Dutch Response to Cookie Regulation

Netherlands Unprepared in the Wake of "Fast" Cookiewet Implementation

Webwereld.nl
by: Andreas Udo de Haes

Despite years of wrangling and preparation, almost no Dutch site meets cookiewet (cookie regulation) guidelines since they were put into effect.

As of last week, the cookiewet force requires that sites extract from visitors explicit consent for the transfer of tracking cookies. There should also be clear information provided on why cookies are needed.

Deadline ignored

A tour of sites along Webwereld and other publishers shows that almost nobody complies with the law. This does not mean they are ignoring the rules, because most are, in their own words, "fully engaged" in compliance. But last week’s deadline came apparently so rapidly or unexpectedly that almost nobody is compliant. Ironically, this is also the case with many government sites and sites of various political parties.

Of the big sites and publishers, only De Telegraaf has taken concrete action, with a banner at the top of the site, which links to Information. Here, however, no permission asked, and therefore still doesn’t comply with the law, admits Marc Roos, Director of Digital Media Telegraaf Netherlands.

Telegraph takes 'first step'

"It's a first step, and we meet now at least one aspect of the law - the disclosure requirement. We are considering further what we will do because there is enormous uncertainty in the industry and OPTA is offering little clarity," says Roos.

Laurens Verhagen, editor of Persgroep newspaper sites, agrees there is still much uncertainty: "For us, there is nothing on the sites as of yet, but we are fully engaged. We are in consultation with other major publishers so we can tailor the policy. We're not reinventing the wheel. We rely heavily on the opinions of the IAB.”
Legal and technical uncertainty

According to Verhagen, the technical and legal details are still unclear. "For example, does the responsibility for tracking cookies lie with the publisher or the advertiser?" That this discussion is still in play after the law is already being enforced could lead to many in the industry being charged.

Google also refers to the IAB, and cannot say what steps the group has taken to meet the Dutch cookiewet requirements. "We are confident that our products meet the requirements of European legislation. We are working to increase transparency and the freedom of choice that we provide for our users, and to improve in light of new developments in regulation and information about cookies,” Google said in a statement. "We are committed to complying with the law in all countries where we operate, including the Netherlands."

ILO: stepwise

The IAB is not surprised that sites do not immediately meet cookiewet. “Last month it was still debated in the Senate. The IAB advises as a first guide: start with clear information. Because someone cannot consent to something like that without knowing what it is," said Auke van den Hout, director of IAB.

According to IAB’s website: "The new legislation creates a lot of confusion and shows, particularly in the area of enforcement, a lot of legal uncertainty which unfortunately IAB can not completely eradicate."

The IAB published last week, in collaboration with Deloitte, a compliance guide, similar to the Cookiewet manual that DDMA, the trade association of marketers, published.
OPTA is looking for harmful cookies

According to OPTA, it is not for the watchdog to detail or capture what can and cannot be considered compliance. "The market gives practical meaning to the law,” says their spokeswoman. The regulator says right now it will focus on "sites with harmful and difficult to remove cookies".

Citizens can register their complaints in ConsuWijzer.nl. But although it appreciates the help of consumers, OPTA will initially only pursue their own investigations started with digital detectives.

Yandex and VivaKi Launch New Targeting Tool for Banner Ads

Yandex, Russia's leading search engine and most visited website, together with digital communications group VivaKi, has rolled out a new tool for targeting display ads - Digital Eye. The new advertising method enables advertisers to differentiate specific segments of the web user audience depending on the amount of time they spend in front of their television sets. The new targeted advertising product is based on Yandex's proprietary Crypta technology and is available exclusively to clients of VivaKi group agencies in Russia.

According to TNS Russia, monthly television viewership in Russia totals 99%, while ОМI and TNS polls show that 30% of the Russian internet audience watches television less than one hour per day. Digital Eye gives advertisers an opportunity to specifically target the part of the internet audience that would have been missed through television ads. Moreover, Yandex's new advertising method makes it possible to display ads to viewers based on their television and online experience. Those web users who are likely to have already seen the ads on TV will be happy to only be reminded of the product, while those who are more likely to spend their time online rather than watching TV might benefit from more product information. The new display ad targeting product helps advertisers to increase their campaign ROIs and optimise their advertising budgets.

