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Tag: Integral Ad Science

  • Integral Ad Science partners with Good-Loop to provide digital advertising solutions

    Integral Ad Science partners with Good-Loop to provide digital advertising solutions

    Mumbai: The global leader in digital media quality, Integral Ad Science (IAS), on Wednesday announced a global partnership with purpose-led ad platform Good-Loop.

    The partnership will enable advertisers to measure the carbon emissions generated by their digital ad campaigns.

    The partnership will see Good-Loop’s carbon measurement solution integrated into IAS’s reporting platform, IAS Signal. The integration will allow advertisers to seamlessly track and view the end-to-end carbon footprint of their digital ads in a similar way to other crucial metrics such as viewability.

    Data feeds from Good-Loop will enable advertisers that use IAS’s media quality platform to closely monitor and reduce the environmental impact of their ads throughout the entire campaign lifecycle.

    There is significant computing power required to fuel the trillions of real-time auctions taking place across the length and breadth of the programmatic ecosystem, resulting in carbon emissions.

    Speaking about this partnership, IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider said, “Sustainability is a global priority for IAS and we believe that it is our collective responsibility to make a lasting impact.”

    “Our partnership with Good-Loop will bring greater climate change transparency for advertisers and provide them with the tools they need to reduce their carbon emissions. The partnership is a major step forward to further decarbonize digital media,” he added.

    Good-Loop is on a mission to develop simple solutions that move the industry towards positive, climate-friendly advertising. Good-Loop is a certified net carbon-negative business.

    Adding to that, Good-Loop CEO Amy Williams said, “Integral Ad Science has been a leader in our industry for many years, helping to educate and equip our industry for an era of safer, more effective media buying.”

    He further said, “In fact, it’s a company I took a lot of inspiration from when I was establishing my own business. I’m genuinely thrilled to partner with such a pioneering, forward-thinking company as we work together to drive the industry forward once again. Together, our integrated Green Media solution will empower advertisers across the world to put their net zero commitments into action and to make a real, lasting change for generations to come.”

    Sanofi, the global healthcare brand, and Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the leading media services provider, will take part in the testing of carbon emissions tracking developed by IAS and Good-Loop.

    Sanofi global head of media, digital & strategic planning Prasad Ghag said, “Sanofi’s consumer healthcare business will look to challenge all activities across the marketing supply chain in line with our objective to build the road to carbon neutrality by 2030. The carbon tracking tool beta test along with IAS and Good-loop will be our starting point to understand carbon emissions levels through our media activities and will be key in designing future actions in media to contribute to our broader carbon reduction targets.”

    OMG is the global media agency, responsible for media planning and buying across Sanofi’s consumer healthcare brands.

    OMG global digital and operations lead Charlotte Baxter commented, “At OMG, sustainability is a priority, and we take our collective responsibility to care for the planet seriously. We are pioneering solutions to help measure and ultimately reduce carbon emissions related to media activity and are proud to support Sanofi on their equally ambitious journey.”

    Furthermore, earlier this year, IAS committed to the Vista Climate Pledge along with the Vista Equity Partners portfolio of companies. The pledge includes IAS measuring its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reducing emissions annually.

  • GUEST ARTICLE: How marketers can free their digital campaigns from poor media quality

    GUEST ARTICLE: How marketers can free their digital campaigns from poor media quality

    Mumbai: India recently celebrated its 75th Independence Day—a notable landmark to look back at and cherish all the achievements of our young yet grandiose nation. Our march towards progress, led by our leaders, has witnessed the evolution of brand India. The influence of marketing strategies is evident in the making of brand India; especially, the smart and catchy “Atmanirbhar Bharat” movement. Now, countries have become brands and navigated their way to the hearts of the masses. However, it is important to note that marketers still face an uphill battle when it comes to achieving independence from poor media quality. A new Juniper Research study has found that the value of digital advertising spend lost to fraud will reach $68 billion globally in 2022, rising from $59 billion in 2021.

    Going with the theme of the month-Independence Day-let us look at a few solutions designed to help marketers overcome every challenge and take advantage of every opportunity that digital media presents to gain independence from poor media quality.

