable places for ads to appear. However, some will also be disinformation and will not be suitable places for brands to appear. Therefore, DV’s semantic science technology can understand those nuances and ensure brands only appear alongside trusted, safe and suitable content. It can learn to identify misinformation around topics like vaccines, and help prevent ads from appearing alongside these sources.
DV was first-to-market with this solution in 2016. And since then, we have continued to refine and improve the technology underlying this solution. Our methodology is constantly iterated on and DV does not rely on a single vendor or internal resource to identify disinformation. The methods we use to identify potential disinformation include:
Harriet - As a starting point, advertisers and agencies should implement the CAN misinformation manifesto, and take a look at our Change the Narrative report on how to tackle climate misinformation. We need people to start taking climate words off their blocklists to ensure credible voices on climate can access the funding through advertising they need to beat deniers! We think all the great work around public health is a good start, but we need policies on big issues such as climate change ahead of COP26 too. We also welcome the introduction of an Online Safety Bill to tackle misinformation from a regulatory perspective, and support calls for there to be third party oversight of its application. This must be backed up by industry leadership. We all need to do more than we are already doing to get ahead of what Lord Puttnam called ‘a pandemic of misinformation’
Paul - IAS is constantly working with associations and the wider industry on collaborative approaches to ensure brands do not appear next to sites containing disinformation. The quickest and most scalable way to identify disinformation is through a combination of technology augmented with human review. IAS’s Misinformation solution is available within the Brand Safety Offensive Language and Controversial Content category. IAS has historically detected misinformation in a similar manner to other vendors, scanning for clearly fake or hyperbolic terminology while utilising human review of sites via watchdogs reviews or similar content reviewers. IAS has enhanced this solution by adding on to it the use of a unique combination of AI and an independent, third-party review by the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) to automatically remove questionable domains.
Using AI, IAS can detect emerging threats by determining which sites have a strong correlation to more high profile sources of misinformation. This functions as a recommendation service and GDI then evaluates the candidate pages to determine if the page in fact qualifies as Misinformation or not. Additionally, GDI shares their list of organically detected domains for inclusion in our misinformation protection solution. This unique combination of AI and manual review allows IAS to protect our clients from potentially damaging content at an increased scale. IAS partnership with GDI enhances our misinformation detection, ensuring journalistic integrity and reaffirming support for quality news sites. IAS now provides advertisers with expanded global coverage; identifying more sources of misinformation and ensuring greater protection for your digital campaigns.
David - DoubleVerify analyzes billions of impressions a day to help keep brands safe from appearing alongside unsafe and unsuitable content. Publishers promoting specious and incendiary or racially biased/motivated claims are classified into DV’s Inflammatory Politics and News and Hate Speech categories, respectively. These category classifications allow advertisers to protect their brand reputation and ensure their ad dollars do not inadvertently fund bad-faith actors.
One example of DV’s solutions in actions can be seen at the start of the pandemic. When the pandemic began in March 2020, consumption of news content increased. DV immediately joined with the IAB took the stance that News Saves Lives and started working with our customers to implement brand suitability best practices in support of trusted news publishers. Within weeks, the violation rate on news content, which describes ads that are blocked or flagged as an incident, dropped by 35%. The brand suitability block rate that had increased by 32% in the wake of the pandemic now decreased by 40% month-over-month going into April, for a net difference of -8%. This demonstrates DV’s ability to help assure advertisers they are protected from running against content they feel may not be suitable while, at the same time, empowering advertisers to run on news that is suitable for their brand.
Harriet - During the height of the pandemic, we saw disinformation and conspiracy theories linking 5G and COVID-19, which caused some to attack masts and telecommunications employees. Many of the sites and channels promoting these conspiracies were funded by advertising. Addressing this became a key focus for Virgin O2, who joined CAN with a specific desire to tackle misinformation. All members of CAN audit their media spend against our manifestos and create an accompanying ‘action plan’. O2 now host a monthly steering group meeting that includes their core team and agencies to review their progress and actions against CAN’s six manifestos: anti-ad fraud, diversity & inclusion, hate speech, misinformation, informed consent and children’s wellbeing. This review includes both short term and long-term goals. Shorter-term actions are, for example, updating a range of briefs including campaign, production, and casting to take on board the six manifestos. Longer-term, the procurement team are involved, ensuring that any RFPs across O2’s supply chain cover the areas listed in CAN’s six manifestos.
Paul - IAS believes that ad verification providers have a responsibility to both assess brand risk and help establish a reliable standard for brand safety and suitability. In 2021, IAS achieved a global recertification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), which is the leading global certification program fighting criminal activity in order to increase trust in digital advertising. In July 2021, IAS also formed a new partnership with The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), making IAS the first ad verification company to help marketers avoid misinformation content based on GDI’s standards. Building on IAS’s expertise in brand safety and suitability, this partnership further protects brands from running ads on sites that GDI has identified for misinformation, ensuring journalistic integrity and reaffirming support for quality news sites.
