Advertising Industry launches initiative to Protect Brands against Piracy Websites

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative to improve the digital ecosystem, announced the launch of the Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy. The program will help advertisers and their ad agencies avoid damage to their brands from ad placement on websites and other media properties that facilitate the distribution of pirated content and/or illegal dissemination of counterfeit goods.

TAG is an initiative created by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to attack ad-supported piracy, digital advertising fraud, malware, and other deficiencies in the digital communications supply chain. TAG CEO Linda Woolley announced the anti-piracy program during the IAB’s annual leadership meeting in Phoenix, AZ.

Companies in the online and mobile advertising ecosystem can participate in the voluntary Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy by using validated tools and services to identify and prevent advertising from running on websites and other properties that present an unacceptable risk of being associated with infringing activities, including copyright piracy and the illegal dissemination of counterfeit goods.

The Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy was supported at its launch by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a who’s who of organizations and companies in advertising, online publishing, adtech, media, and consumer protection, including:

Advertising: Association of National Advertisers (ANA), American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), GroupM Interaction
Advertising Technology: Collective, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, L-3 and MiMTiD, sovrn, Veri-Site, whiteBULLET
Media: Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), CreativeFuture, Copyright Alliance
Consumer Protection: International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
Under the program, TAG will work with a small number of independent third-party validators, including Ernst & Young and Stroz Friedberg, to certify advertising technology companies as Digital Advertising Assurance Providers (DAAPs). To be validated as a DAAP, companies must show they can provide other advertising companies with tools to limit their exposure to undesirable websites or other properties by effectively meeting one or more criteria.

The criteria for DAAP validation (known as the Core Criteria for Digital Advertising Effectiveness) include:

Identifying “Ad Risk Entities” (AREs): Assessing and identifying websites or other media properties that have a discernible risk of facilitating the unauthorized dissemination of copyrighted materials and/or the illegal dissemination of counterfeit goods.
Preventing Advertisements on Undesired Ad Risk Entities: Enabling advertisers and agencies to restrict the display of their advertising on undesirable sites or other media properties that do not meet each advertiser’s or agency’s standards.
Detecting, Preventing, or Disrupting Fraudulent or Deceptive Transactions: Ensuring protocols and capabilities exist to find and limit ad placements on Ad Risk Entities that use fraud or deception to avoid the standards set by the advertiser or agency.
Monitoring and Assessing the Compliance of Ad Placements: Detecting and reporting on Ad Risk Entities that are not in compliance with advertiser or agency instructions to allow remedial action to be taken.
Eliminating Payments to Undesired Ad Risk Entities: Using technology and protocols to prevent payments to undesired sites and other media properties.
With this announcement, the program will begin the process of validating entities that offer services to advertisers and their partners to protect their brands. It is expected that this document (1.0) will evolve and improve based on learnings during this next step.

Validated DAAPs will help protect the online advertising ecosystem by providing their tools and services to other digital advertising companies – such as ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – or directly to advertisers and their agencies. (Companies that provide services covered under the DAAP criteria to themselves using in-house resources can opt to self-attest to meeting those elements of the Brand Integrity Program.)

Applications for DAAP validation are now being accepted, and the first companies to receive such validation will be announced over the coming months. More information and the full criteria developed for the TAG Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy can be found at tagtoday.net/piracy.