I-COM worldmeasurementnews

In US, IAB Releases Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification

Common Methodologies for the Evaluation of Campaigns Will Promote Growth, Consistency and Greater Transparency in the Interactive Advertising Buying and Selling Process

NEW YORK, NY (February 14, 2012) — The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released the final version of “Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification.” This advanced framework, developed in conjunction with the Media Rating Council (MRC), will ensure a common set of methods and practices for ad verification, ultimately providing vital assurances to marketers and publishers alike that companies engaged in the verification of interactive advertising campaigns can themselves be audited against a common, transparent standard.

“These guidelines introduce a transparent and auditable approach to ad verification practices in the industry,” said Steve Sullivan [pictured, left], Vice President, Advertising Technology, IAB. “While ad verification in principle is valuable to the digital advertising industry, the lack of accountability created tension between the publishers and marketers. We developed these guidelines to introduce a level of consistency into campaign assessments commensurate the industry's standards for impression measurement.”

“Consistent and transparent conduct of ad verification is vital for deepening confidence in the industry and driving the advancement of digital advertising,” said George Ivie [pictured, right], Executive Director and CEO of the Media Rating Council. “We believe the issuance of these guidelines represent a major step toward achieving these goals.”  More...

In US, comScore Introduces Validated Campaign Essentials™ (vCE)

vCE Represents Unique Measurement Solution that Improves Overall Transparency, Accountability and Monetization in the Digital Advertising Market

RESTON, VA, January 18, 2012 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of its Validated Campaign Essentials™ (vCE) product, a new measurement solution for validating digital ad delivery. vCE enables a holistic view of campaign delivery and a verified assessment of ad-exposed audiences via a single, third-party source. Unlike existing single-point solutions, it provides an unduplicated accounting of impressions delivered across a variety of dimensions, such as ads delivered in-view, in the right geography, in a brand safe environment and absent of fraudulent delivery.

“The display advertising market today is characterized by an overabundance of inventory, often residing on parts of a web page that are never viewed by the user. This dilutes the impact of campaigns for advertisers and represents a drag on prices to publishers,” said Dr. Magid Abraham [pictured], President and CEO of comScore. More...

In US, IAB Releases Ad Verification Conduct Guidelines

Public Comment Period Opens for a Common Set of Tactics and Principles to Create a Transparent, Accountable and Equitable Evaluation of Campaigns

NEW YORK, NY (November 3, 2011) — The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released its “Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification” for public comment. This advanced framework, developed in conjunction with the Media Rating Council (MRC), will ensure a common set of methods and practices for ad verification, ultimately providing vital assurances to marketers and their agency partners about the coordination, execution and accuracy of interactive advertising campaigns.

“The volume of advertising impressions served at any given moment is enormous, and this volume makes it difficult for agencies to verify and measure the success of campaigns,” said Steve Sullivan [pictured], Vice President, Digital Supply Chain Solutions, IAB. “The new technologies that cycle regularly through the industry complicate the verification process further, adding urgency to the need to develop a set of common, uniform guidelines that apply equally to all stakeholders in the ad verification process. These new guidelines will help agencies, publishers and their customers collaboratively create an environment of greater transparency and accountability in their campaign assessments.” More…

In US, AdSafe Media Launches New Real Time URL Analyzer Tool

- Network Monitor+ Allows Brands To Instantly Check The Brand Safety of Specific URLs
- More Than Half of the Top 50 Global Ad Networks Now Use AdSafe Media's Network Monitor Solution

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, AdSafe announced the growth of its business with Networks and Publishers, as well as the release of a new feature to expand its Network Monitor product offerings.  

"Publishers and ad networks find our ratings invaluable. They proactively use these ratings to improve their Media Risk Index (MRI) -- the overall content quality of their network," said Scott Knoll [pictured], CEO, AdSafe Media. "On average, networks and publishers using the AdSafe Network Monitor record a 32% lift vs. the industry benchmarked MRIs. And now, with Network Monitor+, publishers and advertisers can instantly check on the brand safety of specific pages." More…

In US, DoubleVerify Report Shows that Media Verification Improves Compliance for Online Advertising Industry

Trust Index Recognizes Best Performing Ad Companies – Ad Networks are Proving to Be Brand Safe, and Advertisers are Finding Value in Top Platforms

NEW YORK (September 30, 2011) – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance, today published its 1H 2011 Trust Index. The report found a significant reduction of non-compliance among the industry’s best-performing ad networks and platforms. The findings illustrate that advertisers and networks are continuing to standardize their brand protection and compliance practices, ensuring their online media spend brings the highest return on investment. The worst-performing online advertising companies continued to demonstrate inconsistency in their ability to comply with advertisers’ preferences. According to the report, the most compliant ad networks from January to June 2011 were (alphabetically): AudienceScience, Casale Media, Dedicated Media, Epic Marketplace, interclick, Microsoft Media Network, Specific Media, Spectrum, a Centro product, Undertone, and Yahoo! Network Plus. Advertising platforms that were most compliant include (alphabetically): DataXu, Invite Media, The MIG’s Zeus Advertising Platform.

“The Trust Index has emerged as the industry standard for measuring advertising compliance and is a strong indicator of the positive impact media verification has had in online ad campaigns. Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen the continual decrease in the incidence rate of non-compliance when verification is applied,” said Oren Netzer [pictured], CEO of DoubleVerify. “Advertisers, networks and platforms that actively and consistently use verification on all of their campaigns and inventory are experiencing vast improvements in brand protection. This further indicates that online advertising needs to integrate verification on a long-term basis so that trust is permeated throughout the ecosystem.” More...

