ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space. In this week’s edition: Advertising Association Demands Post-Brexit EU-UK Co-operation on Data Protection Rules; Rising Viewability Rates in UK; CDP Institute Launched in Europe; Finnish Media Group Otavamedia Licenses PubMatic Platform; and Tapad & Flashtalking Partnership.

Advertising Association Demands Post-Brexit EU-UK Co-operation on Data Protection Rules

The Advertising Association has called on the European Commission to pave the way for the post-Brexit relationship between the EU and UK with regards to the UK’s deep alignment with the EU on data protection policy. Despite the UK leaving the EU, the industry body suggests that the Information Commissioner’s Office should continue to participate fully in the European Data Protection Board.

Prior to Brexit, the UK will also be subject to the new GDPR. Exiting the EU, the UK will thus be in a unique position with the regulations in place outside the EU. With data transfer an essential element in cross-border trade in every sector, and billions of Euro invested in the industry in the UK, the Advertising Association believes that a deal to keep the UK authorities involved “would be vital for the European economy and, in particular, for the thousands of businesses that thrive and rely on being able to exchange personal data freely across EU borders".

Among the signatories of the statement are the IAB UK and ISBA, as well as major national and European industry bodies.

Rising Viewability Rates in UK

Integral Ad Science’s Media Quality Report for H2 2017 investigates brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across UK desktop, video, and global mobile advertising. The study reveals rising viewability levels on all video ad inventory – and decreasing risk of brand safety for video ads and non-optimised video ad fraud.

On the topic of viewability, the report reveals that two-fifths (37.9%) of all video ad inventory was viewed until completion, an indication of high engagement opportunity. In the UK, desktop video ad viewability increased from 58.3% in H1 2017, to 66.2% in H2 2017. Interestingly, viewability rates measured on direct trades with publishers rose from 66.5% to 68.2%, while viewability when trading programmatically saw the greatest increase from 53.9% to 63.7%.

Commenting to ExchangeWire, Nick Morley, EMEA MD, Integral Ad Science says: “Looking back on 2017, it’s clear that a consolidated effort to clean up the digital ecosystem has had a great impact. Findings from Integral Ad Science’s H2 2017 Media Quality Report show rising viewability levels for video ads, supported by a narrowing performance gap between programmatic and publisher direct buys. It's great to see such positive progress for video inventory, as advertisers look to secure the best possible placements for their campaigns.”

In terms of brand safety for video ads, total risk fell from 13.1% in H1 2017 to 12.2% in H2 2017, with the most significant risk areas now violence (25.8%), illegal drugs (23.5%), and illegal downloads (21.5%). According to the report, non-optimised video ad fraud, i.e. where there is no ad fraud prevention in place, decreased by just over a quarter (27.2%) across buy types, with the overall number falling from 6.4% in H1 2017 to 4.7% in H2 2017.

“While 2017 was the year for discussion, progress is now underway”, says Morley. “I’m looking forward to our H1 2018 results, which will hopefully demonstrate the industry’s continued commitment to sustaining an accountable and trustworthy ecosystem. Moving forward, and with GDPR coming in to effect in May, it is paramount for brands undertaking global campaigns to understand the nuances across devices and markets.”

The IAS UK Media Quality Report analysed data from advertising campaigns between 1 July and 31 December.

CDP Institute Launched in Europe

The Customer Data Platform Institute is a vendor-neutral organisation aimed at helping marketers with customer data management. U.S.-based CDP has now expanded to Europe, helped by its founding partner CrossEngage.

“Marketers everywhere recognise that they need to deliver the data-enabled experiences that customers want, while carefully guarding the personal data their customers provide”, says David Raab, founder, CDP Institute. “GDPR has made the need even more pressing. CDPs provide a solution to this challenge by making it easier to collect, protect, and activate customer data, while respecting their customers’ rights. We are pleased to launch the CDP Institute Europe to help European marketers take advantage of the benefits that CDPs has to offer.”

The new European arm of CDP is an effort by CDP and CrossEngage to raise awareness for customer data platforms as a crucial tool in today’s technology-driven marketing industry. The CDP Institute was founded by Raab in 2013, focusing on Customer Data Platforms and providing marketers with tools, guides, and case studies to leverage the advantages of customer data management.

Finnish Media Group Otavamedia Licenses PubMatic Platform

Switching to a subscription-based product offering, PubMatic has signed up Finnish media group Otavamedia to license Pubmatic’s platform. The change to a subscription model, rather than relying on revenue percentages from licensees, is an attempt at increasing the transparency of the technology procurement process, providing cost efficiency for publishers, and creating more balanced relationships across the supply chain, PubMatic says.

Bill Swanson, CRO, PubMatic

By licensing PubMatic’s technology, rather than paying a percentage of revenue, the deal allows Otavamedia to expand their portfolio without worrying about incremental cost implications.  “Introducing a subscription model is part of our commitment to developing a simplified and transparent programmatic marketplace. Otavamedia realises the business benefits this model will bring, and we look forward to continuing to support them going forward”, comments Bill Swanson, chief revenue officer, EMEA, PubMatic.

The subscription-based licensing model works particularly well in the Finnish market, Swanson tells ExchangeWire: “The Finnish market has distinct characteristics that set it apart from the rest of the Nordics. In particular, publishers have much closer and open working relations with each other, which has helped drive the growth of programmatic so far and will enable continued innovation going forward. Efficiency and simplification are top of the agenda in Finland, as publishers strive to maximise yields. The subscription model is, therefore, appealing as it provides publishers with control, greater transparency, and efficiency."

Tapad & Flashtalking Partnership

Personalisation specialists Tapad provide insights in their strategic partnership with the Flashtalking platform. Flashtalking uses the Tapad Graph, unifying cross-device engagement, and identity-driven consumer behaviours for attribution modelling.

According to Tapad, the partnership has generated above-industry match and bridge rates for Flashtalking and its customers, yielding a match rate of 71% and engagement on multiple devices by 41% of converters.

Chris Feo, SVP, strategy and global partnerships, Tapad, tells ExchangeWire: "Our longstanding partnership with Flashtalking is consistently validated by the results we are seeing with their clients. From travel, to retail, and telecommunications, companies across a variety of verticals are relying on the combination of the Tapad Graph with Flashtalking's data-driven platform to gain powerful, cross-device insights into user engagement and media attribution."

Flashtalking combines ad server log file data with the Tapad Graph, connecting interactions in the consumer journey and resulting in detailed cross-device attribution for better optimisation.