Available within the IAS Pulse publisher platform, Quality Connect is designed to address a long-standing transparency gap between buyers and sellers. It enables publishers to understand, report on and align with advertiser campaign settings across brand safety, suitability, fraud prevention and other media quality criteria.

Publishers are often required to meet advertiser quality standards without full visibility into how those settings are configured, which can lead to under-delivery, unnecessary impression blocking, operational friction between ad operations teams and agencies, and missed optimisation opportunities. With greater insight into advertiser preferences, Quality Connect is intended to reduce wasted impressions, improve delivery efficiency and surface campaign issues earlier in the process.

Quality Connect introduces three capabilities for IAS Pulse publisher clients, available when advertisers opt to share campaign preferences. 

Campaign Transparency provides direct visibility into advertiser-defined media quality settings, including brand safety categories, risk tolerance, fraud prevention criteria, brand suitability and contextual avoidance segments, and keyword exclusions, as well as geo and language targeting, helping publishers align delivery from the outset. 

Campaign Reporting enables publishers to run on-demand, in-flight performance reporting across metrics such as viewability, invalid traffic and brand safety, allowing earlier optimisation and clearer visibility into campaign performance while it is still running. 

Campaign Segments consolidates advertiser-defined fraud, brand safety, suitability and keyword avoidance criteria into a single dynamic avoidance segment within IAS Pulse, which automatically updates as preferences change, helping publishers maintain alignment, reduce wasted impressions and minimise manual operational effort.

By linking advertiser campaign preferences with publisher delivery and optimisation workflows in a consent-based environment, Quality Connect is positioned to improve alignment and operational efficiency across the digital advertising ecosystem. 

IAS said the solution supports more consistent campaign delivery against intended quality standards, while helping publishers strengthen buyer relationships and improve overall performance outcomes.

“The quality of a media buy shouldn’t be a secret,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of Integral Ad Science. “For too long, publishers and advertisers have had to work across information gaps that create friction, waste, and missed opportunity. Quality Connect gives both sides a more transparent way to work together – helping publishers deliver against advertiser standards with confidence, while giving advertisers greater trust in the quality and performance of their media investments.” 

Quality Connect is available to publishers within the IAS Pulse UI. Campaign Transparency is available at no additional cost, while Campaign Reporting and Campaign Segments are expected to roll out in Q3 2026.

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The update extends IAS’s Social Optimisation solution to Threads, allowing advertisers to manage content suitability and improve return on investment for campaigns on the platform, which surpassed 400 million monthly active users globally in 2025.

The expansion builds on IAS’s existing partnership with Meta. In 2024, the company selected IAS as the first provider to develop an independent optimisation solution for its platforms. IAS currently provides Content Block List optimisation and Total Media Quality (TMQ) Brand Safety and Suitability Measurement for ads across Facebook and Instagram Feed and Reels, with the addition of Threads feed now included.

“Our AI-driven, content-level analysis empowers advertisers to drive performance and confidently scale their investments on social platforms with trusted, third-party, independent solutions,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS. “We continue to innovate and deepen our relationships with global partners like Meta to provide end-to-end campaign support for advertisers, ensuring they can avoid unsuitable content and maximise their campaign effectiveness.”

According to IAS, the solution allows advertisers to customise content block lists aligned with brand suitability requirements, including the use of custom brand segments designed to minimise ad waste and reduce brand risk.

The system can also be activated once to provide automatic protection across Facebook and Instagram Feed, Reels, and Threads, with hourly updates to ensure content filtering keeps pace with rapidly changing social feeds.

IAS said the technology is powered by its proprietary Multimedia Understanding Model (MUM), which analyses content frame by frame using a combination of image, audio, and text signals to classify content and determine suitability.

The solution supports 34 languages, allowing advertisers to implement brand safety strategies across global campaigns. In addition, IAS’s Total Media Quality framework provides brand safety and suitability measurement to help advertisers verify that their content block lists are functioning as intended and to enable optimisation during campaigns.

IAS has worked with Meta to develop independent measurement and optimisation tools for advertisers. In October 2024, IAS launched its first content block lists for Meta platforms after being selected as the primary provider for the solution. The company later introduced brand safety and suitability measurement for Threads in October 2025 and launched AI-driven contextual category reporting for Meta in June 2025.