In Singapore, comScore Announces Availability of AdEffx Campaign Essentials™ in Asia Pacific Markets

Recent AdXpose® Acquisition Enables Truly Comprehensive End-to-End Campaign Validation

Singapore, September 15, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the availability of AdEffx Campaign Essentials™ in Asia Pacific markets, comScore’s campaign audience validation tool used by digital marketers, agencies and publishers alike to verify the accuracy of audiences targeted in digital campaigns. The service features an interactive dashboard with several highly sought functions for digital media planning and evaluation, including daily reporting of campaign demographics and traditional post-buy metrics such as Reach / Frequency and GRPs.

“comScore Campaign Essentials was able to tell us precisely which audiences were exposed to ads through our campaign,” said Masako Wakana, Associate Director, Brand Contact, Starcom Worldwide Japan. “This visibility into the actual delivery of ads will bring valuable optimization to the media planning process.” More...

In US, DoubleVerify Adds $33 Million in Funding from Private Equity Powerhouses JMI Equity and IVP

Series C Funding Round Entrenches DoubleVerify as the Global Standard for Online Media Verification and Compliance

New York (August 30, 2011) – DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com), the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance, today announced that it received $33 million in financing led by JMI Equity and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), two of the premier later stage venture capital and private equity firms in the United States focused on investing in rapidly-growing software, Internet and business services companies. Other participants in the round included previous investors Blumberg Capital and First Round Capital. In conjunction with the financing, Bob Nye of JMI Equity and Dennis Phelps of Institutional Venture Partners have joined the company’s board of directors. This investment brings the company’s cumulative financing to $47 million.

“Despite the growing complexity of online advertising, DoubleVerify has bridged the gap between what advertisers expect and what ad selling channels deliver, raising the accountability, trust and ROI in the industry,” said Oren Netzer [pictured], CEO of DoubleVerify. “We are excited about the new addition of JMI Equity to our core group of investors. Their pedigree and track record for growing digital media will be an asset in further establishing our leadership in online media verification and will help us drive more innovation in online measurement, advertising accountability and planning to ensure the trust and viability of this segment.” More…

In Latin America, comScore Announces Availability of AdEffx Campaign Essentials™

Recent AdXpose® Acquisition Enables Truly Comprehensive End-to-End Campaign Validation

Mexico City, Mexico, August 24, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the availability of AdEffx Campaign Essentials™ in Latin America. Campaign Essentials is comScore’s campaign audience validation tool, which is used by digital marketers, agencies and publishers alike to verify the accuracy of audiences targeted in digital campaigns. The service features an interactive dashboard with several highly sought functions for digital media planning and evaluation, including daily reporting of campaign demographics and traditional post-buy metrics such as Reach / Frequency and GRPs.

“As online advertising spend continues to grow in Latin America, the need for real-time campaign evaluation becomes increasingly important to ensure the best return on digital investment,” said Alejandro Fosk [pictured], comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “comScore Campaign Essentials enables our clients to confidently verify that their online campaigns were delivered to the intended audience with the desired reach and frequency. True visibility into campaign audiences will benefit advertisers, agencies and publishers alike in this growing digital marketplace.” More...

In US, comScore to Acquire AdXpose, a Leader in Ad Verification, Optimization and Brand Safety

Acquisition Improves comScore’s End-to-End Media Planning and Ad Effectiveness Measurement Capabilities

RESTON, VA, August 3, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire AdXpose®, the market-leading verification and optimization company, for total consideration of $22 million in a primarily stock-based transaction. Headquartered in Seattle with offices in New York, AdXpose provides advertisers and publishers with greater transparency and confidence in the quality, safety, and performance of their digital advertising campaigns by allowing them to verify and optimize billions of campaign data points captured in real-time. The actionable optimization metrics captured by AdXpose solutions help its customers realize increased ROI, more profitable margins, and measurable ad effectiveness.

“We are excited to welcome the AdXpose team to comScore,” said Dr. Magid Abraham [pictured], comScore President & CEO. “In just a few short years, AdXpose has demonstrated clear technology leadership with their leading ad verification and optimization analytics solutions, which are highly complementary to comScore’s existing ad effectiveness product suite. Through the integration of these capabilities, comScore will be able to further its mission to develop the most comprehensive end-to-end suite of digital advertising analytics. With audience-buying becoming increasingly prevalent in digital media planning today, there is a growing demand for analytical tools that enable greater transparency and accountability in ad delivery. The AdXpose technology will enable comScore to bring this important dimension of advertising effectiveness to its clients.” More…

In US, DoubleVerify Launches Monitoring and Reporting Solution

Navigator Proactively Maximizes Quality and Growth of Inventory and Profitability

New York (August 3, 2011) – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance, today announced the launch of Navigator, an end-to-end monitoring and reporting solution to help ad networks and platforms quicken and expand publisher on-boarding while continually monitoring their network and ensuring brand safety and quality inventory for ad buyers.

“Networks and platforms have continually innovated on ad buying and selling, but there hasn’t been a way to comprehensively understand the compliance level of the sites and pages in their ecosystem. This limited insight makes it difficult to detect non-compliance and fraud at scale,” said Oren Netzer [pictured], CEO of DoubleVerify. “Navigator furthers our mission to bring trust, transparency, accountability and compliance to the online advertising ecosystem by offering ad intermediaries new, first-in-market tools to address their challenges and business needs.” More…