FreeWheel’s Justin Beere on trends in Connected TV

August 28, 2018 in Blog

Our Q&A series shines a spotlight on the biggest challenges, questions and trends in the programmatic marketplace with commentary from industry experts, clients and partners.

Today’s Q&A is with Justin Beere, Executive Director of Global DSP Partnerships at FreeWheel. FreeWheel, a Comcast company, provides a comprehensive advertising management solution focused on the New TV ecosystem.

As Executive Director of Global DSP Partnerships, Beere focuses on DSP TV partnerships.

Q: CTV (Connected TV) advertising spend has increased significantly over the last year. Do you see this focus as a complement to linear TV buys?   

There’s a clear opportunity to reach audiences via CTV advertising as consumers mix and match how they access television content. While many people still watch TV in traditional ways – eMarketer states that four of five TV hours watched per day is linear – there’s no question that over-the-top (OTT) share is increasing. Interestingly, FreeWheel data indicates that audiences treat CTV just like they do linear TV: watching large amounts of live-streamed content and tuning in during primetime hours. As a result, we’re seeing linear buyers adopt CTV as they seek to capture large TV audiences for their campaigns. When working in tandem, we’ve seen CTV deliver incremental reach on top of net-direct buys, as well as help brands drive frequency amongst light TV viewers. And, as the supply chain for CTV becomes more standardized and consistent, we also see digital buyers gravitating towards the reach, quality and targeting that CTV offers.

Q: The increase in spend is largely due to dramatically increasing audiences. Are there any trends in, or observations about, CTV audiences that advertisers would want to know?

When I started at FreeWheel four years ago, CTV accounted for 3% of the ad inventory flowing through our system – the lowest share of any inventory type. CTV now has the highest share of ad inventory at 34%, and it’s growing at a rate of 20% year over year. We refer to this, along with the advent of STB VOD inventory, as “The New Living Room.”

When it comes to reaching consumers in “The New Living Room,” advertisers want to know if they are delivering ads to a new audience, and data from FreeWheel’s OTT Signature Insights report indicates the answer is yes. The median CTV viewer is 23 years younger than the traditional TV viewer, and they have a median annual household income that’s $10,000 higher. The other thing to note with respect to CTV is the level of engagement. According to our Q1’18 VMR, 97% of CTV content consumed is either live-streamed or full-episode (FEP) inventory, which means viewers are opting in and leaning in to the experience.

Q: There isn’t necessarily a consensus on how best to evaluate the efficacy of CTV ads. What do you think are the most meaningful KPIs?

Generally speaking, there are a couple of performance metrics associated with CTV that are quite compelling. As an ad server, FreeWheel measures completion rates for every ad impression we serve across every type of device. The completion rate on CTV inventory is 98%, meaning almost every single ad we serve is viewed to completion, which is an important KPI to brand marketers. Another stat I love that doesn’t get talked about enough is co-viewing. It’s largely understood that desktop, tablet and mobile ads are only seen by one user at a time, but the average viewership of a CTV impression is higher. According to Nielsen, 34% of CTV impressions are viewed by two or more people, which means there’s a much greater likelihood that multiple people are exposed to your ad when it runs on CTV.

Q: The ads.txt initiative has helped buyers ensure they’re purchasing authorized digital ads. Do you see this program extending to CTV, or do you envision a similar initiative being established specifically for CTV?

Yes, in the long run we believe some form of supply-chain verification will make its way to every inventory type as more media is transacted programmatically. At the moment there’s not a tremendous sense of urgency for such an initiative because CTV is a less open environment, and I mean that in a couple of ways. First, because premium CTV inventory is in high demand, there’s very little volume being made available via the open exchange. That means buyers are taking the extra step of seeking out private marketplace access to inventory from known suppliers. Second, the ecosystem is far smaller and more tightly controlled. The web has billions of display ads on hundreds of millions of websites, with thousands of ad tech intermediaries to service all of it. In contrast, the entire AppleTV app ecosystem is ~15,000 apps, all of which had to be approved by Apple itself before being made available to consumers.

