Three leading industry bodies have come together as part of an initiative to tackle digital media transparency.
The AANA and MFA have worked together previously through their Media Forum, but are now working with the IAB and have established a working group to design and publish a common set of best-practice operating standards to improve transparency in the digital advertising supply chain, to reduce fraud and improve brand safety.
The AANA has been vocal on the issue in the last year, with former CEO Sunita Gloster taking a lead, while the agency representative body the MFA has been less public about any position or steps being taken to address an issue which has plagued the industry over the past two years.
Listen: AdNews Podcast Live Edition: Transparency in agency and client relationships
The working group will draw extensively from best practice solutions overseas, with an eye on the US and UK specifically. They plan to have something in market by Q2 2018.
Current AANA CEO John Broom, a former CMO who took on the post in September, says: “Many major advertisers, particularly the global players, have moved to introduce standards to ensure they have better visibility over where their digital advertising appears. However, it is important that all advertisers, both big and small, are better equipped to reduce or eliminate advertising that is wasteful or, worse still, may cause brand reputational damage,” the AANA’s CEO, John Broome said.
Sophie Madden, MFA CEO, added: “We will draw on the relevant expertise of our members and participants will include representatives from the major advertisers, media agencies, platform providers and publishers. We all share the goal of producing meaningful and actionable standards that will significantly improve brand safety and transparency in the digital advertising space.”
AdNews held a half-day event AdNews Live! Tackling Transparency back in June which interrogated some of the issues and looked for genuine solutions. Check out our podcasts from the live event.
Listen: AdNews Podcast Live Edition: The 'murky' digital waters
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