    Contextual targeting for stronger consumer connections: Google recently announced that cookie depreciation has been delayed to 2024, allowing more time for marketers to adapt and strategize for the seismic transition of cookie-less ad targeting. Advertisers need solutions for reaching their desired audiences in suitable spaces, and contextual targeting solutions deliver precision to maximise the impact without relying on third-party cookies. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-backed technology solutions comprehend content the way a human would, ensuring that your message reaches the consumers who will connect the most with your brand.

    Integral Ad Science (IAS) recently released a study titled “Ad Context & Attention” conducted in partnership with Tobii, the global leader in eye tracking and a pioneer in attention computing. The study revealed how increased consumer attention to contextually relevant ads leads to greater purchase intent and brand favorability. Contextual relevance was effective in generating a positive impact on brand engagement, favorability, and memorability. Key findings from the study are mentioned below:

        Contextual targeting strategies yield stronger consumer attention

        Contextually relevant ads drive outcomes, significantly boosting brand favorability and consumer purchase intent

        In-context ads generate higher memorability and increase brand recall and awareness among consumers

    More attention means better conversion: Marketers who rely heavily on digital advertising constantly emphasise the ever-increasing and high cost of digital advertising. Therefore, it becomes essential to understand and implement solutions that tackle low attention in digital marketing. For digital ads to make an impact, they need to be seen — not just served. However, as many as one-third of digital ads go unseen by consumers in certain environments.

    In today’s world, marketers need to reach the right consumers, in the right places, and in the appropriate context to help build a connection between the potential customers and the brand. Before this happens, ads need the opportunity to be viewable. To emphasise the importance of the environment or consumer interaction, a prime example is avoiding the placement of a car ad on a news report about a car crash. Such an ad placement is unsuitable for a car manufacturer. Interestingly, IAS’ research on whether media quality drives attention and outcomes uncovered that viewability and time-in-view have a medium correlation (which intuitively makes sense). Moreover, when only looking at impressions on contextually relevant pages (i.e., a Toyota ad on an automotive site), the correlation becomes more vital. For example, when we analysed the automotive vertical, we saw that when the context was relevant and optimised for viewability, there was an 8.3-second increase in time-in-view for every 10 per cent increase in viewability rates. This was 2.4x higher than in a non-optimized context.

    Here’s a preview of what we discovered:

        Time-in-view increases as viewability and brand safety increase

        57 per cent increase in conversions for viewable and brand-safe impressions compared to non-viewable and not safe

        171 per cent increase in conversions for impressions with time-in-view greater than 15 seconds

    Attention remains the bedrock of media quality assurance. The longer your ads are in front of consumers—in the right environment—the greater the opportunity to leave an impression.

    Use technology to optimise highly effective advertising campaigns: When you are building a brand and trying to establish a connection with a potential customer, every moment and impression counts. For example, total visibility, a solution from IAS, helps advertisers gain impression-level financial insights and media quality verification to find the true cost of flagged media. Total visibility saves advertisers an average of 24 per cent of the budget that would otherwise be lost in the supply chain.

    In addition, IAS’ automated tag solution with Google reduces tag wrapping time to seconds, provides mid-flight optimization, and streamlines reporting, so you can launch and modify campaigns faster.

    As automated ad sales gain traction and sophistication around the world, media quality levels will also rise. Programmatic solutions will help marketers and advertisers alike take their digital campaigns to the next level. For the modern-day marketer, it is imperative to know exactly where every rupee of their ad spend goes. With the right technology by your side, it becomes easier to maximise your media spending and minimise waste. To gain independence from poor media quality, marketers must take control by using technological solutions to ensure their digital advertising campaigns are highly efficient.

    The author of this article is IAS’ India lead for strategic partnerships Saurabh Khattar.

  • Media experts are concerned about changing policies impacting their digital media buys: Report

    Media experts are concerned about changing policies impacting their digital media buys: Report

    Mumbai: Integral Ad Science (IAS), in collaboration with YouGov and a market research firm, has released its report ‘2022 Future of Privacy-First Advertising.’

    IAS surveyed 346 digital media experts and 1,131 consumers about their opinions on the future of ad targeting, upcoming changes to online data and privacy policies, and how media quality solutions can help marketers be more effective.