Q: With competition increasing in the CTV space, what is the most ideal way to create a unique value proposition as a premium video platform for publishers?

We think it’s important to keep it simple and think about the ultimate goal: driving results for marketers.  This means providing access to high-quality CTV inventory, at scale, with targeting and measurement capabilities that satisfy the needs of the brand.

Focused on OOH? Here’s What to Look for in a DSP

August 21, 2018 in Blog

According to AdExchanger, out-of-home (OOH) advertising spend is projected to grow almost 12% by 2020 – but to many, buying OOH programmatically remains a novel concept.

As with any new technology, programmatic OOH comes with its own unique set of challenges and benefits. So, if OOH is a priority, what, exactly, should you be looking for in a DSP?

To answer that question, we spoke to Wade Rifkin, SVP of Programmatic at Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies that has more than 675,000 displays in more than 40 countries.

Q: OOH is rather new to the programmatic sphere, how important is it for brands to understand the differences between traditional OOH buying and programmatic OOH buying?

It’s critically important, much in the same way that brands needed to recognize that programmatic in display/mobile wasn’t just about cheap, biddable CPMs – it’s about affording more buying control and flexibility, with greater optimization potential relative to a direct buy. For a channel to truly go programmatic, the paradigm must change, and that has happened here in DOOH.

So, the key questions to ask are: 1. How can these new capabilities let me buy the same DOOH formats I’m used to, but in a complementary way to the contracted, guaranteed buys I’m doing? 2. What can I do with this medium that was previously very difficult or not even possible?

That’s what’s exciting, unlocking new possibilities from one of the oldest media channels in existence.  We’re working with buy-side partners to come up with new use cases on a consistent basis.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges in choosing a DSP when you’re prioritizing OOH?

The reality of adjusting a DSP’s 1:1 set up for targeting, reporting and even counting impressions is that there’s real technical work that’s required to accommodate a one-to-many channel like OOH. While some DSPs, like Adelphic, have invested the time and effort to champion that development, not all DSPs have. So, when you’re interested in adding DOOH into your cross-channel programmatic media mix, it’s important to vet the quality of the integration work the DSP has done to ensure they’re offering the end user features that’ll let them effectively transact DOOH.

Q: What, specifically, should you look for in a DSP when focusing on OOH?

When we advise buyers on which DSP to choose, some of the points we advise them to consider are:

1. One-to-many impression counts and reporting: Can the DSP process some of the data points that SSPs pass that are specific to impressions in the OOH space? Can they use them for dynamic bidding, as well as for reporting in their UI?

2. Targeting: Can your DSP decision the media and creative against things like daypart, day of week and geo data points that come through in the bid request?

3. Connectivity to mobile: Can the DSP geofence OOH boards and retarget devices with mobile display or other channels?  Can the DSP layer on mobile data-driven attribution for store visitation or other metrics?

Q: How key are targeting and measurement capabilities?

Targeting and measurement are both critical. Programmatic buyers expect a variety of targeting mechanisms, as well as accountability and ROI. We’ve taken this to heart, through the development of our CCO RADAR suite of solutions, which offers up proprietary targeting, retargeting and attribution against multiple KPIs (foot traffic, tune-in lift, brand surveys and more), powered by high fidelity, privacy-compliant mobile data. This is available today, and supplemental to any of the capabilities our DSP partners offer for targeting and attribution. The latter piece, DSP productization around the use of data for DOOH, is one of the most exciting things to come on the horizon for our channel.

Q: What has made your integration with Adelphic work so well for you?

Adelphic’s done the necessary integration work to accommodate a one-to-many medium in a sophisticated way. Adelphic can ingest and decision off of the unique data fields and open RTB extensions for DOOH, along with offering geo-targeting and geo-reporting that’s necessary based on the location-centric nature of the medium. The development work has paid off, as we’re seeing seamless and effective transaction happening on campaigns that buyers activate with us through Adelphic. I’m excited about what’s to come as we continue to evolve to better serve advertisers in this traditional-gone-emerging programmatic channel on the world’s largest screens.