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The offering provides aggregated data on genre, rating, language, show, and programme-level insights from platforms including Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Prime Video, as well as participating publishers using Publica. The solution is integrated within the IAS Signal user interface, bringing together content insights, media quality, supply path data, and campaign outcomes in a single view.

IAS said the product is designed to give advertisers greater control over where their campaigns appear, enabling them to align placements with brand suitability requirements.

“As advertisers continue to double down on connected TV, the need for greater visibility and performance insight has never been more important,” said Dana McGraw, SVP, Data and Measurement Science, Disney Advertising. 

“By collaborating with IAS, we’re helping provide advertisers with clearer, more actionable insights about their campaigns and where they’re deriving the most value, bringing greater confidence and accountability clarity to the CTV ecosystem,” Dana continued.

Industry data cited by IAS shows that ad-supported viewing accounted for 74.2% of total US TV viewing in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Nielsen. Within this, streaming formats including free ad-supported TV (FAST), ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD), and ad-supported subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) represented 45.6% of viewing, the largest share among all formats.

IAS also noted that while advertising investment has followed audience migration to streaming, marketers continue to face challenges in accessing consistent, scalable data on where ads are placed, as well as in consolidating fragmented datasets to measure campaign performance.

“Transparency is the key to turning CTV impressions into targeted engagement,” said Srishti Gupta, Chief Product Officer at Integral Ad Science. “IAS Total TV serves as a visibility engine between buyers and sellers, delivering the transparency, control, and validation advertisers need to ensure their campaigns run in high-quality, relevant, and brand-suitable environments that drive real outcomes.”

According to IAS, the new solution enables marketers to access near real-time, publisher-enabled content-level transparency across multiple dimensions, including programme, genre, and platform. It also supports cross-channel suitability controls, third-party verification, and outcome measurement, including quality reach and incremental conversions.

Moreover, the company added that its broader verification tools, such as device verification, invalid traffic detection, and viewability measurement, can be used alongside IAS Total TV to support campaign performance. IAS also stated that publisher data is handled in a privacy-safe and VPPA-compliant manner.

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The integration aims to give advertisers on TikTok Pangle greater transparency and assurance over where their ads appear.

With this update, advertisers can now use IAS’s AI-driven Total Media Quality (TMQ) post-bid measurement on TikTok, together with post-bid measurement for TikTok Pangle, to optimise campaign reach and performance.

“Our advertisers greatly value IAS’s scaled solutions on TikTok. These new Brand Safety features provide advertisers across the globe access to independent and trusted, third-party measurement across TikTok’s offerings, including Pangle’s hundreds of thousands of global apps,” said Lisa Utzschneider, chief executive officer of IAS. “IAS is committed to providing brands with greater transparency wherever they allocate digital media spend so they can scale campaigns with confidence.”

According to IAS, the new post-bid measurement for TikTok Pangle will provide:

• Expanded Total Media Quality coverage, including viewability, invalid traffic, and brand safety measurement across TikTok Pangle, in addition to TMQ for TikTok’s various feeds such as For You, Profile, Following, Search, and TikTok Lite (in supported markets).
  
• Global reach, with measurement across TikTok Pangle’s inventory in more than 380,000 apps, covering audiences across the Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and Latin America regions.
  
• Independent verification, ensuring that ads appear within brand-safe environments and align with industry standards.
  

The announcement builds on the ongoing partnership between IAS and TikTok, which began in 2021 with the launch of a pre-bid optimisation product. Earlier this year, IAS expanded its Social Optimisation tools for TikTok to include pre-bid video exclusion lists, furthering its commitment to transparency and brand protection for advertisers.

TikTok Pangle, the advertising network for TikTok for Business, reaches more than 380,000 global apps and an estimated 2.9 billion daily active users through app traffic.

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While technology has made it easier to reach audiences at scale, it has also exposed advertisers to content that can damage reputation or dilute brand values. This is where the concepts of brand safety and suitability come into play. Beyond simply avoiding harmful or inappropriate content, true protection lies in understanding context—because the environment in which an ad appears can be just as important as the message itself. 

Context is not just a safeguard; it is the first line of defence for building trust, credibility, and long-term brand resilience.