    The findings revealed that consumers have serious concerns about the security of their personal information when using the internet; that they are unaware of the laws governing the collection and use of their personal data; and that they are very uncomfortable when their online activity is used for advertising.

    IAS Global chief commercial officer Yannis Dosios said, “With upcoming online data and privacy policy changes coming down the pipe, privacy continues to be a priority for both consumers and media experts.”

    He further added, “IAS is well-suited to help ease the concerns of privacy policy transitions through our contextual targeting solutions that will help advertisers reach their ideal audience at scale, all while respecting their privacy.”

    The report explores a gap between what organisations are actually doing to deal with these changes and how crucial it is for media professionals to understand data privacy policies, as well as how concerned they are about how these policies will affect their work.

    The report also examines how brands are currently dealing with cookie depreciation through contextual, privacy-first advertising strategies that don’t use individuals’ personal information to target customers.

    Online data privacy 

    One of the report’s key findings was that while consumers value online data privacy, their trust in the security of their online data is low.

    While consumers agree that data privacy is important, only half (50 per cent) are confident in the security of their online data while surfing the web. More than two-thirds (67 per cent) of consumers also claim to be more cautious than ever when it comes to their privacy and online data.

    Targeting techniques 

    The study also discovered that consumers are aware of various targeting techniques. However, they might feel uncomfortable with their data being used for advertising.

    Although the majority of consumers (68 per cent) are still uncomfortable with personalisation, despite the fact that 90 per cent (nine in ten) of users are aware that websites and apps collect and share their data for advertising purposes.

    Brands have the chance to change the targeted ad experience so that contextual relevance is the driving factor. This would result in a better user experience for consumers and better results for advertisers.

    Privacy policy 

    Although the majority of media experts are concerned about evolving privacy policies, many are unaware of them and the majority lack a clear management strategy.

    Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of media experts concur that this year it is important to understand data privacy, and an overwhelming majority (89 per cent) say that brands are particularly concerned about PII privacy.

    However, only about half of digital media experts are knowledgeable about privacy policy-related topics pertaining to browsers (53 per cent), regulations (51 per cent) or mobile identifiers (45 per cent).

    Furthermore, only 36 per cent of media experts claimed that their company had set up a team to handle upcoming policy changes, while 29 per cent said that they had taken no action.

    Contextual content

    The report suggested that brands should match their advertisements with contextually relevant content that appeals to consumers more.

    After seeing a targeted advertisement, 66 per cent of consumers said they are likely to visit a brand’s or product’s website.

    Considering consumers’ privacy concerns and desire for relevance, contextual targeting is an easy option for advertisers, but only 29 per cent of media experts have used this tactic.

    The majority of media experts (51 per cent) concur that ad buyers and sellers must actively cooperate throughout privacy changes and that media quality solutions will become more crucial for ensuring the right audiences are reached.

  • Ad fraud a huge challenge for Indian marketers in 2022, reveals Integral Ad Science study

    Ad fraud a huge challenge for Indian marketers in 2022, reveals Integral Ad Science study

    Mumbai: Majority of Indian marketers surveyed consider ad fraud to be a great concern across mobile environments in 2022, according to the latest Industry Pulse Report released by Integral Ad Science.

    According to the report, as many as 78 per cent of respondents said that ad fraud will remain a great concern across mobile environments this year and at least 26 per cent said mobile web video environments will be among the most vulnerable in terms of brand risk. The respondents believed that contextual targeting solutions (74 per cent) and third-party verification (72 per cent) will be important to ensure brand safety in mobile environments.

    “As the ongoing pandemic has driven consumers to embrace hybrid lifestyles and digital experiences, digital advertisers pivoted their strategies globally to emphasise mobile, social media, CTV, and digital audio. This scenario is similar in India. However, in India, brands are becoming more conscious of the importance of quality impressions and safe brand environments. As a result, the role of verification partners is gaining prominence in creating a safe and transparent setting for brands,” said IAS commercial lead Saurabh Khattar.

