Ad Networks, Ad Tech and Martech
Business Wire | July 18, 2023
DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, and Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU), today announced that the companies will continue to collaborate and conduct investigations into emerging ad fraud schemes within the TV streaming industry. This initiative follows the significant success in working jointly to neutralize SmokeScreen, a sophisticated ad fraud scheme that targeted connected TV (CTV) devices.
As ad investments in CTV continue to rise, DV and Roku recognize the necessity for vigilant monitoring and prompt action to counteract evolving ad fraud schemes. Through their joint investigations, the companies aim to identify and curb new fraud schemes, preserving advertiser confidence and further securing the integrity of the CTV advertising ecosystem.
Leveraging Roku’s proprietary Advertising Watermark technology and DV’s cutting-edge Fraud Lab and anti-fraud solutions, the joint investigations will efficiently identify and mitigate fraudulent activities. Moreover, DV and Roku will be sharing technological resources to augment the impact and scope of their joint efforts.
“Combating ad fraud demands collective action and innovation,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO, DoubleVerify. “Our successful partnership with Roku on SmokeScreen was just the beginning. As we move forward, our combined data and technology resources will empower us to identify and address emerging threats, safeguarding advertisers’ investments in the rapidly growing CTV landscape.”
“Our Advertising Watermark technology is instrumental in combating device and app spoofing,” said Adam Markey, Director of Product Management, Ad Platform at Roku. “Our partnership with DV enhances our collective capabilities to secure the TV streaming advertising ecosystem. Together, we are committed to ensuring transparency, accountability, and confidence for advertisers and partners.”
The joint efforts of DV and Roku are vital in addressing the dynamic challenges posed by ad fraud schemes that exploit the complexities of the CTV advertising ecosystem. The partnership will focus on continuous monitoring, analysis and collaboration to respond to new threats, ensuring that advertisers can trust in the integrity of their CTV ad placements.
This joint commitment to investigating and mitigating fraud in the ecosystem is just one aspect of DV’s partnership with Roku. DV and Roku have a longstanding relationship whereby DV provides quality insights more broadly, including viewability and invalid traffic. DV solutions are also integrated with Roku’s OneView platform, and the two companies plan to expand that solution to DV’s full suite of quality and performance solutions.
For more information on DV and Roku’s joint investigation into SmokeScreen, click here.
About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV) is a leading software platform for digital media measurement and analytics. Our mission is to make the digital advertising ecosystem stronger, safer and more secure, thereby preserving the fair value exchange between buyers and sellers of digital media. Hundreds of Fortune 500 advertisers employ our unbiased data and analytics to drive campaign quality and effectiveness, and to maximize return on their digital advertising investments – globally. Learn more at www.doubleverify.com.
About Roku, Inc.
Roku pioneered streaming on TV. We connect users to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers. Roku TV™ models, Roku streaming players, and TV-related audio devices are available in various countries around the world through direct retail sales and/or licensing arrangements with TV OEM brands. Roku-branded TVs and Roku Smart Home products are sold exclusively in the United States. Roku also operates The Roku Channel, the home of free and premium entertainment with exclusive access to Roku Originals. The Roku Channel is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Roku is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., U.S.A.
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Retargeting, Ad Tech and Martech
ExchangeWire | July 07, 2023
Nano Interactive, leaders in ID-free ad targeting solutions, today (July 4th, 2023) announces the launch of Intent Personas, a more accurate way to target users based on demographics using AI-led contextual advertising – without the use of cookies, user profiling or any form of personal data.
As advertisers increasingly move away from traditional demographic and people-based targeting tactics, they are looking for new solutions to meet this demand. This is in part is down to the decline of cookies – with Google Chrome confirming it is sunsetting cookies in Q1 2024 - but also because of consumer behaviour. Nano’s research shows that 70% of consumers are masking their identity online on a weekly basis or even more often.
Intent Personas offers accurate audience segments delivered via machine learning and verified by always up-to-date panel data. These are robust, trustworthy personas ready for targeting without the guesswork and stereotypes of the past, combining billions of data signals with verification from ‘real world’ consumer panel data to accurately target demographics such as parents, homeowners, pet owners, and baby boomers. This includes an extensive suite of ready-to-use personas in the Nano Intent Library.
Kantar research has shown in the past that 99% of laundry product ads and 70% of food and toiletry products were targeted at women, while actual decision-maker status is equally shared among both genders in most UK households. Even looking beyond the obvious problems of gender stereotyping which occur in traditional audience-based approaches, the same study found resulting negative impacts also upon not just the campaigns themselves, but brands as a whole that make such assumptions.
