Ads.txt Provides Greater Transparency for Advertisers

Transparency is a vital component of any digital advertising message. Now as Programmatic becomes more ubiquitous, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has developed a protocol that protects ad buyers from fraudulent sellers. 

Ads.txt (which stands for Authorized Digital Sellers) is a simple, flexible and easy method for publishers and distributors to publicly display all of the vetted companies allowed to sell that domain’s digital inventory. A simple text file, ads.txt offers a very transparent way to prevent unauthorized inventory sales from those bad actors who arbitrage inventory and spoof domains by listing all authorized sellers of the site so anyone can cross check.   

Tim Mahlman, President of Advertising and Publisher Strategy, Oath, is a big proponent of ads.txt.  “Advertisers want greater transparency from their media partners,” he explained. “Publishers that have embraced ads.txt have taken a positive step toward delivering that. It’s a more secure way to publicly identify the platforms authorized to sell publisher inventory, limiting bad actors. And it gives advertisers a more accurate representation of media impressions and who’s selling them. For publishers that haven’t yet implemented ads.txt, they’ll ultimately get on board. They can’t afford not to as more advertisers buy based on transparency,” he added.

To further understand the familiarity and implementation of ads.txt, Oath just completed a study on the subject polling 220 ad and agency executives. 

The study revealed that ads.txt is a huge plus for the industry:

·         51% of the respondents say that ads.txt make them more comfortable about buying programmatic

·         48% say that they’re suspicious of publishers who are not using ads.txt 

One-third will only advertise with publishers who are using ads.txtBut there is still work to be done. 

While ads.txt is continuing to grow, only 60% of the top 1,000 U.S. publishers have already implemented it. 

And more education needed as nearly 20% of advertisers have never head of ads.txt 
 

Arguably, ads.txt is “still a new development in our industry,” noted Mahlman, “The IAB only launched it one year ago. That education gap will shrink quickly this year as more advertisers demand tools for inventory transparency.” He added that, “Adoption is growing. It’s gaining momentum but is still unfamiliar to some buyers. Partners need to continue to educate advertisers on the benefits of buying ads.txt-enabled inventory.”

Mahlman is enthusiastic about ads.txt and stated that his company has supported it “from the beginning and has already implemented it across its properties. We are also collaborating with publishers and approved resellers and have been enforcing ads.txt across our platforms and filtering inventory on domains where DSPs buy.” 

The future of ads.txt looks abundantly clear. “Since ads.txt was implemented last year, increased transparency in the programmatic ecosystem has become even more prevalent. Advertisers can use it to verify inventory sellers by simply adding ads.txt to the end of a URL,” concluded Mahlman.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Using Blockchain to Disrupt Media

Just when you thought the media landscape was quieting down, a new non-profit research and development foundation called the AdLedger Consortium has been created to further disrupt the buy/sell model, this time by using blockchain. This consortium is charged with implementing global technical standards, protocols and solutions for digital media and blockchain. 

The group’s founding members consist of a range of companies from technology, advertising agencies, media sellers and data vendors who are pooling their expertise and efforts to, according to the press release, “bring transparency and data security to the ad tech supply chain through blockchain technology.” According to their press release, founding member companies include, Canoe, GroupM, Cadent, Meredith, IPG Mediabrands and Neustar, among others.

Why Apply Blockchain to Digital Media

At a recent Frankfurt Kurnit event, Gordon Platt, President, Gotham Media, explained that when it comes to media and advertising, "Blockchain technology will bring media licensing and distribution into the 21st Century, enabling creators to control access to their work and ensuring that they get paid for its use."

Eric John, Deputy Director, Video Center of Excellence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) noted that in the areas of fraud and safety, “It takes automation to and entirely new level.” On the plus side, blockchain offers a failsafe, verifiable, immutable protocol to permanently link data for use in transactions and data tracking. Privacy compliance is part of this focus.

But caution is advised. “Putting a social network on the blockchain is harder than you think,” warned Benji Rogers, CEO and Co-Founder, Dot Blockchain Media. “If it links to extremist content, you can never take it down,” he explained. “You might siphon millions of dollars to the wrong person and can’t turn it off.”

Privacy Compliance Legislation

The concern about data privacy is being addressed through legislation by the EU called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) scheduled to go into effect in May 2018. Its implementation is a call to action for companies interested in creating and supporting a privacy compliant peer-to-peer decentralized network for media. Through the use of blockchain, companies can address a range of data issues from transparency to supply chain inefficiency to data security and portability to reconciliation and payments that comply with the new EU regulation.

According to Gabe Greenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of GABBCON, Global Audience Based Buying Conference and Consultancy, “Blockchain has the ability to help media by illuminating the current opacity in the supply chain and, by extension, eliminating fraud and moving economic value back to publishers and advertisers.” And, importantly, it offers a secure, privacy-compliant ability to transact that protects the user's private data. 