    The Indian edition of the report released recently found that improving mobile experiences, measuring quality for social media campaigns, and the emergence of digital video and audio are top considerations in the year ahead. The report also provides insights into the emerging trends and priorities that will drive change in digital advertising across India in 2022. The results are based on the responses of 151 Indian digital advertising professionals representing brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech vendors in November 2021.

    According to the report, these key priorities will guide the year ahead:

    Marketers bet on mobile and social media

    India continues to be a mobile-first market, with 77 per cent of respondents making it a top priority in 2022. Mobile internet users in the country are expected to surpass 600 million this year. Mobile ad spend in India is set to grow 27 per cent to surpass $2 billion in 2022, representing nearly two-third of overall digital ad-spend in the country.

    71 per cent of media experts in India said they will prioritise social platforms. With over 450 million social media users in India, the medium is rife with opportunities for marketers. YouTube ranks as the top choice for 82 per cent of respondents, closely followed by Facebook (80 per cent), and Instagram (77 per cent).

    Increased focus on mobile video and ad fraud

    As consumers gain faster 5G mobile connections, nearly eight-in-ten (78 per cent) media experts bet on mobile video streaming being one of the biggest opportunities. However, with this growth, the threat of ad fraud looms large; 78 per cent of respondents agree that ad fraud will be a greater concern across mobile environments this year. 26% of respondents also agreed that mobile web video environments will be among the most vulnerable in terms of brand risk. As a result, respondents believe contextual targeting solutions (74 per cent) and third-party verification (72 per cent) will be important to ensure brand safety in mobile environments.

    Quality matters for social media campaigns

    Over 86 per cent of marketers are concerned about the vulnerability of social channels to ad fraud. Experts also pointed to insufficient transparency and eroding consumer trust, with 65 per cent and 62 per cent of respondents, respectively, citing these key factors as cause for adjusting their spending in 2022.

    Digital video and audio ready to take off

    The Indian audience continues to transition from linear TV and terrestrial radio to digital streaming channels such as CTV, OTT, and podcasts. As new consumer habits developed during the pandemic, 80 per cent of respondents anticipate an accelerating transition from linear TV consumption to digital video streaming this year, while over seven in 10 agreed that audio listeners will shift towards digital alternatives. However, 68 per cent of media experts anticipate higher brand risk with audio streaming content as more inventory becomes available. Ultimately, 68 per cent of respondents agreed that third-party verification will be important to ensure the quality of audio streaming inventory.

    Media quality takes a team effort: With ad budgets at stake, brands and verification tech providers play a pivotal role in mitigating ad fraud and brand risk. 45 per cent of respondents noted that verification tech providers are responsible for ad fraud mitigation, while 38 per cent say brands should lead these efforts.

  • GUEST COLUMN: One-third of digital ads going unseen; what can brands do?

    GUEST COLUMN: One-third of digital ads going unseen; what can brands do?

    Mumbai: When you look at the evolution of digital advertising, it makes sense that viewability has continued to be a top concern for marketers. The entire digital advertising ecosystem exists to support brands and their efforts to reach and influence consumers. Whether caused by a growing number of channels and platforms or out of necessity to stay connected, consumers are increasing their time spent with digital media.

    It was not long ago that viewability rates of 50 per cent were the industry norm, but rates are now on the rise. According to our H1 2021 media quality report, viewability averages stand above 65 per cent across nearly all formats and environments. While this marks an impressive accomplishment, this range indicates that as much as one-third of digital ads are going unseen by consumers in certain environments. This viewability gap creates challenges for both the buy and sell side of the digital media business. Marketers often talk about reaching the right consumers, in the right places, in the appropriate context. But first, marketers should ensure that their ads have the opportunity to be viewable in order to make a lasting impact.

    Consider time-in-view to measure ad effectiveness

    In simple terms, viewability is a digital ad seen by an actual consumer, while time-in-view is the average duration that a viewable impression remains in view. This excludes impressions that are not viewable. Viewability is good for eliminating waste, but time-in-view may be an even better metric for measuring media quality, especially for brand campaigns where exposure time drives better brand recall.