Grapeshot on Brand Safety Trends, Customization and Contextual Intelligence’s Role

July 9, 2018 in Blog

Our Q&A series shines a spotlight on the biggest challenges, questions and trends in the programmatic marketplace with commentary from industry experts, clients and partners.

Today’s Q&A is with Jessica Reid, Product Marketing Manager at Grapeshot. Grapeshot is a global leader in contextual intelligence solutions that enable brands to connect with consumers by unlocking the power of real-time context.

As Product Marketing Manager, Reid is responsible for educating and informing the market about contextual intelligence.

Q: There is a lot of buzz in the industry about context in general. In your opinion, what role does contextual intelligence play in the brand safety conversation?

Contextual intelligence, in our opinion, is the biggest part of the brand safety conversation, especially in 2018. Looking at context through a macro lens, 2018 has brought the conversation around consumer data to the forefront. People are paying attention.

The power of contextual intelligence is predicated on the concept of relevance. Brand safety is just as much about making sure that a brand’s message appears in the right environment as ensuring that it does not appear in the wrong one. Therefore, the right environment enabled through the right contextual solution can provide both relevance and safety, and huge value for both the advertiser and consumer.

 Q: What are some trends that you think brands and agencies need to take notice of?

Transparency and measurement are some of the big industry trends at the moment, prompting conversations surrounding how we can leverage these to understand how to collectively drive better outcomes for advertisers in 2018 and beyond – and brand safety is a big piece of that. With an influx of large-scale and very public safety breaches in recent history, we are seeing a large push for industry alignment and a unified and holistic approach to ensuring safe environments across the advertising ecosystem. Everyone has a part to play!

Q: Grapeshot talks a lot about customization and what that means for brands. Can you elaborate on why this is so important for advertisers to consider?

Custom brand safety adheres to the tenant that each brand is unique, and what is considered safe for one brand may not be safe for another. Each brand has their own sensitivities and, thus, their own risk tolerance and brand safety needs. In this case, a standard view of risk just isn’t good enough, and brands should look to an always-on custom solution to give them a curated insurance policy over potential brand safety slip-ups. The Internet is a vast place, and content generation and augmentation have only gotten easier. Unexpected events arise that are out of the direct control of the brand, and often won’t fall under the parameters of a standard view of risk. Thus, a custom solution is a more vigilant approach to ensuring alignment with only safe and relevant content.

Q: Why do you think brand safety remains as such an important topic in the industry?

At its core, brand safety addresses the breach of trust between a brand and the consumer, and once that is broken, it is not easily redeemed. The damage is reputational in nature and can have serious revenue implications. Customer acquisition and retention are very important metrics for brands, so any inkling of a threat to either of those is cause for concern. Recent stats cite that half of consumers would abandon brands if their ads appeared next to offensive digital content or fake news, on top of the fact that it can take brands that have faced brand safety breaches anywhere from 2 to 10 years to recover from reputational damage. This can result in severe financial consequence – something brands don’t want to risk.

XUMO’s Colin Petrie-Norris on How OTT Has Revolutionized Content Consumption and What Marketers Need to Know

April 19, 2018 in Blog

Adelphic’s Q&A series shines a spotlight on the biggest challenges, questions and trends in the programmatic marketplace with commentary from industry experts, clients and partners.

Today’s Q&A is with Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO at XUMO. A joint venture of Viant and Panasonic, XUMO is an over-the-top (OTT) content service provider that was founded in 2014.

As CEO, Petrie-Norris has partnered with the world’s largest television manufacturers to combine Linear TV with OTT content and revolutionize the way TVs are programmed.

Q: ATV, CTV, OTT … there are a number of acronyms in the space that can create confusion. What do marketers really need to know?

We like to distinguish between CTV – which is connected television and denotes content consumed on the big screen through internet-connected smart TVs, Rokus, Apple TVs, etc. and OTT – which is long-form video content consumed over the internet rather than over cable. OTT might include multiple screen sizes, but is still the high-quality full episode-type content.

