May 2026

• Blocking the Pirates' Booty
• ANA Programmatic Transparency Q1 2026 Report
• Advertising Day on the Hill 
• State of the Fight 2026!
• Where in the world is TAG
  
• One More Thing

Blocking the Pirates’ Booty: TAG Shares Industry’s Proactive Approach at IACC 2026

The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)’s Annual Conference is one of the premier gatherings of counterfeiting and piracy professionals, and TAG COO Rachel Nyswander Thomas joined the event this year to share an update on TAG’s collaborative work to fight the criminals who profit from stolen content.

Rachel shared TAG’s efforts to shift the fight from post-bid takedowns to pre-bid prevention that stops ad dollars from reaching criminal enterprises in the first place, as well as the work to build the three pillars of that effort:

• Pirate Mobile App List (PMAL) - A list of apps that have been removed from app marketplaces for copyright infringement, helping intermediaries identify apps that should not be funded.
• Pirate Domain Exclusion List (PDEL) - A list of websites that promote pirated content, so intermediaries can choose to demonetize those domains.
• Piracy Threat Exchange (PTX) - a forum through which content owners and ad tech companies can share timely intelligence on pirate sites and tactics to prevent them from stealing ad revenue, so the good guys can move faster than the criminals.

Rachel also shared new PTX case studies that put real numbers behind the TAG model.

In the first, an intel partner shared a list of new pirate websites not yet present on PDEL. Pulling data from just one adtech intermediary that was unwittingly serving ads on the pirate site, TAG estimated the revenue loss from that intermediary on the site, based on volume numbers provided. Our analysis found that the single intermediary served roughly 11.8 million ad requests and 14,000 ad impressions to one pirate site, generating a minimum of $5,327 in pirate ad revenue at a $0.45 CPM. And that's just the floor.

When TAG scaled the analysis to include three intermediaries across 11 pirate sites, every company had unwittingly served ads on at least one pirate site in the dataset.

The second case study took on one of piracy's toughest corners: live sports. Could PTX flag ad impressions on a pirate live broadcast fast enough to block the monetization of that content? Spoiler alert: yes.

PTX identified a live event being streamed on a pirate website. Website takedowns, while necessary, often take a substantial amount of time, often requiring court orders.

TAG was able to share the site with intermediaries who cut off impressions in less than a day, proving that demonetization can happen far more quickly than a full takedown, preventing pirates from profiting from live sporting events and other live content.

The most important takeaway from Rachel’s presentation was a simple one: no single stakeholder can solve ad-funded piracy alone. Fighting the constellation of content thieves and their constantly changing tactics requires collaboration and rapid coordination.

With TAG Threat Exchange members across 11 countries, seven time zones, and 21.5 hours of human coverage on a typical workday, TAG’s global defense network is already built and actively working to protect rights holders. You can learn more and get involved at tagtoday.net/threat-sharing.

ANA Quarterly Transparency Benchmark Shows Continued Gap Between High and Low Performing Advertisers

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) released its Q1 2026 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark last week, which confirmed the importance of measurement quality, viewability, and supply chain concentration, as higher-performing advertisers continued to outperform their peers in the amount of advertising spend reaching actual consumers.

According to the ANA’s release, “the Benchmark found that higher-performing advertisers converted 54.0 percent of programmatic spend into qualified impressions in Q1 2026, while the lower-performing cohort converted just 32.1 percent. The resulting 21.9-point gap is the largest recorded by the Benchmark to date and reinforces that quality, not cost, is the primary differentiator in programmatic performance.”

“The market-level TrueAdSpend Index, which measures the share of programmatic investment delivering fraud-free, measurable, viewable, and MFA-free impressions, rebounded to 43.3 percent in Q1 2026 following volatility in late 2025. The ANA found that the recovery was driven primarily by improvements in delivery quality, particularly viewability, rather than transaction cost reductions.”

Notably, transaction costs were not a major driver of the gap, as those costs only varied by 2.4% between high- and low-performing advertisers, while media productivity had a 19.4% gap.

“Higher-performing advertisers lost 19.0 percent of spend to media quality issues, while the lower-performing cohort lost 38.4 percent, more than double,” added the release. “The report found that the lower-performing cohort loses more than two-thirds of every dollar before it reaches the end consumer.”

Developed in partnership with TAG TrustNet and Fiducia, the ANA Programmatic Transparency Benchmark provides quarterly, impression-level insights into programmatic media cost, quality, and performance. Built on log-level data from leading advertisers and platforms, the Benchmark helps marketers identify waste, optimize quality, and improve outcomes across web, mobile, and CTV environments.

Advertising Day on the Hill: Educating Congress and Driving Positive Change for the Ad Industry

Thank you to the TAG members who were able to attend this year’s Advertising Day on the Hill!

Your participation helped drive a record-year for turnout, as attendees representing every segment of advertising spent two days hearing from leaders in Congress and the agencies, discussing vital policy issues with one another, and educating members of Congress and their staff about our industry and its needs.

As part of this year’s pre-Hill agenda, TAG’s Rachel Nyswander Thomas led a panel of leaders from other industry organizations to discuss emerging challenges and opportunities in the AI space. Other panel participants included Mary K. Engle, EVP for Policy, BBB National Programs; Jeff Minsky, Vice President, AI & Marketing Futures, ANA; and Neal Thurman, Director, Coalition for Better Ads.

SAVE THE DATE: TAG “State of the Fight” in NYC on October 7, 2026!

Mark your calendars and block the date, because this year’s TAG “State of the Fight” will be happening in New York City on October 7th!

Don’t miss TAG’s tentpole event of the year! Join the big conversations, share your bold ideas, and get perspective-shaping insight from the leaders of our industry, all in one room!

Keep up-to-date on the latest sessions, speakers and news about the event here: tagtoday.net/state-of-the-fight. (Password in Member's inboxes!)

Team TAG are always looking to connect with the TAG Community wherever they are! In 2026, are planning to be at the below listed events:

Cannes Lion
June 22nd - 26th
Cannes, France

Cannes Lion
June 22nd - 26th
Cannes, France

MAD//Fest
July 7th - 11th
London, UK

Advertising Week NYC
October 5th - 8th
New York City, US

ANA Masters of Marketing
October 20th
Orlando (Florida), US

Keep Up-To-Date With The Working Group Brief

TAG's working groups are a crucial source point of conversation and collaboration for digital advertising. Make sure you stay up to date with the latest progress and developments with the Workin Group Brief. 

Read the latest Working Group Brief 👉 tagtoday.net/working-groups

Leverage TAG Research into Your Everyday!

From APAC Fraud Snapshot reports, to UK Brand Safety Consumer reports, to Best Practices whitepapers, TAG's research is here to support our member's day-to-day compliance as well as strategic planning. 

Visit our Data and Insight page 👉 tagtoday.net/insights

Let's Make Some Noise Together 🤝

We love it when TAG members highlight our work together to fight digital ad crime and improve transparency. Please send any TAG-related press releases, blogs, or other announcements to Andrew Weinstein at andrewwstn@gmail.com for review before release.