    A joint study by GroupM and Integral Ad Science (IAS) for Toyota proved that media quality, frequency, and time-in-view metrics as well as exposure to ad placements were key to driving positive business outcomes for the auto manufacturer. Toyota saw an 83 per cent conversion rate uplift, resulting in 3,679 incremental brochure downloads attributed to viewable impressions. The case study showed that exposure time is a primary driver for outcomes, directly impacting campaign effectiveness.

    As advertising budgets continue to shift towards digital, advertisers are being asked to prove RoI and the added value of digital marketing. This need to demonstrate impact is driving a shift in how they seek to measure the quality of their digital investments. Time in view allows advertisers to optimise towards a metric that better drives marketing ROI.

    Mobile campaigns in India deliver stronger media quality results

    With over 500 million Indians using smartphones, an overwhelming majority of consumers today are making purchasing decisions through mobile devices. A recent study found that over 60 per cent of Indian consumers are using their mobile devices to guide them through their shopper journey, from research to discovery to making the ultimate purchase.  People are typically on the go and traveling during the festive season, which means that they will be spending additional time on their mobile devices. It’s critical for marketers to have a mobile-first strategy for India.

    According to the recent IAS media quality report H1 2021, mobile campaigns in India delivered stronger results. Mobile web display viewability increased by one percentage point to 58.9 per cent in H1 2021 and mobile in-app display increased from 51.3 per cent to 54.1 per cent. The time-in-view for mobile web display campaigns in India increased from 15.24 seconds to 19.33 seconds, while the worldwide average stood at 14.91 seconds, clearly indicating that Indian consumers were engaged longer with the ads on mobile web display.

    From a brand risk perspective too, mobile campaigns in India posted lower brand risks than display, with mobile web display registering brand risk reduction from 2.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent. The ad fraud on mobile web display marginally decreased to 0.2 per cent, while the global average was 0.4 per cent. As spending increases on mobile, media quality challenges may arise such as ad fraud, unsafe brand environments, and unviewable inventory.

    Forrester expects e-retail sales to reach about $9.2 billion in India during the 2021 festive month, up 42 per cent year-on-year. While this indicates a huge opportunity for marketers, it also calls for them to evaluate the metrics of their campaign’s performance – bringing to the forefront viewability and time-in-view.

    Brands need to know that their ads are being viewed by real people – or risk losing the chance to improve RoI this Diwali.

    (The author is commercial lead for India at Integral Ad Science. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • Mobile campaigns in India deliver stronger results in H1’21: Report

    Mobile campaigns in India deliver stronger results in H1’21: Report

    Mumbai: Mobile campaigns in India posted lower brand risks than display, viewability on mobile environments increased in India, and ad fraud rates decreased in desktop and mobile web display. These are some of the findings from Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) Media Quality Report for H1 2021. The report released on Tuesday highlights brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across display, video, mobile web, and in-app advertising while providing transparency into the performance and quality of Indian digital media, alongside global comparisons.

    Mobile campaigns in India had more viewable impressions in H1 2021, with viewability on mobile web display increasing by one percentage point (pp) to 58.9 per cent in H1 2021, while viewability on mobile in-app display increased from 51.3 per cent to 54.1 per cent, as per the report.

    “Mobile advertising has gained strong traction among Indian advertisers as consumers continue to spend more time engaging with content on mobile,” said IAS commercial lead India Saurabh Khattar.

    “According to a report by App Annie, average smartphone usage is about 4.6 hours a day in India, which stands third in global rankings after Indonesia and Brazil. As spending increases on mobile, media quality challenges may arise such as ad fraud, unsafe brand environments, and unviewable inventory,” he added.

    “With the upcoming festival buying period, advertisers are well-advised to work with third-party verification companies to help protect their campaigns from ad fraud, brand risks, and lower viewability to maximise engagement and ROI,” Khattar further said.

    Mobile campaigns in India post lower brand risks than display

    According to the report, brand risk worldwide was lower across all formats and environments in H1 2021, an indicator of brands’ increased efforts to optimise ad placements toward contextually relevant content. The overall brand risk dropped below four per cent across all formats and environments. In India, the display was one of the safest environments for advertisers, with desktop display brand risk at 0.8 per cent, down by 1.4 percentage points (pp). 

