IAB outlines its position on ‘digital’s biggest issues’

Its IAB Believes initiative covers five key issues: brand safety; viewability; fraud; ad blocking and privacy. According to the announcement on the IAB website, it comes in response to “mounting criticisms about digital advertising”.

Each statement will set out the industry position, the direction for each challenge and an outline of how they are being addressed. A summary of each is as follows:

1. The IAB believes in brand safety online. Maintaining processes that ensure a safe environment for ad trading, thereby minimising the risk of misplacement, protecting the integrity and reputation of brands, and stifling the funding of content and services that infringe copyright
2. The IAB believes in maximising ad viewability. Working across the industry with accredited technology partners to develop cross platform standards, our goal is to achieve effective viewability, engagement and attention for advertisers’ online campaigns
3. The IAB believes in tackling ad fraud head on. We are committed to ensuring that the significant investment brands make in digital advertising is effective and reaches the right audience. Working with our industry partners, we will issue practical advice, and accredit technology solutions to stamp out fraud in the supply chain
4. The IAB believes in an ad funded internet. Our goal is to help make all forms of digital advertising more effective, efficient and relevant to people¹s interests. We want to help brands reach their audience and to provide revenue to publishers so they can continue to make their content, services and applications widely available to British citizens at the appropriate cost. We believe ad blocking undermines this approach
5. The IAB believes in privacy. Together with our industry partners across Europe and beyond, we are working to ensure advertising businesses give citizens greater transparency and control over the information that is collected and used to make advertising more relevant and effective

“I’m confident that in 12 months’ time issues such as viewability, ad fraud and brand safety will be simple, straightforward hygiene factors for display advertising – as long as all those in the industry follow guidelines set by groups such as the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) and the Digital Trading Standards Group (DTSG),” said IAB UK’s CEO, Guy Phillipson.

“My call to action is to focus energies on working together on the evolving programme to tackle digital’s biggest issues, rather than complaining from the sidelines. We’re all in it together – it’s not just an IAB problem, these are shared issues on what is a global platform.”