Cologne & Washington DC

• A consistent and scalable global approach is required to address key brand safety challenges and criminal activity in digital advertising.

• There are opportunities to reflect the needs of national markets by deploying a ‘global standards for local markets’ approach.

• Several existing industry programmes – including those in the UK, France and the USA – are being expanded and connected to tackle global challenges.

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative aimed at fighting criminal activity in the digital advertising supply chain, today published a White Paper – “Global Standards for Local Markets: A Roadmap for Establishing Global Harmonization in Digital Advertising Standards”  – highlighting the need for consistent and scalable global standards to tackle cross-border industry challenges, such as brand safety and fraud, whilst leveraging the needs and expertise of national markets.

Released at this year’s DMEXCO conference in Cologne, Germany, the TAG White Paper identifies challenges requiring global consistency and outlines existing industry standards in areas such as ad blocking, fraudulent traffic, viewability, malware, ad-funded piracy, and ad misplacement. It highlights the importance and benefits of a global approach in addressing these challenges to ease compliance burdens, reduce regional inconsistencies, ensure broad industry adoption, and foster greater consumer and business trust.

The TAG White Paper proposes a global standards framework in digital advertising that also meets the needs and requirements of national markets – i.e. ‘global standards for local markets’ – through collaboration with local and regional entities. The Paper identifies how markets, such as the UK, France and the USA, are building on successful existing industry programmes to achieve this.

The White Paper echoes a call made by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) in its recently published Global Media Charter. The WFA raised eight areas of concern for brand advertisers, such as brand safety issues, and concluded “these issues are best addressed via a global framework with local action.”

Speaking at DMexco, Nick Stringer, Vice President of Global Engagement & Operations at TAG, said, “Global challenges require global solutions, and we must work as an industry to create a consistent framework across countries and regions that promotes the effectiveness and growth of digital advertising worldwide. Advertisers want to see a consistent approach across markets, and several industry programmes are working collaboratively to build and connect global standards to meet the needs of advertisers across the world’s digital markets. This paper provides a strong rationale for the continued harmonization of global standards, and TAG looks forward to engaging with international stakeholders to advance that goal.”

About TAG:

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) is the leading global certification programme fighting criminal activity and increasing trust in the digital advertising industry. Created by the digital advertising industry’s leading US trade organizations, TAG’s mission is to eliminate fraudulent traffic, combat malware, prevent internet piracy, and promote greater transparency in digital advertising. TAG advances those initiatives by bringing companies across the digital advertising supply chain together to set the highest standards. TAG is the first and only registered Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO) for the digital advertising industry. For more information on TAG, please visit www.tagtoday.net.