    Mobile web display brand risk fell from 2.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent, while the worldwide average was 2.6 per cent. Programmatic desktop and mobile web display inventory showed higher brand risk in India than publisher direct at 1.8 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively. This data suggests the market is actively using solutions to protect brand reputation and place its ads in suitable environments.

    Viewability on mobile environments increased in India

    Mobile campaigns in India had more viewable impressions in H1 2021, as against global display viewability, which was down 2.4 pp on desktop and 3.3 pp on mobile web year-over-year, reaching 69.5 per cent and 64.3 per cent, respectively, as per the report. 

    The worldwide reductions were driven by drops across Asia-Pacific, with India registering a 7.2 pp drop to post 54.9 per cent viewability in desktop environments. In India, desktop and mobile display environments showed significantly higher viewability rates in programmatically traded inventory than publisher direct. Connected TV (CTV) remained the most viewable format overall, averaging 93.2 per cent worldwide in H1 2021.

    Ad fraud rates decrease in desktop and mobile web display in India

    Both desktop and mobile web display had a marginal decrease in optimised ad fraud rates to reach 0.9 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, in H1 2021, stated the report. The worldwide non-optimised fraud rate for desktop display was 9.4 per cent and 5.5 per cent on mobile web display, clearly indicating that fraud mitigation strategies can reduce risks and reduce ad wastage.

  • OACT2021: Plugging the gap of measurability

    OACT2021: Plugging the gap of measurability

    Mumbai: The burgeoning of OTT content consumption in the past couple of years fuelled a proportional increase in the demand for third-party viewership data which, in turn, led to the proliferation of tools and technology available for digital measurement. Some of the important trends and challenges that emerged as a result of these developments were discussed at the OTT Advertising and Connected TV Summit organised by Indiantelevision.com on 7 and 8 October. The two-day event was powered by Mediasmart, an Affle Company and summit partner The Q.

    During the session titled ‘Plugging the gap of measurability’ the expert panel comprising of Integral Ad Science- India Country Head, VP Engineering & Operations – Mehul Desai, DoubleVerify- head of sales, India, Nachiket Deole, Synamedia- principal product manager, Advanced Advertising – Synamedia, Daniel Wohlfart, and Nielsen Media India MD, Dolly Jha shed light on why digital measurement cannot be a simple ‘plug and play’ game, and the need for evolving metrics, for data sharing as well as well-thought-out measurement strategies optimised for through-the-funnel advertising. The discussion was moderated by Madison World, Madison Media Sigma CEO Vanita Keswani.

    Sharing some stark facts to explain the emergence of fraud prevention as the top trend in the digital measurement space, Integral Ad Science’s Mehul Desai said, “Annually, close to 35 billion advertising dollars are lost to global ad fraud. It is the second biggest industry, after drugs, in terms of organised crime.” Daniel Wohlfart further pointed out that “almost every ad campaign in Europe comes with a built-in requirement for ad verification by third-party.”

    In the Indian context where OTT measurement is in the early stages and many advertisers are starting out on their digital journeys, trends point towards increasing awareness on the issue.

    At Neilsen, measuring the percentage of ad fraud is one of the deliverables on every campaign, yet “not more than 25-30 per cent of ad spends are getting measured currently,” observed Dolly Jha. She added that systematic and consistent measurement of ROIs, the technology and tools for which exist and are being implemented as well, has to be set in to scale up ad fraud prevention, attributions, data sharing, and other aspects of OTT measurement.

    As Desai indicated the growing importance of brand suitability for a particular ad environment and context matching in a world where “advertising has changed from being persona and user-driven to being context-driven”, Nachiket Deole of DoubleVerify shared his understanding of marketers moving beyond traditional metrics such as CTR, VTR, CPRP, and even polls and attributions to measure the impact of consumer action in real-time – how consumers are responding to/engaging with their campaigns. “We always recommend our clients to optimise campaigns on all aspects – ad fraud, viewability, brand safety. Every single impression must pass through all three quality parameters for it to become a quality impression and deliver results.” 