To get a better understanding at how both advertisers and vendors can tackle this issue, MARKETECH APAC recently spoke with industry experts Laura Quigley, senior vice president for APAC at Integral Ad Science; Adele Wieser, regional managing director for APAC at Index Exchange; and Nick Frizzell, vice president of marketplace quality at Magnite; to discuss how different brand suitability is nowadays, and how brands can practice this while also ensuring greater and relevant brand reach online.

Why brand suitability has become a major concern

Laura noted that for years, the industry has treated brand safety as the minimum standard—making sure ads don’t end up alongside content that could clearly harm reputation. However, that digital landscape has grown more complex, and steering clear of only the most blatant risks no longer guarantees protection.

“This shift has been driven by changing consumer expectations. More than 70% of consumers say they’d feel less favourable toward a brand whose ads appear near inappropriate content. With advertising now spanning news sites, social feeds, streaming platforms, and more, a one-size-fits-all approach no longer works,” she explained.

She also added that suitability allows advertisers to adapt to different environments and maintain both scale and relevance without compromising reputation.

Speaking of brand suitability, Adele noted that brand suitability is a strategic evolution of brand safety and that the rise of programmatic across the open internet introduced more variability in inventory quality.

“Suitability is especially critical in high-value moments like live events or breaking news, where overly broad controls can unintentionally exclude premium inventory. We’re continuing to support standards that help all brands—big and small—confidently access these environments. Suitability isn’t just about protection. It’s a smarter, more intentional way to buy,” she explained.

Going beyond blocklists and navigating complex media lnadscape

For Adele, by adopting more nuanced, customised strategies that reflect each brand’s priorities and audience expectations, advertisers can achieve stronger outcomes.

“Right now, brand suitability tends to be treated as binary, either on or off, which can overlook key audience opportunities. Smarter, tailored approaches that consider a brand’s unique needs and audience can deliver much better results,” she said.

Adele also noted that when navigating media environments where fake news and misinformation are prevalent, they work on becoming gatekeepers of quality content, meaning that content aligning with brand safety ideas.

“We have completely removed made-for-advertising (MFA) sites from our exchange, which isn’t just about compliance. For us, it reflects our values and our vision for a highly efficient and transparent programmatic advertising ecosystem,” Adele explained.

Meanwhile, Laura noted that keyword blocklists can be blunt instruments–and that a single term can unintentionally block high-quality content, whereas context-aware systems take a more nuanced approach by evaluating the full meaning, sentiment, and tone of content.

“For example, “shot” might refer to a basketball highlight but still be excluded if it appears on a violence-related blocklist. This can mean missing opportunities during major cultural moments such as the Oscars or the Super Bowl, where audience engagement is high,” Laura explained.

Speaking of context-aware systems, she said, “This enables advertisers to distinguish between genuinely unsafe material and suitable coverage, across text, audio, video, and images, without unnecessarily cutting off entire categories.”

In terms of misinformation, Nick stated, “When it comes to misinformation, we rely on trusted third-party solutions to help prevent the monetisation of misinformation and disinformation. Buyers also have the option to work with Curators to transact in brand-aligned, controlled environments.”

Balance reach with brand reputation

According to Laura, marketers can protect brand reputation while still reaching wide audiences by applying tools like pre-bid filters, exclusion lists, and contextual targeting. When these safeguards are tailored to specific campaign goals, brands can strike the right balance between reach and risk. 

For example, tighter restrictions may be appropriate for campaigns focused on long-term brand equity, whereas a more flexible setup can help maximise scale in performance-driven efforts.

“Ongoing campaign monitoring and regular adjustment of safety settings are essential to quickly respond to emerging risks or reputation concerns. Ultimately, transparent communication with internal stakeholders and media partners ensures alignment on brand objectives and risk levels, allowing brands to maximise audience exposure while safeguarding their reputation in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable digital environments,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Adele noted that collaborating with partners is key to navigating the opportunities that come with breaking news environments. With the help of advanced targeting, brands can connect with highly attentive audiences in these moments—opening the door to more impactful campaign results.

“It’s also crucial to recognise that not all supply should be treated equally. By building trusted partnerships with sell-side platforms and key publishers, brands can gain greater control to test and refine their brand safety and suitability measures. This collaborative approach helps balance reach with reputational risk more effectively,” Adele commented.

