Opinion

It’s finally time to weed out the digital advertising industry’s bad actors

With Google Chrome set to block ads that don't comply with CBA guidelines, now is the time to finally up our digital advertising game, explains IAB Australia technology lead Jonas Jaanimagi.

Trust has always been a core requirement to be truly successful in the long term in our industry.

More recently the word ‘trust’ has become synonymous with negative topics between entities within the advertising ecosystem. However, any significant erosion of trust with the consumer, as a result of poor ad experiences, is potentially far more damaging for us all in the long term.

The most crucial elements of establishing trust are demonstrating both competency and the belief that someone is always acting with good intent. When it comes to consumer ad experiences, it’s time to ensure that the entire online advertising ecosystem works together to weed out those acting with poor intent and competently allows for the provisioning of better, leaner ads.

Weeding out the offenders

Having been involved in ad operations since the late ’90s, I’ve seen (and pushed back on) plenty of aggressively interruptive and dubious ad formats forced onto screens of all shapes and sizes.

The prevalence of highly interruptive pop-ups and then pop-unders was a low point around 12-15 years ago. Improvements in rich media executions then resulted in a wave of experimental prestitials, superstitials and interstitials that were, shall we say, a little too engaging. Some pointed to the supposed performance of these ads, but most of us knew that it was simply people thrashing about desperately trying to close the ads down.

As any medium advances, there will always be some experimentation – but all too often bad ad experiences are driven by poor intent and incompetence. This must stop and in 2018 you will see a lot of action – both globally and locally, when it comes to improving online ad experiences.

This year the IAB will dramatically be improving ad standards and examining collaborative means of enforcement that go beyond simple recommendations and best practices. This means collaborating effectively with our members to do the hard yards technically and provide the education required – whilst also liaising closely with other local industry bodies such as the MFA and AANA and global cross – industry groups such as the CBA (Coalition for Better Ads).

Collaborating to improve the ad experience

The first move globally has already been made, with the news that from February 15th Google Chrome will begin to block ads in North America and Europe that aren’t compliant with the CBA guidelines.

The formats to be blocked are those proven by extensive research, to frustrate and generally offer poor experiences. The related project and processes is called the Better Ads Experience Program.

Whilst the Better Ads Experience Program has yet to formally extend to Australia, we strongly encourage local companies to follow the CBA guidelines. We continue to input into the product and consumer experiences work of the CBA to localise for Australia and as active members will closely monitor the findings from the European and North American rollouts.

It’s important to note that we’ve all worked hard to ensure that the excluded ads don’t include commonly commercially critical units for Australian publishers.

Equally importantly, the move to block them should also drastically reduce the need for people to install more aggressive versions of ad-blocking software that ultimately damage premium publishers looking to create ad-funded quality online content.

Introducing a new ad portfolio for Australia

As a part of these changes, a critical focus and priority for IAB Australia this year will be to incorporate all related insights and findings on better ad experiences into a large pan-industry initiative called the New Ad Portfolio. The new portfolio worked on by the IAB Tech Labs based in New York comprises a complete upgrade and evolution of all digital advertising specifications.

The overwhelming objective of the project is the need to ensure a significantly improved online ad experience – and an experience that aligns completely with the work being done by the CBA and applies the related and aligned philosophy of the IAB’s LEAN Ads Program (Light, Encrypted, AdChoices supported, Non-invasive advertising).

The updated specifications will be based on aspect ratio and size range rather than fixed pixel sizes – flexible sized ad units that allow for ad delivery across multiple screen sizes and integration with responsive website design. We’ve recognised that the industry requires a more flexible approach in this area in order to provide simple and sensible guidance for any new ad types on any device type, including 360-degree videos and AR/VR.

We anticipate that the rollout and education in Australia for the new Ad Portfolio will take at least six months and we’ve established four working groups made up of more than 20 locally based competent technical and product experts from 16 different companies. The companies involved are genuinely representative of our industry as they include publishers, media agencies, major brands, creative agencies, the major platforms, programmatic vendors and rich-media vendors.

Constant evolution

We’re looking forward to working across the industry groups to educate wherever we can and ultimately help effect the changes that we believe we all want to see when using devices of all types day-in and day-out.

Trust in better, leaner online ads in 2018.

If you have any questions about IAB Australia’s New Ad Portfolio project, please drop Jonas Jaanimagi an email at jonas@iabaustralia.com.au.

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