Three major advertising associations in the United States – the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) – have revealed their plans to create a unique cross-industry accountability program to fight ad fraud, malware and the piracy of intellectual property.
The program aims to increase transparency in the marketplace while tackling the major challenges currently facing the industry head-on. The initiative will build upon the groundwork laid out by the IAB Trustworthy Digital Supply Chain Initiative, and will operate as a jointly controlled body with its own board and leadership.
The new program will monitor compliance throughout the industry and will introduce incentives for widespread participation and consequences for untrustworthy actors.
“Criminal activity threatens to erode trust in the digital ecosystem,” warned Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of IAB. “Quality, original content is not sufficiently protected against the threats of fraudulent traffic, malware attacks, and IP piracy, and it is time that publishers, marketers and agencies stand together to combat these dangerous forces as a unified entity.”
According to Bob Liodice, President and CEO of ANA, “The ANA, 4A’s, and IAB have a strong track record in successfully working together for the greater good of the industry at large. Between our collective work in the creation of the Digital Advertising Alliance, and our success in creating viewability metric standards through the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative, together we have the ability to move the digital arena forward. This new compliance program puts us on an exciting path to ensuring a better, more transparent supply chain that will increase the effectiveness of marketers’ digital campaigns.”
Nancy Hill, President and CEO of 4A’s, added, “Together we can continue to rebuild the trust that is necessary for the interactive marketing industry to thrive. Self-regulation is only as strong as the accountability program that ensures its implementation, and all of our trade groups’ resources are required in order to guarantee this new compliance organization’s ability to eradicate criminal activity.”
Source: ANA