AdLedger Proof of Concepts

AdLedger is working on two different proofs of concept right now. The first is OpenGPDR, which will cryptographically store data on a data controller’s private blockchain, creating an audit trail. This will help companies manage the new privacy rights under the GDPR regulations of the Right to Access and the Right to be Forgotten.

The second proof of concept is Campaign Reconciliation which focuses on streamlining the campaign reconciliation process showing “what a campaign transacted from cradle to grave would look like on a blockchain,” stated Greenberg. Led by Amichai Lichtenstein, Director of Product Management at AppNexus, the project includes the creation of a contained blockchain network with a set number of players that combines disparate sources of immediate metrics based on measurement KPI’s tied to campaign delivery. Touted as a single source of truth, the ledger will ideally showcase blockchain’s ability to reduce the amount of campaign discrepancies and offer more transparency for buyers and sellers.

Challenges to Implementation

But there are still some challenges to overcome. The most frequently cited challenge, Greenberg noted, is speed. “The traditional ad tech landscape has high QPS (queries per second) demands that blockchain today would struggle to support, but we are confident that the technology will continue to evolve,” he stated, and added, “Saying that this will remain a challenge forever is assuming no innovation or iteration -- it's like saying a 5-year-old will never be tall enough to ride a roller coaster.” Even with this challenge, the expectation is that there will be increasing traction to embed blockchain in digital media throughout 2018.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Programmatic Attribution Modeling

In an environment of cross-platform media and the Internet of Things, marketers are grappling with programmatic attribution modeling. Attribution, according to Cynopsis, is defined as “the process of identifying a set of user actions that contribute to a desired outcome, and then giving each of those actions a specific value.” Ideally, good attribution would enable marketers to get the correct and fair sequencing of events that truly influenced a consumer’s behavior.

Last Touch Attribution
Most common is last touch attribution, which gives full credit to the last-touch point before the desired action takes place. This essentially negates the value of all previous actions leading to activation. The IAB is addressing programmatic attribution modeling, specifically on last-touch, with an update to their 2012 guidelines. According to Benjamin Dick, director, industry initiatives, IAB in a recent Mediapost article, the update was to, “account for the many developments in cross-screen measurement, data collection, and usage, and ultimately provide a common language when discussing attribution tools, technologies, and methodologies.” The intent was to show the limitations of, and alternatives to, last-touch methodologies.

Read my full article on the Videa blog.

Lesson From Advertising Week – It’s The Data

When I think of autumn, I can't help but think of advertising week which is a jam packed series of overlapping events highlighting how our industry is innovating, evolving and transforming. At the end of it I always marvel at how much I have seen ... and how much I have missed because of time. But the one thing I have not missed (because it is ubiquitous) is the recent exaltation of data and analytics in our industry. I am thrilled by the recognition of the value of research as a strategic revenue driver.

So here are my research takeaways from Advertising Week and the OMMAs:

It's Not Big Data. It's Smart Data

Data by itself tells you nothing. It has to be put into context with all of the different datasets' inter and intra relationships. Too much data for data sake is problematic as David Tucker of UM noted "We have the capacity to know more about people today but it’s like boiling the ocean and data makes the ocean deeper. People don't say what they think and don't do what they say. We need more careful insights." But not having enough data is problematic as well as Claudia Perlich of Dstillery said, "Do you have enough data to go into the details?" So finding that optimum amount of quality, meaningful data will be the Holy Grail going forward.

Use Data to Look Ahead, Not Back

The use of data to forecast has never been more promising. Anush Prabhu of Deutsch explained, “Back 10 to 15 years ago we analyzed effect. Over the years, it has become how it will affect. We are looking forward with more data. We are looking at what is going on culturally. We can do and create things.” Traditional methods have been based on past performance - how a program rated in the past, for example, used to project future ratings. But now with machine learning, AI and expert algorithms, we may be able to better ascertain content attributes and target segmentations in such a way that even without prior actual performance, we can forecast the chances of its success.

Identify, Measure and Monetize –

The mantra, “If you can’t identify it, you can’t measure it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t monetize it” has been gaining in volume over the past year. Initiatives that have been calling for industry standards are gaining traction. For example, CIMM’s Trackable Asset Cross-Platform Identification (TAXI) was developed to cover the entire content identification spectrum - programming and advertising – as a way to verify exposure to assets as they travel across platform. CIMM’s Jane Clarke explained, “The way it is now, everyone has their own proprietary tag and code. There isn't an open and inter-operable standard. And so we just kept saying to ourselves, as with the UPC code, couldn't there be a UPC code for media? CIMM has been collaborating with Ad-ID and the Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR) along with the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) to bring UPC code-like benefits to tracking assets through the media ecosystem. This will drive innovation not only for cross-platform measurement, but also for other automated innovation in digital TV.” The IAB’s Randal Rothenberg offered his view, “There is no universal coding system across platforms but we are closer to embedding Ad-ID in digital which will enhance measurement and inter-operability. This will be a major panacea to digital marketing community.” Nancy Hill from the 4As added, “Ad-IDs will not be a replacement for the ISCI code. The faster we get Ad-IDs implemented across the chain, the more relieved we will be. We are structuring norms and behaviors that allow us to do business and not contain innovation and creativity. We need to be able to grow profitable businesses over time.”

