Trade groups unite in anti-piracy battle
October 6, 2014
By Colin Mann
Trade bodies the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) have announced plans to create a first-of-its-kind cross-industry accountability programme designed to fight ad fraud, malware and the piracy of intellectual property head-on, while also increasing marketplace transparency. This new collective organisation will build upon the initial work laid out by the IAB Trustworthy Digital Supply Chain Initiative.
Established as a jointly controlled body, with its own board and leadership, the organisation will operationalise principles around the critical issues that face the industry in this arena. Once officially launched, the programme will monitor the ecosystem for compliance and develop incentives for broad industry participation and consequences for untrustworthy actors.
“Criminal activity threatens to erode trust in the digital ecosystem,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, 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.”
“The ANA, 4As, and IAB have a strong track record in successfully working together for the greater good of the industry at large,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO, ANA. “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 programme puts us on an exciting path to ensuring a better, more transparent supply chain that will increase the effectiveness of marketers’ digital campaigns.
“Together we can continue to rebuild the trust that is necessary for the interactive marketing industry to thrive,” said Nancy Hill, President and CEO, 4As. “Self-regulation is only as strong as the accountability programme that ensures its implementation, and all of our trade groups’ resources are required in order to guarantee this new compliance organisation’s ability to eradicate criminal activity.”