ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date research findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, ExchangeWire, head of research and analysis. In this week’s edition: Pixalate sets new standard for programmatic advertising quality; the ever-increasing mobile opportunity; and Acxiom’s quest to use big data to fortify little data.

New findings from Pixalate reveal that 70% of sellers have been exposed to malware-driven ad fraud

Pixalate, Inc., the leading data intelligence platform, this week released its April 2015 Global Seller Trust Index™ (GSTI™), the rating standard for programmatic advertising, announcing the addition of Malware Risk Exposure™ and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Verticals. These enhancements allow media buyers to objectively measure inventory quality and security risk of sellers. This new analysis revealed that more than 70% of sellers are exposed to malware-driven ad fraud, and one in 20 internet users were infected. The monthly Pixalate GSTI™ is based on an analysis of 100 billion ad impressions, 350 million IP addresses and more than 400 programmatic sellers.

Other key findings include:

-- Overall, OpenX ranked the highest, overtaking Google AdExchange from the previous month

-- Of the top 12 industries tracked, OpenX and Rubicon led in five categories each, while Google AdExchange came in third place, leading in two categories

-- Technology & computing was the industry with the most malware accounting for 30% of malware traffic

“Growth of online advertising, coupled with its ability to target specific users and organisations, has made it one of the most effective channels for security attacks,” said Jalal Nasir, CEO of Pixalate. “Trust in advertising cannot be restored without first addressing the cyber security risks it poses to enterprises and consumers. This is a complex and growing problem, as many buyers, including reputable brands, purchase seemingly legitimate inventory. Unbeknownst to them, some of the inventory has been compromised and ultimately leads to a negative impact on consumer trust and brand integrity.”

Advances in advertising and device technology are providing marketers with increased opportunities to target consumers online. However, these same advances are providing attackers with more opportunities to exploit. Anti-fraud is an area where we are seeing significant growth, with many companies and organisations trying to stay one step ahead of the attackers and fraudsters and protect legitimate traders.

Read more about the Seller Trust Index here.

Find out more about the ad fraud ecosystem, and what the industry can do to address the problem, in the latest edition of ExchangeWire’s TraderTalk TV with Mikko Kotila, Principal at botlab.io.

People now spend nearly two hours a day online via a smartphone

New data from GlobalWebIndex shows that one in four online minutes are being spent on social media, the highest since GWI began tracking in 2012. The report also reveals that the number of people engaging with mobile social networking is gently rising. However, much stronger growth can be seen in the average time per day that people are spending on the mobile web; this metric has jumped from 1.24 hours in 2012 to 1.99 hours in 2015. Therefore, it is not just that more people are using the mobile web each year; people are spending more of their day on their smartphones. Furthermore, this means that these devices are capturing a progressively larger share of social networking activities.

Ciaran O’Kane, ExchangeWire CEO discussed Facebook’s dominance of mobile advertising growth in his Echo Chamber column earlier this week.

Social crossover

GWI’s data also brings to light that 93% of Twitter’s active users have a Facebook account, and 90% also have a YouTube account. Consumers’ lack of loyalty to a single social network presents an interesting combination of opportunity and challenge for marketers. Firstly, there is an opportunity to market to consumers via multiple networks tapping into different use patterns, engagements and ad formats. Secondly, there is the challenge of consistency and progressive messaging.

Initially reported by eMarketer, and discussed in a previous ExchangeWire research roundup, when it comes to personalised content, the biggest mistake brands can make is to be too intrusive, followed by assuming they know certain things about consumers. Therefore, any brand looking to market to consumers across multiple social networks (and other channels for that matter) should ensure they have tested and continue to refine their segmentation and sequential messaging with the same rigor they would apply to say, conversion tracking and bid optimisation.

Unlocking potential through integrating big data and little data

In late 2014, Acxiom interviewed eight major brands to better understand how Big Data and Little Data inform their marketing practices. In addition, the Acxiom normative database was polled against 200+ completed Acxiom Marketing Maturity Model assessments to learn how leading marketers are tackling key challenges when it comes to data integration, analysis, and marketing.

First, some definitions:

Little Data is comprised of the rich profile information a brand has on a customer. This is personally-identifiable information (PII) and is often a brand’s invaluable CRM data, such as demographics or transactional data. It’s a constant and steady stream of data that, when used correctly, can generate significant value for a company.

Big Data is the high-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety data available to organisations in myriad formats and sources, including social media activity, search, videos, GPS, and much more. Big Data is often anonymous, and sometimes attributable to a cookie, but it’s rarely attributable to a person. However, it provides a wealth of general information on large samples of people that can be aggregated and analyzed to uncover specific patterns to be used to develop offers, understand sentiments, or build products and services.

With an unprecedented number of consumer touch-points, it can be extremely difficult find significant connections in the quest to move from campaigns to relationships in order to match consumers’ expectation that brands recognise them over time and across multiple devices.

By itself, Big Data can provide overall insight, but it’s especially valuable when matched to Little Data. When Big Data and Little Data intersect, the two data sets come alive to provide insights about consumers, based on their preferences and those of consumers just like them.

Acxiom’s Marketing Maturity model revealed:

-- Even the most advanced marketers score only a 3, on a scale of 1-5, when asked if their online and offline data are integrated – the industry average was just 1.3

-- However, they achieve a ranking of 4 when asked about consistent consumer interactions across channels

-- When asked if consumer data is transformed to understand lifetime value and modeled to predict future value at a company level, average scores come in at 2

-- Leaders scored a 4 when it came to mapping consumer lifetime experience, with the product-to-brand relationship

-- Leaders scored a 3 when it came to identifying consumers and cross–channel behaviour signals to deliver consistent, personalised interactions across channels

The data and insight collected by Acxiom is encouraging, as it is clear to see that advanced marketers are embracing the advances in technology which allow more precise targeting and messaging; but it is clear to see that the majority of marketers still have a long way to go.