OTT has revolutionized how people consume content. Marketers should really know three things:

1. It’s here to stay, and it’s where the audience is. A recent report from eMarketer notes that 71% of internet users now stream OTT content, and that growth is expected to continue apace in the coming years. Plus, the cord cutting trend has gained traction with many types of viewers who are both young and affluent, which has great appeal to marketers

2. The targeting capabilities of OTT give marketers the opportunity to capture audiences that they’re not able to reach through a traditional TV buy. Instead of buying against traditional shows or dayparts, OTT ads can be purchases to match demographic or lifestyle traits. Data can be collected about which shows viewers watch, when they watch them and the amount of time they watch them.

3. Lastly, OTT advertising is completely measurable, allowing marketers to leverage the data to quantify outcomes and gain further insights into behavior, something that historically has been limited with traditional TV buys.

Q: The last year has seen rapid growth in OTT video ad spending, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Why are advertisers attracted to OTT content?

The rise in OTT is a game changer for advertisers because it offers them powerful features they get from digital, including unique first-, second- and third-party data, segmentation and planning, measurement, insights, and attribution blended into traditional TV. With 71% of internet users utilizing at least one OTT service, they have access to incredibly large audiences via the largest screen in the home. The addressability of OTT presents them with the opportunity to build rich user profiles and engage highly segmented audiences in a brand-safe premium environment, and with closed loop multi-screen attribution, measure the outcomes and optimize their approach.

 Q: Given marketer requirements to advertise in brand safe and fraud free environments, how should CTV/OTT fit into marketers’ media allocation?

In XUMO’s case, the premium direct content partnerships we have, our partnerships with brand safety vendors and our ability to target the right ads to the right user at the right time assure marketers their advertisements will be running in a premium, brand safe, and fraud free environment. Marketers should feel at ease making OTT a prominent part of their media allocation.

Q: Are there any trends among OTT viewing audiences that stand out to you?

In terms of viewership, one interesting trend we’ve noticed with our users is the way in which they discover content. There seems to be a preconceived notion in the digital world that discovery happens by typing into a search field, for example, which can be classified as a “lean in” action. In XUMO’s case, we’ve found that most of the content discovery on our platform happens in the channel up/down environment, which is a much more “lean back” action to take. To us, this signals that although consumers have shifted to consume more content via OTT, their behavior within the OTT environment is still very traditional, and that the opportunity to have a linear, lean-back entertainment experience is still of value to a viewer.

Q: What makes XUMO unique in an increasingly popular streaming scene?

Our key differentiator is our native integrations with almost half of the smart TV market. Through strategic partnerships with LG Electronics, Hisense, VIZIO and Panasonic, we’ve developed one-click access for consumers to stream over 140 free channels. These native integrations bring XUMO front and center on the largest screen in the home, and provide advertisers the best of both worlds:

1. Access to targetable, quantifiable audiences

2. Brand safe, premium environments in the living room

 Q: You recently announced a partnership with the PGA TOUR. What does that entail, and do you see this as the early stages of a move to more live sports content?

The addition of the PGA TOUR channel marks the first ad-supported TOUR “OTT channel” available on smart TVs and provides viewers live and VOD programming, featuring highlights/recaps, player interviews, tournament previews and LIVE Featured Holes coverage from PGA TOUR LIVE. Live sports is important to any OTT platform, so we certainly recognize the value and are constantly looking for ways to expand our live content offering.

Clear Channel Outdoor on How Location Data Helps Brands with OOH and the Future of OOH Measurement

March 12, 2018 in Blog

Adelphic’s Q&A series shines a spotlight on the biggest challenges, questions, and trends in the programmatic marketplace with commentary from industry experts, clients, and partners.

Today’s Q&A is with Wade Rifkin, SVP of Programmatic at Clear Channel Outdoor. Founded in 1901, Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies, with more than 675,000 displays in more than 40 countries.

As SVP of Programmatic, Rifkin is responsible for leading the strategy and execution of Clear Channel’s programmatic OOH strategy.

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Q: How does location data help brands with their OOH advertising – both targeting and measurement?