How brands can be proactive in ad monitoring

Adele also added that brands can’t afford a ‘set it and forget it’ mindset. With media habits shifting quickly, marketers need to stay agile—constantly monitoring, experimenting, and refining their approach.

“This approach complements existing DSP capabilities, making programmatic buying smarter and more efficient. Ultimately, while technology advances, human insight remains vital to balance the trade-offs between risk and reward in brand safety and suitability now and in the future,” she said.

Meanwhile, Laura said that advertisers that remain most resilient are those who pair continuous monitoring with strong partnerships with verification providers. This combination allows them to adjust swiftly when needed, without losing reach or diminishing campaign performance.

“Proactively, brands should start with a clear suitability framework – defining what is acceptable, what is not, and where there’s flexibility. This should be paired with independent verification to monitor placements across all channels, including programmatic, direct buys, and social. Leveraging pre-bid tools ensures unsuitable impressions are avoided before the ad is served, protecting both budget and brand equity. As generative AI accelerates the creation of both quality and low-quality content, this framework becomes even more critical,” she explained.

Laura added, “Reactively, it’s about having rapid response protocols. If an unsuitable placement is detected, brands should be able to adjust settings, update blocklists, or refine contextual controls immediately. Agility is essential in fast-moving news cycles or trending UGC environments.”

On the other hand, Nick concluded, “Ultimately, we encourage brands to stay proactive, leverage the right tools, and align with partners that help them balance risk with performance.”

***

As the media landscape grows more complex, one principle remains clear: context is the foundation of effective advertising. Safety provides the guardrails, suitability ensures alignment with brand values, and technology offers the tools to execute both at scale. But true resilience comes from treating this as an ongoing process—testing, refining, and working closely with trusted partners to adapt as environments evolve. By doing so, brands can protect their reputation, unlock stronger engagement, and drive meaningful outcomes in an ever-shifting digital world.

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From fake impressions to automated bot clicks, ad fraud is now a widespread issue quietly draining billions from ad budgets every year. Despite advances in adtech, this form of abuse remains alarmingly prevalent, posing a serious threat to the efficiency and credibility of digital campaigns.

One of those instances of widespread ad fraud is ‘Mirage’, which uses fake Android apps disguised as helpful tools to deliver aggressive ads, affecting millions of users. Following this, Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) Threat Lab identified almost 300 app IDs linked to Mirage, with over 70 million downloads and 350 million daily bid requests.

The findings were done following IAS’s latest partnership with Google to remove fraudulent apps from the Play Store, as well as using IAS’s fraud pre-bid avoidance solution to protect partners within their DSPs. 

Moreover, ‘Mirage’ picks up where the ‘Vapor’ fraud scheme left off, using ‘phone cleaner’ utilities that promise to fix the problems they cause, but instead deliver more ads. ‘Mirage’ apps present the illusion of utility, appearing useful on the surface but offering nothing real underneath.

To learn more about this ad fraud scheme–and how brands can protect their ads from showing in these fraudulent apps, MARKETECH APAC spoke exclusively to Scott Pierce, head of fraud protection at Integral Ad Science, as he explains more of this latest threat to advertisers, as well as sharing his insights on ad fraud protection and ensuring to brands that their ads will appear accordingly to context–without wasting ad dollars.

Behind the ‘Mirage’ and its impact on advertising

Scott noted that when IAS Threat Lab first investigated the MIrage fraud scheme, they uncovered a sprawling network of over 300 fraudulent apps posing as utility tools like phone cleaners and battery savers. Moreover, they noted that this was a global operation because these apps misled users worldwide including here in APAC.

“This indicates what we already know about threat actors in not caring about geography. Some Mirage apps even climbed the charts in the APAC region under false pretenses, hijacking devices with out of context full screen ads and eroding user trust across the board,” he said.

He also noted that the biggest threat that these Mirage apps pose is how quickly they turn from being passive to aggressive.

An example of this app is one ironically named “CleanUp Master”, which had actually managed to achieve the top spot in the US Play Store’s Top New Free Chart by appearing to be a legitimate phone cleaning tool. IAS’s report noted that initially the app had no ads, but as more users continued to download it, the threat actors activated a torrent of advertising leading to each user suddenly seeing dozens of full screen ads per day. 