No One – In Digital or Traditional- Is Happy With Current Measurement Analytics

There are many executives from across the spectrum who are frustrated with the rate of change and implementation of audience based standard measurements. While there is “pressure for more measurable media” according to Anush Prabhu, "Analytics have a long way to catch up to what we are doing in digital" added Kevin Rettig from Accenture. MediaVest’s David Shiffman believed, “Everyone is creating their own solution for their own platform for their own needs. It doesn't serve the whole.” But there is hope, Shiffman added, “(comScore’s) Project Blueprint brings together various data streams. They have a convergence panel to understand how data comes together. They take a consumer oriented view - not channel by channel – and it has the potential to shift the conversation. There is excitement and hope around that initiative.”

The Future Belongs to the Nerds

The future looks bright for those of us who understand and work with data. Mediapost’s Steven Smith noted that “Trend lines have been more to analytics” while David Tucker said that “Opportunities have always been there. They are not new. What data allows us to do is find those moments more frequently. Data is unlocking and making solutions more visible for us.” Even conversations with clients have changed according to GroupM’s Harvey Goldhersz as they realize that "Everyone we made fun of in college will be our bosses." Oh do I hear music?

Is On Demand Ready For Primetime Anytime?

We appear to be tantalizingly close to a more comprehensive business, delivery and measurement strategy for On Demand. But perhaps not close enough to create an industry standard just yet. The recent B&C On Demand Summit offered insights into what is being done well, what we can do better and what still needs to be accomplished in the On Demand arena.

There is a lot of good news according to experts in the industry. The number of enabled platforms is increasing, the cost of distribution is declining and the window for dynamic ad insertion is shortening.  Brands are beginning to integrate with content to offer a seamless viewing experience. Research companies are energetically examining second by second return path data that is being matched to IP data and there is greater flexibility than ever in content creation, delivery and access.

As the conference progressed it became clear that there are some important actions that need to be taken sooner than later - those areas where the On Demand business needs to focus to get to an industry standard. A short video that captures some of these topics is linked to here. 

Here are my top ten On Demand issues and next step: Please comment.

Cannibalization – Cannibalization is not inevitable according to Jim Packer from Lionsgate. But there needs to be a careful balancing act for content providers so that content that is available on demand and across platforms does not cannibalize the primary source of the main business, whether linear or in theater, for example.

DAI – The technology is not there yet for more real time insertion. There are still some structural issues to get it closer to almost real time. Thankfully Canoe is focusing all of its energies on addressing DAI.

Transparency – This is primarily a data access issue that is being addressed by Rentrak in partnership with MediaOcean. Agencies will be able to view a transparent transaction report of 60 networks free of charge.

Data merging and measurement – Even though agency software company MediaOcean is beginning to integrate new datasets into its systems (an important step), On Demand data and measurement in general continue to be an area in need of more development. Improvements in data standardization and metrics are being spearheaded via the IAB and the MRC is starting to accredit certain services and methodologies. We need to keep pursuing measurement solutions as a top priority. And let’s not forget the importance of asset identification to facilitate cross platform measurement trackage. 

Scale – How do you get to scale with VOD? It seems that issues like content rights and measurement need to be addressed to help create scale. 

Agency silos – Some agencies are stratified when it comes to media purchasing so broadcast and cable are separate buying departments from digital. Silo’ing is not an efficient way to maximize the purchase value of VOD. Many agencies, realizing this challenge, are being to break down these silos but there is still work to be done in this area.

Valuation- How do you value VOD? Some think of it as an extension of cable. Agency budgets need to migrate and the disparity of CPMs across platforms needs to be addressed. Mike Bologna of GroupM suggested defining hyper target segments so VOD is not just “more cable inventory”.

Educating clients beyond age and gender – VOD enables hyper niche marketing but clients may still gravitate to the simpler age gender categories. Nick Troiano of BlackArrow noted that from a business perspective CPMs for A18-49 offers a higher CPM but hyper-targeting is more efficient. 

Content rights – Let’s face it, rights are expensive. Especially when the content is new and performance is unknown. But without taking the chance of acquiring all the content rights for a program, there is a marketing challenge (brands cannot fully integrate) and a data challenge (the landscape of VOD becomes incomplete for full measurement). 

Rate of change – The rate of change seems to be accelerating. Conference s such as those offered by Mediapost and MultiChannel/B&C continue to bring new and innovative ideas to the industry and help executives keep up to date.