When IAS identifies potential sources of misinformation through its artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, these sites will now also be validated by GDI’s trusted and independent assessment of news content and risk. IAS will also add domains that GDI detects organically to ensure the most complete coverage for advertisers. IAS has expanded its global footprint with the inclusion of international domains provided by GDI. The combination of IAS’s advanced AI capabilities with GDI’s independent assessment to detect sources of misinformation gives advertisers confidence that their campaigns run on quality news platforms and avoid misinformation sites. It’s clear that the digital disinformation problem is not eradicated. However, there are many positive steps being taken to avoid sites with disinformation, deliver ads in quality environments and retain brand value. IAS’s latest Industry Pulse report found that only 8% of digital advertising professionals saw fake news becoming a greater concern in 2021, down from 33% in 2020.
David - The IAB, The 4A’s, GARM, the WFA, and the ISBA have all done outstanding work that DV supports. One unique solution we offer is Brand Suitability Tiers. DV’s Brand Suitability Tiers offering is the first to align product functionality with standards advanced by the 4A’s Advertising Protection Bureau (APB) and World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). These guidelines seek to strengthen current brand safety and suitability practices and develop a common language for advertisers and publishers. Brand suitability tiers work by allowing advertisers to determine the level of risk with which they’re comfortable. For example, The Violence category provides coverage for content related to acts of physical harm and/or weapons that cause physical harm. The overall category would, for example, provide coverage for content that discusses the violent acts that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol and content related to any future violent, armed protests and/or riots. Content related to non-violent protests or peaceful demonstrations does not fall within the Violence category.
With the introduction of Brand Suitability Tiers, the Violence category now has three risk tiers:
Another tiered category is Terrorism. Recently, The fall of Kabul (Aug 16 - Aug 30) brought on an increase of Terrorism content online during the two weeks following the event. In this time frame, DV saw the rate of terrorism content increase nine times compared to the weeks leading up to the fall of Kabul on August 16. Key Data DV analyzed include:
Harriet - The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression has expressed her concerns about a growing “information disorder”, highlighting the growing evidence that disinformation tends to thrive where human rights are constrained, where the public information regime is not robust and where media quality, diversity and independence is weak. We welcome the introduction of the Online Harms Bill here in the UK and the conversations about legal frameworks internationally. For us, new legislation must contain very clear definitions of disinformation and misinformation, and how it intersects with laws protecting Freedom of Expression. We believe that it must prioritise misinformation that contradicts the scientific consensus on public health and climate change; undermines democratic elections; and must expressly protect those who are most marginalized and vulnerable in our societies. We believe legislation should also require platforms and media owners to have robust, enforced, policies that include those definitions, and that are overseen by a third party. We also support the great work being done in the industry by GARM, the WFA, ISBA, and the IAB. We have big plans to make CAN a global organisation over the next few years, collaborating with local chapters to adapt our manifestos for different markets to help global advertisers take action.
Paul - With so many major news events happening around the world from coronavirus to protests, there’s even greater risk for disinformation to detract from marketing dollars having a desired impact. Industry stakeholders have drafted a Code of Practice that includes commitments to fight online disinformation. This includes representatives of online platforms, leading social networks and the advertising industry, including WFA. The main commitment related to advertisers is to use brand safety and brand suitability verification tools to avoid ads appearing next to fake news content. The Code of Practice has been endorsed by the European Commission and brand owners can sign up to the commitments on advertising.
David - DV recommends the following brand safety and suitability best practices as a general guideline. To strike the balance between protecting brand equity while still supporting trusted news, advertisers can turn to today’s sophisticated brand suitability offerings that go beyond blocking. Brand safety and suitability is unique to every brand, but a nuanced, flexible brand suitability toolkit can help brands maximize scale and protection. The list below covers the most current brand suitability tools brands can leverage.
For video campaigns across CTV, desktop and mobile, DV offers DV Video Filtering, which provides a last line of defense to prevent ads from appearing in non-compliant environments. Traditionally, blocking unsafe or fraudulent impressions in video environments has been difficult because video blocking requires a technology standard called VPAID. Unfortunately, VPAID is not widely available and has zero coverage in CTV. DV Video Filtering adds an additional layer of protection to video buys, reduces media waste and minimizes infractions across brand safety and suitability, fraud and in-geo.
Paul - Brands invest a significant amount of time creating an image, cultivating consumer perception and fostering long-term associations. Therefore, it’s important to ensure digital messages appear in safe and suitable environments. Not solely to avoid disinformation, but also to effectively reach the right consumers. First and foremost, brands should work with global digital verification partners that are integrated with all the major DSPs. Brands should discuss with their media partners and ensure the right content classification categories are a part of their media buying strategies.
It’s important to understand the brand's appetite to risk in relation to the context in which their ads are seen. All brands are unique and their definition of safety and suitability is driven by their own values and goals. While misinformation detection is incredibly fast and powerful, with the scale at which misinformation is being proliferated, it is imperative to layer on additional sources of protection. Keyword blocking should not be the only approach, additional measures such as brand safety and brand suitability, contextual targeting and cognitive semantic intelligence, can ensure brands only show up in suitable environments that do not contain disinformation. While more work is required to combat disinformation collectively, there are certain steps brands can take to ensure that they safeguard themselves from their ads appearing in unsuitable environments, and support high quality journalism.
