March 24, 2023

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), whose mission is to fight criminal activity and strengthen brand safety in digital advertising, has released its second annual report on its anti-piracy initiative, Project Brand Integrity (PBI).

The report found that 86 per cent of brands contacted by PBI in 2022 reduced their ad impressions on pirate sites in Europe when alerted that their ads were running on such sites. As a result, the average monthly ad spend by major brands on high-risk and other sites that infringe on intellectual property (IP) fell by 89 per cent in 2022.

TAG launched PBI in February 2019 in partnership with UK-based anti-piracy and brand safety firm, White Bullet to help advertisers safeguard their brands by alerting advertisers when their ads are found to have run on high-risk and IP-infringing websites. 

PBI builds upon TAG’s Brand Safety Certified Programme, which includes robust anti-piracy requirements for companies. As of March 2023, 127 companies have obtained TAG’s Brand Safety Certified Seal, with 43 per cent of them applying the standard to their global operations. PBI’s direct engagement with advertisers and their agencies also includes other industry and public policy efforts, such as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Online Advertising and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) facilitated by the European Commission in 2018.

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