With ATS Paris only two weeks away, ExchangeWire speaks with Fred Dumeny (pictured below), director of Southern Europe, Ooyala, about the challenges within digital advertising; focussing especially how the industry is tackling issues of ad blocking, ad fraud, and viewability, ahead of Dumeny's participation in a panel discussion covering these hot topics.

ExchangeWire: What are the biggest challenges facing digital advertisers today?

Fred Dumeny: Advertisers are facing an enormous shift in not only how video advertising is being presented to viewers as well as sold, but across myriad devices and, with it, the proper amount of measurement, reach and ROI. And all of these differ and vary depending upon region. Particularly, the lack of transparency and consistent communication between sellers, buyers, and their marketers cause issues, from inconsistent definitions and parameters for things like viewability, to hesitation to move premium inventory to programmatic settings. Although the latter is increasingly improving, as sellers are commanding on-par CPMs through programmatic deals as traditional deals and buyers continue to prefer the efficiencies of programmatic.

Of what have these challenges been borne?

It largely comes down to the specific culture of buying and selling advertising in markets. Where there are no cries to digitally transform the ecosystem of advertising, progress is slow. However, in markets like the UK and America, for example, the industry, by and large, is adopting new technologies and buyers and sellers are throwing more budget and inventory towards programmatic. In these regions, industry issues are more apparent and the cries to standardise measurement and buying principles are heard. The issues are borne from change. It’s simply difficult to convert the core processes of an industry that’s historically based on handshakes and relationships to digitally-driven transactions and buying options. We’ll get there, but there are changes that must be made.

Many argue that the rise of consumer intelligence has made digital advertising more difficult. How can marketers use this consumer savvy to their advantage?

The more you know about how your audience is engaging with content, the better situated you are to deliver more personalised and tailored experiences – both from a content and advertising perspective. This is where data intelligence and analytics are vital for any content provider today. I’d argue that five years ago no one could have pinpointed the issues in the industry today, nor the sheer growth of video consumption and the subsequent shift in advertising. Who’s to say what the next five years will bring? It’s data-driven insight and analytics tools that will help publishers and advertisers better understand how they need to adapt and build their video business to properly engage with consumers, providing them the optimal experience for today, as well as tomorrow.

Many marketers treat the challenges of ad blocking, ad fraud, and viewability as one and the same. How are they all interlinked?

They’re all products of the same issue: an industry in transition. And, arguably, all are solved the same way: with better communication and transparency between buyers, sellers, and their viewers. Ad fraud is an unfortunate reality in the ad space that carried over from the display side of buying and selling non-human audiences. This then spurred the video industry to demand a better currency and solution, which gave us viewability – however that, too, has had its own host of issues with inconsistent definitions and means of measurement. All the while, the explosion of viewers watching content across devices and shift in ad dollars made way for a heavily saturated ad experience across devices: enter ad blockers.

On the ad blocking front, there are immediate solutions, such as Ooyala Unlock, that helps publishers and content providers that rely on advertising income combat ad blocking. In fact, in 2015 five major European premium publishers using Ooyala Unlock consistently unlocked more than 90 million ad impressions per month that were previously blocked and otherwise could not have been monetised. As a result, the customers saw well more than USD$1m (£705m) of additional – or previously lost – revenue per month due to Ooyala’s new anti-ad blocking functionality. So, while some issues in the industry will take time to solve, particularly standardised measurement for viewability, or continued ad fraud, there are immediate solutions available today to help ad-blocking.

What is the biggest threat to the future of digital advertising?

There’s no arguing that digital advertising is here to stay. A big enough threat doesn’t exist that could stop the continued shift in video advertising and migration of budgets online. Frankly, the biggest threat to stand in the way is the industry itself. It being slow to adapt and work together to make better standards and experiences for viewers is a sizeable threat.

Are the actions being taken collectively across the industry enough to address the threats?

The IABs of the world are making important steps to unify the industry. The continued conversation across buyers, sellers, and marketers will be important. Also, further education on new protocols, transaction methods and formats, too, will help support the industry to work together, versus having disparate solutions.

These are global issues for the industry. Are any markets setting an example in tackling these challenges?

France is a unique case, as the main publishers that have been experimenting with programmatic for several years and have formed alliances, La Place Media and Audience Square, for example. This way, by addressing the market in groups, rather than competing against each other, had the virtuous effect of maintaining relatively high CPMs and, therefore, a qualitative market. As a result, processes are now well managed and the market is ready and able to ramp-up.

What needs to be done to reduce the negative impact of these issues across the digital industry?

The main issue is setting standards and being compliant with them. This is the only way to leverage market growth.

Dumeny will be participating in a panel discussion on 'Digital Advertising’s Big Turning Point – How Fraud and Ad Blocking Makes Digital Advertising Better' at ATS Paris on 13 April. Find more information here.