Nano’s approach makes context the proxy for intent, removing such assumptions, also verifying those targeting choices against the actual groups they are targeting. Another result of this is more accurate targeting than the traditional audience-based approach using cookies – in fact, testing has shown that Nano’s ID-free demographic segments are around 44% more accurate than the current cookie-based targeting model.
Carl White, CEO Nano Interactive said “Every time we go online, we express our intent in countless ways. From the content we read, what we search for, the type of device we access it on and the time of day. By making sense of these signals and verifying them with feedback from real people, we’re giving advertisers a new way to reach demographics without relying upon any kind of personal data. Not only does this provide advertisers with a much-needed new tactic in the face of cookie deprecation, it is also quite simply more accurate than ID-based methods.”
Nano and The Old Vic theatre, in partnership with AKA UK, recently targeted parents using Intent Personas in their latest campaign for the summer children’s show, Mog the Forgetful Cat. Again, by using intent signals verified by panel data, the campaign delivered a 35% increase in purchase consideration and a 71% uplift in clickthrough rate (CTR) versus industry benchmarks – all without personal data.
Alex Orchard, media account director, AKA UK, said “Nano’s innovative and alternative approach to demographic targeting aligned extremely well with our client’s needs. With the increasing challenges around ID-dependent targeting, having a long-term solution that doesn’t rely on any form of personal data, and that is proving to be fully scalable and effective, positions Nano as a key partner to future-proof our plans.”
About Nano Interactive
Nano Interactive are leaders in targeting without the use of personal identifiers. Since launch Nano has delivered over 2000 campaigns for leading brands across mobile, video and display and continues to powerfully connect brands with relevant audiences. Its AI driven targeting platform utilises multiple forms of live intent signals (such as live search queries) combined with next generation contextual targeting to enhance advertising performance in a 100% privacy friendly way.
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Ad Networks, Ad Tech and Martech
Business Wire | July 14, 2023
Roku (Nasdaq: ROKU), the No. 1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico*, and FreeWheel today announced a new partnership that will bring forth a suite of industry solutions to unlock the full value of streaming TV for advertisers and publishers.
As part of this collaboration, the two companies will be launching new technological offerings that aim to simplify, optimize and enhance TV streaming. The effort is especially timely and noteworthy as the industry approaches a critical time in TV streaming’s evolution. Per Nielsen, time spent with streaming TV surpassed broadcast and cable for the first time since 2022. Additionally, eMarketer projects 57% of U.S. digital video users will stream an advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) service this year.
Having solutions aimed at driving greater interoperability and automation will help accelerate this growth.
Key highlights of this collaboration include:
Streamlined Integration: Roku has now integrated its demand application programming interface (dAPI) with FreeWheel’s TV platform. Roku’s demand API gives publishers direct, automatic and real-time access to more advertiser demand. This enhanced integration allows for streamlined ad operation workflows and better inventory quality control, both of which will improve publisher yield and revenue.
Seamless Data Targeting: Publishers can now use Roku platform signals to enable advertisers to target audiences and measure campaign performance without relying on cookies. Additionally, FreeWheel and Roku will rely on data clean room technology to enable the activation of additional data sets providing better measurement and monetization to publishers and agencies.
Inventory Quality: FreeWheel will leverage Roku’s Watermark solution to prevent sophisticated invalid traffic (IVT)/fraud in TV streaming in partnership with cybersecurity company HUMAN Security, through its robust MediaGuard solution that ensures ad inventory is reaching real humans. Roku’s Advertising Watermark is the industry’s first authentication solution built for TV streaming and gives marketers the confidence that their advertising spend is reaching real streamers. The technology helps marketers and publishers prevent device spoofing and app spoofing by validating ad measurement signals.
“Our goal is to create a better TV experience for our partners and consumers,” said Youssef Ben-Youssef, Senior Director, Technology Partnerships, Roku. “This new collaboration brings together an industry-leading blend of data, tech and reporting to accelerate the shift from traditional TV to streaming TV.”
“There is a lot of synergy, energy and a shared sense of purpose behind our work with Roku,” said FreeWheel Chief Strategy Officer Soo Jin Oh. “At FreeWheel, we believe the industry is stronger and better when we collectively help solve today’s problems while creating future innovation. And so, it’s our hope that this new initiative will help pave the way for greater simplicity, optimization and an even more improved experience for the TV advertising ecosystem.”
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit freewheel.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Roku, Inc.
Roku pioneered streaming on TV. We connect users to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers. Roku TV™ models, Roku streaming players, and TV-related audio devices are available in various countries around the world through direct retail sales and/or licensing arrangements with TV OEM brands. Roku-branded TVs and Roku Smart Home products are sold exclusively in the United States. Roku also operates The Roku Channel, the home of free and premium entertainment with exclusive access to Roku Originals. The Roku Channel is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Roku is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., U.S.A.
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