Our media locations have been used historically and successfully to target key markets, neighborhoods or zip codes of interest to advertisers.  However, one of the most compelling things to happen to OOH in the recent past was the advent & proliferation of mobile data. Through, Clear Channel Outdoor RADAR, our attribution solution, we’ve been able to leverage anonymized mobile data to understand how consumers move throughout the world, including past our displays. With that, we understand the types of consumers we reach for more sophisticated behavioral targeting, and we can also measure what consumers do after exposure to our boards through post-exposure attribution. This is all powered by persistent location data & device IDs, and deployed in an anonymous, consumer-friendly and privacy-compliant fashion.

CCO RADAR is something we’ve been offering through our direct channel for two years, and as of last year, we began offering it through our programmatic private marketplace offering as well.  That allows our clients to tap into our powerful targeting and attribution toolkit, holistically, across both direct and programmatic transaction with us.

Q: What are the biggest measurement challenges for marketers and how is Clear Channel Outdoor helping to solve them?

One of the main challenges we’re given by brands is proving ROI for OOH. That was a key driver for the development of the attribution component of CCO RADAR, and it’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from brands, reinforcing what we’ve intuitively known for some time – that OOH works.  From a metrics standpoint, we’ve evolved and diversified what can be measured, and we’re now able to showcase lifts in store visits, brand metrics, and tune-in, with more capabilities to follow this year.

 Q: Are there different advertisers or verticals for traditional OOH buying versus programmatic OOH?

Much like our direct sales channel, we’re seeing a broad range of verticals that are finding value in programmatic buying.  Some of the first brands that dipped their toes in the water programmatically are those with physical locations: dining, retail and auto.  This is due to the ability to target against those locations (both behaviorally and through physical proximity), but also because CCO RADAR allows us to measure the lift in visitation to their stores to demonstrate ROI.

However, now that we’re over a year in, we’ve seen plenty of other verticals enter the mix. To name a couple: entertainment has become an important category, with the flexibility of our programmatic solution allowing advertisers to heavy-up around show premieres to drive tune-in. Enterprise services are also picking up for us, tapping into our airport footprint to reach the affluent business and frequent leisure traveler audiences.

Q: What new and emerging types of formats and screens are going to be part of programmatic DOOH inventory?

We started off with just our roadside inventory, offering a sub-set of our digital billboard units. Shortly after we started piloting, we got feedback from buyers on new inventory to include, and we’ve since scaled up to include the lion’s share of our roadside units (both digital billboards and bus shelters). Ninety percent of our roadside digital units are now programmatically-enabled.

We’ve also rolled in our airport screen footprint, and have ramped that significantly – we now offer 40 airports with video-capable screens across a variety of concourse and baggage claim in some of the largest airports in the US.  Last month, we also lit up a network of private aviation lounges, which reach c-suite, high net worth & highly influential fliers, which is an exciting touchpoint for a very hard to reach audience.

Q: Where do you see OOH measurement three years from now?

I think we’ll see more integration into cross-channel measurement than ever before. OOH has existed in somewhat of a silo because it was historically very different to buy than other channels, and measurement presented a very real challenge. Now that digitization has settled in to OOH, connecting it to the broader ad tech ecosystem, and mobile has unlocked measurement for the channel, we’re in a much different place. Over the next few years, I expect that marketers will endeavor to evaluate OOH to gain a better understanding of the effects it has on both driving upper funnel metrics and playing an ‘assist’ role in feeding the rest of the funnel.

Q: Anything exciting on the horizon for Clear Channel Outdoor and Adelphic?

With critical technical integration work & testing behind us, Clear Channel Outdoor and Adelphic are poised to ramp up meaningfully in 2018. We’re activating with and fielding strong interest from blue chip clients who recognize that they can now buy digital OOH like display: in a real-time, biddable, data-driven fashion, via enterprise-level cross-channel platforms like Adelphic. Suffice it say, we’re excited about continuing to grow our partnership this year!