“For users, that resulted in a frustrating experience due to the bombardment of intrusive ads. In contrast advertisers ended up paying for invalid impressions that likely yielded zero engagement, essentially showing their ads in a vacuum and wasting ad spend,” Scott added.

IAS on taking ad fraud schemes head-on

In terms of tackling ad fraud schemes directly, Scott stated that IAS takes a proactive approach in threat hunting to ensure that their clients’ ads appear in suitable environments.

Moreover, IAS also deploys fraud-detecting capabilities on multiple layers, such as their Threat Lab researchers and real-time machine learning models that are continuously scanning for any anomaly signs of malicious app activity.

“Once we have identified a rogue app, we add its ID to our blocklists and share that intelligence across the industry allowing us to prevent ads from ever being bought or shown on those apps in the first place,”

Speaking about this latest ad fraud incident, he added, “In the case of a Mirage-type app, IAS will flag it almost in real time to stop our clients’ ads from appearing there. This will effectively cut off the app’s ad revenue and the threat actors’ incentive to continue the scheme.”

He also highlighted the importance of their partnership with Google, where through the intelligence IAS gathered, they worked closely with Google’s team to quickly take action by removing every identified Mirage app from the Play Store. In response, Google Play Protect then began actively alerting users and disabling those apps even if they were installed from outside of the Play Store. 

“This coordinated takedown essentially stopped the fraud in its tracks and dramatically reduced the risk for everyone. By pulling these malicious apps out of circulation (and even off users’ devices), users were spared further ad bombardment, and our clients’ ads were no longer in a fraudulent environment,” Scott explained.

Advice for brands to navigate ad fraud schemes

For Scott, brands should be proactive and insist on transparency in where their ads run–and ensuring that they must rely on reliable apps to host their ads.

“One key step is relying on known, reputable apps from allowlists and independent verification partners, and monitoring the campaign reports of any unfamiliar app names or sudden spikes that could signal potential fraudulent activity,” he explained.

As part of ensuring that ad transparency, Scott said that for them at IAS, they will continue to update their detection systems and capabilities to keep fraudulent apps out of their clients’ media buys.

Moreover, they will also invest heavily in research and technology to spot emerging fraud schemes early, as well as collaborate with industry partners to shut them down quickly.

“When advertisers combine that vigilance with our safeguards, they can be assured that their ads will run in legitimate, high-quality environments. IAS customers are protected with our pre-bid fraud avoidance solution, integrated across leading DSPs,” he concluded.

As digital advertising continues to evolve, so too do the tactics of those looking to exploit it. Combating ad fraud requires more than just reactive measures—it demands industry-wide collaboration, greater transparency, and ongoing investment in fraud detection technologies. For marketers, it also means staying vigilant, asking tougher questions about where their ad dollars go, and prioritising quality over scale.

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The performance landscape is evolving rapidly, presenting businesses with opportunities and challenges. As competition intensifies, brand equity becomes a crucial differentiator, influencing consumer trust, loyalty, and long-term growth. Marketers are shifting their focus from short-term conversions to building stronger, recognisable brands that drive sustained engagement and customer lifetime value. 

In our latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview, we sat down with Laura Quigley, senior vice president for Asia-Pacific at Integral Ad Science (IAS) to discuss how to navigate the changing landscape in marketing performance, the role of attention, and how marketers can strategically build brand equity through context-driven campaigns that foster consumer trust, enhance brand recognition, and drive long-term engagement while maintaining precise audience targeting. 

Future-proofing campaigns for impactful results

For Laura, driving performance equates to driving efficiency and outcomes, helping advertisers reduce media waste and safeguard brand equity in the evolving media landscape. Building and protecting brand equity, strategic brand positioning, and multi-channel strategies will drive brand performance in 2025, which has become essential.

“Brands are adopting more context-driven, personalised approaches while leveraging diverse channels like the open web, social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and digital video to engage consumers effectively, strengthening brand recall and fostering consumer trust”, she stated.

She also noted how marketers should be able to navigate these new changes, stating, “Marketers can future-proof campaigns by optimising placements, reallocating budgets based on attention outcomes, and ensuring brand-suitable environments. This ensures measurable, impactful results while enhancing ROI in a dynamic, consumer-first environment.”

