In its ongoing battle against ad fraud, JICWEBS, an independent body defining best practice and standards for online ad trading in the UK, has certified Affectv and RadiumOne for enforcing combative measures against the crime.
The firms received the seal in a successful audit, run independently by ABC, which examined their processes against JICWEBS’ “Good Practice Principles”.
The organisation’s chairman, Richard Foan, called the first certifications a “red-letter day” in the online ad fraud fight.
“There’s been a lot to talk but now we’ve seen the first companies to back this up by showing how they’re actively committed to reducing the risk of online ad fraud across our industry,” he commented, adding that the key goal of the initiative is to build trust through transparency.
According to ISBA, fraudulent advertising is a key issue across the industry claiming as much as 30% of online ad revenue. The organisation’s director general, Phil Smith, believes JICWEBS’ certification seals are “huge breakthrough”, for the first time providing a choice of companies with proven credentials in the ad fraud battle.
Building trust
Launched last year, when the predicted revenue loss to ad fraud was estimated to have reached $7.2 billion, the initiative aims to reward companies actively tackling ad fraud. Publishers, ad tech providers and agencies can participate in an independent review which examines their processes for lower risk of serving fraudulent ads online and verifies them against the Good Practice Principles.
Those principles include implementing technology to detect and prevent fraud and adopting policies and strategies to identify fraud and mitigate its impact, among others, with successful firms receiving a certification seal.
Affectv’s chief strategy officer Ray Jenkin believes fighting the crime and building trust are the industry’s responsibility, and as such, have been the company’s priorities.
“Affectv have always been strong advocates for tackling ad misplacement and fraud and we are very pleased to both participate in this initiative and achieve the JICWEBS seal supported by ABC verification,” he commented.
Craig Tuck, UK managing director at RadiumOne, believes the industry is making progress and is pleased that the determination with which RadiumOne has aimed to lead the change has been rewarded.
“Bots are sophisticated networks of non-human actions carried out without a brand or user’s knowledge. However, the human action of content sharing cannot be falsified and that is our USP at RadiumOne,” he added.