Moves to inject further transparency in the UK digital advertising industry are gathering pace with cross industry trade body JICWEBS this week announcing that it has verified a number of ad tech vendors for brand safety. But sources close to the initiative claim US behemoths, notably Google, are slow to get on board.

JICWEBS – a cross industry trade body with representation from the IAB, AOP and IPA – has announced that auditing body ABC has issued “kitemarks” to nine ad tech vendors for meeting industry-agreed standards to reduce the risk of ads being served next to inappropriate or illegal content online.

The organisations – which include Ad2One Crimtan, Exponential Interactive, IgnitionOne, Quantcast, Specific Media, Tubemogul, Unruly, Vibrant Media –  all submitted their advertising misplacement policies and processes reviewed by ABC. The announcement marks a milestone for the ad tech sector with the Digital Trading Standards (DTSG), now up an running after several months of stalling, primarily over companies disagreeing over whether third parties should verify their operating procedures.

David Ellison, ISBA marketing services manager, said: “We recommend our members use intermediaries that have been kitemark accredited, as it will provide them with much-needed reassurances over online brand safety.”

Andy Muddimer, Santander’s Head of Digital, said: “Misplaced advertising is an issue that affects the whole online industry. In pro-actively working together we will foster trust and continue to see online ad spend grow. We encourage market take-up of the DTSG's good practice.”

Simon Haynes, IgnitionOne, managing director, UK, said: “ We have been vocal in the industry about providing transparency to brands as to where their online advertising is shown. We believe in the strength of our product and our partners see us a safe pair of hands when it comes to delivering their advertising campaign online.”

Phil Macauley, European managing director at Quantcast, said: “Operating in a high-growth sector which is ripe with opportunity on both the sell and the buy side, it's important that JICWEBs is taking the initiative to reward those operators who take transparency seriously.”

JICWEBS has approved other verification companies, among them is Project Sunblock, and its announcement also contained information stating that companies including Pulsepoint, byyd (formerly AdFonic), Microsoft Advertising, Yahoo UK, plus AOL’s Adaptv, AmnetUK, advertising.com, has committed to independent verification within 6 months.

Andrew Goode, Project Sunblock, COO, said: “The JICWEBS announcement shows the standards we must be judged against. Ad misplacement is still rampant in the industry, but now we have a methodology to work towards [to prevent it from happening as much]”.

Tim Cain, Managing Director, Association of Online Publishers, said: "In such a complex ecosystem there are, of course, challenges in reaching agreement and balancing interests. As an industry we needed a trusted and independent third party to bring the industry together, which is why we asked JICWEBS to facilitate this.”

ABC’s Richard Foan, who heads JICWEBS, said: “In the long run it’s in everyone’s interest to aim for online advertising which is safe which is how we’ve got everyone pulling in the same direction and reached today’s consensus.”

Big US players just not playing ball?
The announcement underlines a significant effort to bring standards to the industry, and is to be lauded but is equally remarkable for the names absent from the list, notably Google, which was among the initial signatories to the Digital Trading Standards Group’s list of best practice principles.
Read paragraph below for an exhaustive list.

Ad2One, Adconion Media Group, Adfonic (now Byyd), Adpepper, AMNET, AppNexus, Crimtan, Collective, Exchange Lab, Exponential, 4th Screen, Fox Networks, Google DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Improve Digital, InSkin Media, Media iQ Digital, Microsoft, Millennial Media, Perform Group, Quantcast, RocketFuel, Specific Media, StrikeAd, Tremor Video, TubeMogul, Unanimis, Unruly Media, ValueClick Media, Vibrant Media, Videology, Weather Channel Global Media, WeSee, Yahoo UK , YOC.

So upon comparing the two lists, a discrepancy is apparent, with ExchangeWire sources (speaking upon condition of anonymity) assert that larger US companies are unwilling to vary their business practices from its global policies. This effectively means the JICWEBS policies here in the UK are a thorn in the claw of these global giants, which itself raises question marks over its chances of becoming a success, and as a result, the moves towards fully implementing effective transparency are greatly impeded.

ExchangeWire contacted JICWEBS to question whether or not Google has committed further to the process, but it claimed it did not disclose any verification procedures unless agreed with said third party.

ExchangeWire then subsequently contacted Google, Yahoo and Microsoft (the latter two have committed to verification imminently) to put the claims to them but neither Google nor Yahoo responded publicly by time of publication.

However, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “Microsoft is very happy to have played a proactive part of the creation of the JICWEBS DTSG standard, from the beginning through to the end of the process. We will continue to support the standard initiative while we await the audit for the verification process.”

So while the move marks a great degree of progress, there still remains some question marks.