    With the above, almost all components for evolving a third-party cross-platform digital measurement ecosystem – the demand for which is seeing a significant push from advertisers across categories, are in place, except the industry has to work around accessing, and not breaching, the Walled Gardens. Jha shared that while there has been some tight-fisting from expected quarters “the number of publishers that have come on board for measurement at Nielsen in the past nearly 18 months has been phenomenal.”

    Concerted efforts are needed to sustain this extremely positive development towards the inevitable goal. “There is increasing awareness among the walled gardens and independent broadcasters/publishers of third-party cross-platform measurement as a thing that advertisers want to achieve. The unique identifiers that these broadcasters have are their most valuable asset; naturally, they want to be able to monetise as well as safeguard it. As platform providers, it is important for us to convince and enable them – through tech and tools – to buy at their own standards, because otherwise, the budgets are just not there,” Synamedia’s Wohlfart explained in his closing remarks to the session.

  • Global ad fraud rates dip in 2020, but brand risk on the rise: IAS study

    Global ad fraud rates dip in 2020, but brand risk on the rise: IAS study

    NEW DELHI: As the world underwent a tectonic shift in 2020, sparking evolution in consumer behaviour, brands had to resort to innovative ways to target their TGs. With greater time spent at home, TV viewing increased, as did online video consumption and uptake of gaming, leading to people interacting with advertisers on new, diverse platforms. And as is the case in times of crisis or economic slowdown, there were concerns that businesses may resort to less than fair means to sell their product or services. But in a positive sign, overall ad fraud rates have improved in the second half of 2020 globally, according to the H2 2020 Media Quality Report (MQR) released by Integral Ad Science (IAS) a global leader in digital ad verification. 

    Ad fraud rates improved in H2 2020

    As marketers all across the globe adopted advanced techniques to detect and prevent fraud, global ad fraud rates improved overall, while optimised-against-ad-fraud levels dropped across all devices and environments. 

    Ad fraud is the fraudulent representation of online advertisement impressions, clicks, conversion, or data events to generate revenue, and marketers have been using several tools to measure and prevent possible ad fraud. The report states that global fraud rates among optimised campaigns dropped between 0.3 to 0.8 per cent worldwide. On the other hand, non-optimised campaigns registered a 5.1 to 8.6 per cent drop based on device and environment. 

    At the country level, India contributed to 1.4 per cent ad frauds in the desktop environments. Even though most of the countries witnessed an improvement in ad fraud levels, Japan and Australia became the only two markets where ad fraud rates significantly increased. 

    Brand risk increased 

    However, during the same period, the brand risk increased across several categories. The study conducted by IAS calculated brand risk based on the number of pages scored as a medium or higher risk to brands. Finding indicate that adult content was the primary driver that led to a surge in brand risks among all categories globally. 

    The report stated that mobile web video contributed the highest for global brand risk at 8.6 per cent. Hate speech content also contributed to brand risk, especially on desktop video. Indonesia is the riskiest market for brand advertising in both desktop display and mobile web domain, while Canada was the only market to witness a decrease in brand risk. India recorded a total brand risk of 1.8 per cent on desktop display and a 2.8 per cent on mobile web display. 

    Viewability rates show mixed results

    As consumers continue to rely on digital media, viewability rates showed mixed results. According to the report, connected TV (CTV) viewability topped the video viewability rankings worldwide. CTV viewability reached 93.3 per cent globally, and it was followed by mobile app video viewability at 92.6 per cent. Mobile web video viewability increased by more than two per cent and reached 73.7 per cent. 

    "As marketers evolved their strategies in the second half of 2020, our latest MQR report shows greater adoption of tools that mitigate ad fraud and brand risk around digital content,” said IAS chief marketing officer Tony Marlow. “These unique insights also showcase the huge opportunities for marketers related to contextual targeting and emerging platforms such as CTV. Right now, every impression counts, and ensuring ads are viewable by real people in the environments that align with campaign objectives has never been more important.'' 

  • Havas launches meta quality barometer to tackle ad fraud

    Havas launches meta quality barometer to tackle ad fraud

    MUMBAI: As per eMarketer ad fraud is a top concern for both media buyers (33 per cent) and suppliers (44 per cent), and both groups also show great concern for ad viewability.