 

DoubleVerify on How Brand Safety Will Evolve and What Advertisers Should Be Thinking About in 2018

February 9, 2018 in Blog

Adelphic’s Q&A series shines a spotlight on the biggest challenges, questions, and trends in the programmatic marketplace with commentary from industry experts, clients, and partners.

Today’s Q&A is with Steven Woolway, SVP of Business Development at DoubleVerify. Founded in 2008, DoubleVerify is a leading provider of brand safety solutions to help brands and agencies authenticate the quality and effectiveness of their digital media.

As SVP of Business Development, Woolway is responsible for expanding DoubleVerify’s alliances with digital media and tech partners.

 

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Q: How do you think brand safety will evolve in 2018?

Implementing a comprehensive brand safety strategy has become table stakes for global advertisers. Advertisers expect that their media investment is protected across all channels – including the social media platforms – and all devices at a global level.

We’re making strong headway in bringing the comprehensive brand safety solutions we’re accustomed to in the desktop and mobile world into the social media landscape, and we see those capabilities evolving and expanding over time.

In bridging these channels, we’re able to provide advertisers a holistic brand safety approach no matter where their media runs.

Q: Is there one aspect of brand safety that that all marketers should be thinking about?

It’s critical that advertisers and their agencies invest the time to craft a brand safety solution that’s custom-fit to the sensitivities of the brand and requirements of the campaign. Given that brand safety is defined at the brand level and not one-size-fits-all, each advertiser needs to take control and build out a unique brand safety profile that protects the interests of the brand while also meeting the scalability goals of the campaign.

Q: What about the evolution of viewability and ad fraud this year?

Viewability has been established as a currency in the industry, however advertisers increasingly want to go beyond the view, including looking at more advanced metrics such as how a user engages with viewable ads. Beyond that, we are seeing a trend of advertisers looking to leverage viewability data in a broader way across overall campaign measurement and attribution.

As more dollars shift into digital, we have seen fraud schemes grow in sophistication and sheer volume, with a proliferation of in-app fraud. DV was recently accredited by the MRC for SIVT detection and blocking in mobile apps, and our innovation around mobile fraud continues to expose the risks that advertisers face unless they are using a leading fraud prevention solution.

Q: Are you seeing marketers and agencies develop custom viewability metrics? What are the upsides and potential downsides of custom metrics?

As I mentioned earlier, viewability has become a core component of a media buy and sophisticated advertisers are adopting refined definitions of a view to meet their internal business objectives. DoubleVerify provides support for these custom viewability metrics and we believe we will see more introduced going forward.  Diving in deeper to custom viewability, DV provides advertisers with a unique metric called Key Message Exposure, allowing an advertiser to craft KPIs around the exposure of critical areas of the advertisement, counting the view only when the logo or call-to-action was in view or audible. By leveraging rich data and understanding what KPIs have the greatest impact on conversion, brands will continue to refine these custom metrics and will need partners like DoubleVerify to support them.

Q: Anything exciting on the horizon?

Mobile will continue to drive growth in the industry as consumers increasingly rely on smartphones and tablets to manage the bulk of their online needs. I anticipate more exciting rollouts of mobile-supported targeting solutions from DoubleVerify this year.
 
Further, we continue to respond to our client needs, which largely boils down to ensuring we’re providing the same level of protection and measurement no matter the channel where the investment is made. As part of that we’re also investing in emerging channels such as OTT and connected TV as we see more media investment shift to those channels.  

We’re also excited about Adelphic’s recent addition of DoubleVerify’s pre-bid viewability and brand safety targeting. You can read more about this here.

 

 

IAS’s Mike Kim on the Art and Science of Finding the Best Inventory for Your Campaign in 2018

January 3, 2018 in Blog

Adelphic’s new Q&A series will shine a spotlight on the biggest challenges, questions, and trends in the programmatic marketplace with commentary from industry experts, clients, and partners.

Today’s Q&A is with Mike Kim, VP of Programmatic Product at Integral Ad Science (IAS). Founded in 2009, IAS is a global measurement and analytics company that provides leading verification and analytics solutions for digital advertisers.