Research reveals that despite the pandemic, programmatic investments have remained stable in Europe, with programmatic video being a key driver for growth.
80% of buy and sell-side stakeholders predict an increase in programmatic investment revenues over the next 12 months.
Brussels, 6th October, IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, today announced the results of its annual ‘Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising 2021 Study’.
Now in its seventh year, this study has become an industry benchmark to show how programmatic advertising attitudes, adoption and strategies are evolving. The responses came from close to 300 advertisers, agencies, publishers and ad tech vendors in 31 markets with respondents having both pan-European and Global remits. More than three quarters of the respondents manage annual advertising budgets of €1m or above.
The latest research revealed that, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, programmatic advertising investments remained fairly stable with growth occurring in areas such as programmatic video. In programmatic video, Connected TV remains key to further investment spurred on by shifting consumer viewing habits. In 2021 19% of advertisers allocated between 21-40% of their programmatic trading budget in connected TV.
Commenting on the growth of CTV, Lisa Kalyuzhny, RVP, Advertiser Solutions, EMEA, PubMatic said: “A lot of CTV transactions occur within curated private marketplaces (PMPs). These premium, private, curated environments give publisher sales teams greater control as to how they structure deals and provide buyers with the assurance that their campaigns are running against brand-safe content. Furthermore, PMP deals give marketers and publishers the opportunity to see the true value exchange for their investment and tailor their programmatic strategy and partnership to meet campaign and business goals.”
In terms of investment drivers, ‘better use of data’ still prevails as a key accelerator across both the buy and sell-side for all stakeholders.
“This data underlines that marketing spend is now predominantly shifting to programmatic as many more channels open up to automated, digital forms of advertising. Marketers simply want to know their budgets are being used effectively to positively shift consumers' perceptions of a brand and to drive sales, regardless of whether they buy media programmatically or non-programmatically. The changes to ways of buying, creative formats as well as the data used to target and measure campaigns, means programmatic is no longer seen as a way to simply buy long-tail, remnant inventory as it has been in the past. What has changed, predominantly in response to consumer and legislative concerns around data privacy, is the way in which data is collected and managed. We are seeing a rising shift to solutions that are based on accountable, consent based relationships with consumers, which provides me with hope. It is by aligning with consumer expectations of a fair and transparent value exchange, as well as providing ever-better creative digital solutions as technology and connectivity changes, that we will be able to build sustainable marketing practices for the future." commented Anita Caras, Research Director EMEA, Yahoo!
Gaining access to premium inventory at scale also saw substantial growth as a driver from 20% in 2020 to 50% in 2021 amongst advertisers. This highlights the importance of solutions for advertisers that allow them to connect with mass audiences in premium environments and meet campaign objectives.
Looking at the barriers to programmatic adoption, supply chain transparency dropped as the primary concern for advertisers from 60% in 2020 to 25% in 2021 suggesting that the industry is making significant paths to enhancing transparency on the buy-side. It is not surprising then that the research highlights an increase in the adoption of standards such as App ads.txt, Sellers.json, Buyers.json, Supply Path Object, Demand Path Object, among both agencies and advertisers. Advertisers are now more concerned about identifying the financial benefits of programmatic, with 46% stating that understanding the impact of programmatic trading on total revenue represented a significant barrier.
Commenting on the value of the research and the action being taken to overcome barriers to programmatic investment, David Goddard, VP Business Development, DoubleVerify and Chair, IAB Europe Programmatic Trading Committee, said “The IAB Europe Attitudes to Programmatic study provides critical insight into the key concerns, opportunities and overall direction of programmatic advertising across Europe. It enables the Programmatic Trading Committee, and the wider industry, to devise strategies based on insight from advertisers, agencies, publishers and ad tech vendors. This year, it is encouraging to see that action has been taken, and, amongst buy-side stakeholders, the concern around supply chain transparency has decreased while the adoption of key industry standards has increased. There are still clear concerns, however, that need to be addressed -- especially the steep rise in Brand Safety as a barrier to investment -- which highlights that all stakeholders need to continue to collaborate to make our ecosystem stronger, safer and more secure.”
When it comes to the topic of In-housing, the trend saw some decline in 2020 but is back and on the rise again in 2021; 50% of advertisers stated they have an in-house model for programmatic trading compared to 20% in 2020. This was 68% for agencies compared to 50% in 2020. This is mainly driven by the desire for increased control of operations, first-party data management and greater transparency on where campaigns run.
The last 18 months have certainly been challenging for the advertising industry. But in spite of that and as the economy recovers, more than 80% of all stakeholders predict an increase in their programmatic investments / revenues over the next 12 months.
IAB Europe will be exploring the insights of this report in more depth in our Virtual Programmatic Day on the 11th of November, register here to secure your free place.
IAB Europe is also hosting a free Virtual CTV event on 21st October, register here to secure your free place.
Download the report here