     

    Adledge estimates that only 42 per cent of all impressions served were considered ‘visible’ according to the definition of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and eight per cent were displayed in a potentially damaging context for the advertiser.

     

    White Ops recently reported that non-human traffic (aka bots) alone will cost digital advertisers worldwide over $6.3 billion this year. 

     

    To improve media inventory and campaign quality, Havas Media Group has launched a unique Meta Quality Barometer, based on a comprehensive, inclusive approach to data.  The Meta Quality Barometer from Artemis Alliance delivers continuously updated data across global, pluri-media campaigns, to share with all stakeholders (technology partners, media publishers and clients) to optimise investments.

     

    Havas Media Group global managing director Dominique Delport said, “Confidence in data quality is a critical issue for our industry. The scale of fraudulent inventory generated by sophisticated ‘bots’ is extremely concerning and neither media vendors nor agencies are safe. We need to bring trust and clarity back for our clients. For these reasons Havas has invested in our best-in-class Artemis Alliance data platform for over a decade. Now it manages 100 per cent of our online campaigns, harvesting over 300 billion secure and disaggregated data points each year and was recently awarded ISO27001 certification by Bureau Veritas. Its focus – to create an actionable measurement for viewability, brand protection, media inventory and campaign quality.” 

     

    He added, “As a result, we are delighted to launch the first Meta Quality Barometer for our industry. Helping us to connect the dots of the most advanced tech providers, delivering a unique and systematic “meta” barometer on data integrity, security and brand safety. This will facilitate and boost our communications with media owners to increase the quality of inventory for our clients. I am extremely proud of the teams in Artemis Alliance who have formalised a systematic approach to challenging industry practices so that we can help to provide better business solutions for our clients and media partners.” 

     

    Leveraging its extensive experience in handling event level data, Artemis Alliance collects detailed and raw data from all of its technology partners (Adledge, Catchpoint, ClarityAd, Hub’Scan, WhiteOps, Integral Ad Science and Peer39/Sizmek). That data, at its most granular level, is used to analyse and score the quality of the media inventory by industry, by market and by media owner.

                

    Havas Media Group EVP Media Futures & Innovation Rob Griffin summarised, “This is a win-win deal. We can now pull in data from across all screens, technology companies and media partners to provide the first external, objective review of outcomes across the five critical areas of Compliance, Experience, Impact, Context and Traffic.  While we can’t guarantee 100 per cent viewability or zero fraud, we can make a commitment to our clients and our publishers to improve the quality of inventory available and make the information clear and easy to activate. The ultimate win, therefore, will be for clients, who will benefit from smarter solutions and cleaner data to drive investments and business decisions.”

     

    With the help of extensively researched data, the Meta Quality Barometer covers five main areas:

     

    1. Compliance: Matching impressions against purchased media

     

    Artemis Alliance rates media owners’ compliance with campaign directives: promise (purchased versus delivered media) and technical qualifications (specifications and requirements).  Artemis Alliance constantly audits both tagging systems (with partner Hub’Scan) and creative work provided for each campaign (with partner ClarityAd).

     

    2. Experience: User experience 

     

    Artemis Alliance takes into account user experience and user interaction with campaign messages, in particular how long it takes for pages and ads to load for users (with partner Catchpoint), as well as where the ads are located on the page.

     

    3. Impact: Viewability and performance auditing

     

    Artemis Alliance can correlate performance (in particular in terms of audience) and viewability of media campaigns, to gauge their impact, through automatic and personalized tracking for each advertiser and for each action. 

     

    4. Context: Media content and brand safety

     

    Brand safety services are codes inserted in campaign tags, which allow Artemis Alliance to protect a brand’s image, quantify the number of blocked impressions (undesirable context), and identify the context where these impressions were delivered (with partners Adledge, Peer39). 

     

    5. Traffic: Securing campaign distribution

     

    To combat the rise of illegitimate Internet traffic worldwide, Artemis Alliance provides teams with both manual and technological solutions. Media teams identify and blacklist all suspect URLs based on abnormal click-rates, coded URLs and pages without ads. Artemis Alliance also works with several anti-fraud technology solutions to better protect our campaign results (with partners Adledge, Peer39, Integral Ad Science, White Ops, etc).