In response to these new trends, IAS aims to help its clients protect and strengthen brand equity while driving performance by combining cutting-edge technology with actionable insights to safeguard brand reputation. 

“Through advanced tools like Context Control and Quality Impression™, IAS helps advertisers place their ads adjacent to brand-suitable and high-quality environments,” Laura added

How can thoughtful measurement improve campaign efficiency?

One of the things that Laura highlighted is that when ads are placed in contextually relevant environments, they not only protect brand equity but also drive stronger engagement and outcomes.

An instance of this in action is IAS’s partnership with Mastercard in Southeast Asia to support their global brand safety benchmark of 98% while reducing fail rates and invalid traffic in programmatic campaigns.

For context, Mastercard desired to receive real-time performance signals to help them efficiently optimise their campaigns before bids are placed on possible unsuitable environments. Moreover, the global financial brand needed a trusted global pre- and post-bid verification partner who could help execute an increased brand safety pass rate, reduce block rate/fail rates and reduce invalid traffic.

By implementing IAS’s pre- and post-bid solutions—including Contextual Avoidance and Fraud Detection—Mastercard achieved around 82% improvement in invalid traffic and 72% improvement in cost of quality impression.

For Laura, the partnership highlights how thoughtful measurement and optimisation can improve campaign efficiency while supporting broader brand goals.

“Marketers can benefit from setting clear safety and suitability guidelines, using pre-bid solutions to prioritise high-quality environments, and analysing campaign insights to refine their approaches. By embedding these practices, brands can drive performance while building long-term consumer trust,” she explained.

How to maintain brand equity while balancing results

Laura admits that looking ahead, driving performance will continue to operate in a complex and dynamic environment shaped by a fragmented media landscape and evolving consumer behaviours. 

For her, these shifts will likely present challenges in maintaining strong brand equity while delivering measurable results. To foster performance, Laura shares his three-pronged approach to how brands should navigate these challenges:

• Attention and media quality metrics: Metrics that measure attention, engagement and media quality ensure that campaigns drive meaningful interactions and relationships between brands and consumers that strengthen brand equity.
• Personalisation at scale: Effective personalisation goes beyond audience targeting and into contextual relevance. By aligning ads with the right content, brands can enhance engagement while maintaining efficiency. Contextual strategies ensure that messaging resonates at the right moments, strengthening consumer connections. 
• Consistency across multi-channel strategies: As advertisers leverage various platforms, seamless integration and cohesive messaging are critical. This consistency strengthens brand identity and drives performance for long-term growth.

“Performance must shift to strategies that not only drive measurable results but also strengthen brand equity. Brands are increasingly leveraging contextual targeting, first-party data, and privacy-safe solutions to build trust with consumers and maintain compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA,” she said.

Laura also added, “Through transparent, granular reporting, IAS ensures brands have visibility into campaign performance and ad placement. IAS helps brands achieve measurable outcomes while fostering trust with consumers and advertisers.”

Flexibility and commitment to innovation

When asked about her advice for marketers to future-proof their brand equity and performance strategies, Laura mentioned that Marketers need to be agile and adaptable in their strategies. Moreover, prioritising trust and transparency through strategies like contextual targeting to engage audiences is fundamental. 

“Although third-party cookies continue to play a role, adopting new technologies and solutions is essential to ensure accurate optimisation and measurement. This is where attention-based measurements would provide deeper insight into engagement and allow marketers to optimise campaigns effectively,” she explained.

“By maintaining flexibility and committing to innovation, marketers can navigate these changes while building meaningful connections with their audience, ensuring long-term success in a privacy-first world,” she concluded.

***

The future of performance and brand equity lies in balancing data-driven precision and consumer engagement. Leveraging contextual targeting and privacy-compliant measurement tools will allow marketers to optimise performance while ensuring contextual and high-quality engagements. Ultimately, brands prioritising marketing effectiveness and data responsibility will drive sustainable growth and strengthen long-term brand equity in an increasingly privacy-centric digital landscape.

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By aligning ads with content that complements a brand’s identity and objectives, advertisers can achieve a deeper, more meaningful engagement with consumers. As audiences grow increasingly savvy, context becomes a critical differentiator, bridging the gap between delivering ads that disrupt and those that add value.

