The BVDW warns European advertising industry of US certification / German European certification Digital Trust Initiative launched

With the Digital Trust Initiative (DTI), the BVDW has already created a new quality framework that from a German perspective brings together national and international quality standards of digital advertising. In line with DTI, the association, representing the German market as a member of IAB Europe, announces new standards that above all concern the area verification (viewability, invalid traffic, brand safety).

The BVDW criticizes a new US study regarding ad fraud in Europe based on dubious data, suggesting certification for German companies with the US company. “The study and the certification with the US provider are for marketing purposes and do not serve to increase the quality of the German or European market; they distort the view of the German market. We discourage our members from participating, in particular because with the Digital Trust Initiative we have a national quality framework that already considers all standards, creates transparency and focuses on the quality assurance of the market,” says BVDW Vice President Thomas Duhr (IP Germany).

The BVDW criticizes the cited study as well as the US certification since “neither the surveyed publishers are named nor is there transparency regarding the actual volume and scope of campaigns surveyed in Germany, and therefore no representativeness can be documented for the entire market. In addition, the figures do not define invalid traffic and ad fraud in a correct and clear manner,” says Björn Kaspring (Ströer), Chairman of the focus group Digital Marketing Quality in the BVDW. According to the US provider, the study is based on four billion ad impressions in five European countries, placed via three agencies. With this, the population is far too small to adequately assess the individual markets. The BVDW, in line with the regular DMQ report, already publishes a market figure regarding invalid traffic; the next publication date is February 6 in line with the DMQ Background Talk in Düsseldorf.

Advertising standards for Germany must be developed from a German perspective

The German Digital Trust Initiative consists of the pillars user experience (includes for example consideration of the guidelines of the Coalition for Better Ads), verification (for example viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic) as well as transparency (for example Code of Conduct Programmatic Advertising). The BVDW announces that it will place a focus on the area of verification. Only recently in 2018, for example, the area of brand safety was defined together with OWM, the German Advertisers Association. “Besides the completed localization of brand safety it is crucial in the next step to have clear, explicit definitions for all forms of invalid traffic that are accepted across the market on which certification can be based on. In line with the Digital Trust Initiative we must classify and assess all aspects from a national perspective that document reliable quality and make such comparable. This has already been outlined to some extent,” says Björn Kaspring.

The Digital Trust Initiative assesses national and international standards of digital advertising and makes such usable. Companies, also companies that are not members of the BVDW, may be certified for DTI. More information can be found here.

Event announcement: Brand safety, invalid traffic and viewability will be discussed on February 6 in Düsseldorf during the second DMQ Background Talk of the BVDW. Sponsor is Meetrics, media partner is Lebensmittel Zeitung.