Lev Gleyser, Director of Display Advertising Development at Yandex, comments: "Digital Eye is our first product created together with VivaKi. It is based on our behaviour analytics technology, Crypta, that can single out virtually any demographic, as long as they display distinctive behavior online. This technology will surely keep developing, and we welcome new partners wishing to expand advertising opportunities for their clients with new, refined, technologically advanced tools."

Aleksey Vasilenko, Non-TV Buying Director at VivaKi, adds: "With Digital Eye, our clients will be able to boost the efficiency of their ads and optimise their budgets, especially for those campaigns whose audiences are hard to reach on TV. This project is part of VivaKi Russia's strategic program for developing new media planning and advertising tools in online marketing."

The Crypta technology was initially implemented last August in Yandex's demographic targeting tool.

IgnitionOne Launches Facebook ‘Sponsored Stories’ Management Solution

IgnitionOne, a global leader in digital marketing solutions, is launching an addition to its Digital Marketing Suite (DMS) that will allow marketers to optimise their earned and paid Facebook media alongside search, mobile and display advertising. These capabilities are made possible through an integration with Expion, a leading social software company.

The solution will feed continuous social analytics into the IgnitionOne DMS to trigger instant ad creation for Facebook’s Sponsored Stories. Expion monitors content in real time to create triggers based on insights related to the volume and ratio of Likes, comments and posts on Facebook brand pages. With IgnitionOne’s DMS, brands can now automate creation of Facebook Sponsored Stories when there is a high level of activity around a post to quickly capitalise on the amplification made possible by the timely publishing of these ads. The platform analyses performance data to show the optimal ratios of social actions and indicates the most opportune time to launch Sponsored Stories. This innovation aims to alleviate the current need for social media managers to manually poll and monitor brand page activities across multiple interfaces.

Will Margiloff, CEO of IgnitionOne, comments: “IgnitionOne is dedicated to leading the development of innovative technology for social media marketers and this release addresses a real need. This connection of earned and paid media is one of the first that represents a leap forward for social marketing advancement.”

Peter Heffring, CEO of Expion, adds: “Brands realise that some of the best insights come from customers. Now we can take the content that resonates with customers and deliver it instantly as a Sponsored Story. This helps brands share word of mouth recommendations more effectively.”

24/7 Media Launches New Mobile SDK

24/7 Media, WPP’s marketing technology company, announced this week the launch of a new software development kit (SDK) for 24/7 Mobile.

The new 24/7 Mobile SDK is part of 24/7 Media’s 24/7 Open AdStream® ad management platform that includes display, video, mobile and social. The new Mobile SDK provides publishers and media companies with all of the necessary tools for integrating in-app advertising for both iOS and Android devices, whether smartphones or tablets, including the latest IAB & MMA formats.

The kit includes documentation and a sample app which can be used for showcasing and testing the technology along with the programme library. Publishers simply include the SDK code within their mobile apps and the SDK automatically connects their mobile application with their ad server, 24/7 Open AdStream. Through this process, the publisher’s mobile application requests that the appropriate ad, including targeting features, be delivered from the ad server to the end user.

Rob Schneider, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development, 24/7 Media, comments: “Mobile advertising is growing rapidly and both publishers and media companies need to match advertising to app audiences. This is the latest example of our continuing efforts to offer cross channel solutions on a single ad serving platform.”

Nicolle Pangis, President, Real Media Group Europe, a business unit of 24/7 Media, adds: “Our new SDK opens up additional sales opportunities by enabling publishers to monetise the advertising space in their mobile apps quickly and effectively by using the newest standards and technologies in the market.”

Because both 24/7 Mobile and the SDK use the same technology, publishers can monetise both mobile website and in-app advertising. 24/7 Media's ad serving solution means that customers can more easily manage their display, video and mobile inventory within one tool, aiming to save both time and budget.