As VP of Programmatic Product, Kim oversees the product strategy and initiatives for IAS’ programmatic technology.

Q&A with Mike Kim of IAS

Q: What should be top of mind for marketers in 2018 as they plan their brand safety strategy?

Brand marketers need to keep one eye on the news cycle and continually update their custom brand safety parameters accordingly. Too often we see set-it-and-forget-it strategies, but the savviest marketers are staying engaged by changing their targeting parameters in response to breaking news and consistently updating their blacklists and whitelists to prevent being associated with unsafe content.

Along with customizing brand safety settings, marketers need to develop a holistic strategy that incorporates and synchronizes campaigns running in programmatic, direct, and walled garden environments to ensure that their ads are not being associated with controversial websites and content.

Q: How has the rise of in-app mobile changed IAS’s product roadmap from a programmatic perspective?

Our goal is to help our partners transact with confidence wherever they’re buying media, and that includes mobile app environments. We currently offer mobile in-app brand safety protection, and we’re looking forward to rolling out viewability targeting and in-app ad fraud prevention by the end of January. We believe that it’s essential for brands to be able to target and report on all the types of media that they buy, and to enhance their strategy with data-driven targeting regardless of environment.

Q: What will be the next big trend for programmatic video?

The next big trend for video is going to be the growing focus on OTT. Advertisers’ have increased their spending in this area year-over-year. It’s still in the early stages of development compared to other areas of programmatic video, but we’re confident that it’s poised to continue growing exponentially as marketers look for more media that’s fully addressable. It’s also a space where the duopoly isn’t fully dominant, so while we don’t expect this space to explode overnight, it’s definitely a sector that we see gathering steam.

Q: Should marketers be alarmed by all of the recently publicized fraud reports in publications like AdExchanger?

Ad fraud should always be taken seriously because ultimately marketers need to protect their investments. That said, if you’re working with a quality tech partner there’s no reason to panic. Instead, educate yourself on ad fraud as a whole and understand how it could impact your ad campaigns.

In terms of recent industry fraud claims, marketers should do two things: evaluate if the claim is true, and quantify the size of the problem. In many cases, these bots are statistically insignificant. In other cases, “new” types of fraud are in fact not new at all. Our wrapper based fraud prevention solution and bot ID solution both protect against the type of ad fraud mentioned in the AdExchanger article.

Ultimately, no ad fraud solution is perfect since fraud tactics are constantly evolving, but you can make sure you’re covered by working with tech platforms and partners who are leveraging both predictive and real-time solutions that enable the targeting of fraud-free inventory. For more information on Fraud, check out our Fraud Lab’s holistic approach to combating fraud.

Q: How have viewability standards and expectations evolved over the last year?

Industry standards for viewability definitely got tougher in 2017. Previously, most marketers were happy to rely on the MRC standard, but increasingly we’ve seen traders targeting high-viewability inventory, in both display and video, that exceeds those standards. At IAS we’re tackling this by releasing new viewability segments aligned with holding company viewability standards. DSPs will start to expose these segments to clients in 2018.

Q: Do you expect PMPs to play a larger role in the programmatic exchange?

Yes, PMPs will continue to play a bigger role in programmatic exchanges. There are a few factors that are going to drive that increased adoption, but the most significant is probably the scarcity of specific types of inventory, such as video, which can only be sourced through PMPs.

Brand safety also remains a concern for advertisers and the promise of safer premium inventory offered by PMPs is going to be attractive to marketers. That being said, it’s possible that the widespread adoption of ads.txt may slow growth in PMPs somewhat by ensuring that publisher inventory is accurately represented on the open exchange.

Q: Anything exciting on the horizon?

We’re really excited about our pre-bid mobile in-app targeting segments. Consumers continue to shift their attention to mobile, and advertising dollars will continue to follow. We want marketers to be confident that their brand stories will be met with brand safe, fraud-free, and viewable impressions.  For marketers, the ability to confidently buy and report on mobile in-app inventory programmatically is going to be critical for minimizing waste, achieving scale in mobile environments, and aligning their brand with the most desirable content.