For marketers and advertisers, embracing context is no longer optional; it’s necessary to foster trust, safeguard reputation, and drive results that resonate. As the industry moves forward, the ability to align messaging with the right environment will be pivotal for navigating the complexities of the digital advertising ecosystem.

In this case study, we explore how Samsung and Mindshare Indonesia sought cookieless solutions via Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) Context Control Targeting product to propel Samsung’s programmatic campaign goals while prioritising budget efficiency.

The Challenge

Despite Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold4 achieving stunning results in 2022, Samsung Indonesia recognises that reaching its core Gen MZ target audience will be more challenging in 2023 due to the fast-paced environment and evolving consumer behaviour. Samsung has consistently employed sophisticated targeting strategies, incorporating first-party data with retargeting, maintaining a presence with premium publishers, and utilising keyword targeting.

The Objective

Samsung aims to launch its latest foldable phone and use programmatic advertising to target Gen MZ precisely, particularly during the sustenance phase of the campaign. Applying lessons from previous campaigns, Samsung adopted a more granular targeting approach for the new foldable phone. This is to ensure the delivery of relevant messaging to the target audience while simultaneously improving efficiency in terms of quality website traffic by 20%.

The Solution

As Samsung’s campaign transitioned from awareness to performance, the focus shifted to driving quality traffic and conversions. Display advertising, representing 12% of the budget and executed programmatically, emerged as a key driver of high-value site visits. 

To maximise the effectiveness of this channel, Samsung implemented IAS’s contextual targeting with sentiment detection. This technology layered an additional level of precision, enabling Samsung to refine its audience targeting beyond traditional methods like DSPs, DMPs, Floodlight, and PMPs. 

IAS’s predictive science pre-screens and categorises pages using emotion & sentiment analysis, enabling the brand to target the most desirable and relevant content.

To drive campaign efficiency, Samsung implemented a three-layered optimisation strategy within programmatic display and its targeting setup. This strategy encompassed audience segmentation, budget allocation, and creative optimisation.

1. Audience Level: In addition to standard DSP audiences, floodlight, and PMP, Samsung leveraged third-party audiences through IAS’s contextual targeting with sentiment detection. This included segments like:
   1. Consumer Electronics – Samsung 
   2. Consumer Electronics – Smartphones, Tablets
   3. Consumer Electronics – Wearables
   4. Tech Enthusiasts
2. Budget Optimisation: Budgets were dynamically adjusted based on weekly performance. DSP audience budgets were reduced and reallocated to resources directed towards higher-performing third-party audiences by almost 66%.
3. Contextual Relevance and Asset Optimisation: To maximise impact, Samsung prioritised contextual relevance and optimised asset size for message delivery. 

This three-layered approach provided Samsung with detailed metrics on inventory quality, traffic quality, and click-through rates. The contextual targeting layer offered deeper insights into page sentiment and emotion, enabling more precise campaign alignment. This cookieless targeting strategy fostered confidence and provided valuable data to drive superior campaign results.

The Results

The campaign was able to drive efficiency for Samsung Indonesia. Testing new audience targeting delivered 57% lower cost per quality traffic, 300% higher CTR, and 65% lower cost per click compared to the second-best targeting alternative. 

• Volume of measured impressions: 39 million impressions 
• 300% higher CTR than the next best-performing line item (data hub)
• 57% cheaper cost per marketing visit compared to the next best-performing line item which is PMP Premium Publisher

IAS’s contextual targeting solution managed to deliver the ads to the relevant content, which aligns with research showing that relevant ads have higher receptivity, favorability, and memorability for the audience. This means that the audience will tend to interact more with the ad, giving Samsung ads a higher chance of being clicked. This resulted in higher traffic and quality traffic for Samsung. 

Post the campaign, IAS’s analysis found that the contextual targeting managed to deliver the best results, across all media metrics: CTR, cost per visit, cost per quality traffic, and even cost per add-to-cart.

The post Samsung on launching context-driven programmatic advertising for enhanced targeted results appeared first on MARKETECH APAC.

This partnership with Kwai supports IAS’s long-term international expansion strategy. Advertisers focused on LATAM and APAC markets now have an additional layer of trusted, third-party transparency. In Brazil and Indonesia alone, they will be able to reach a base of over 100 million monthly active users. 

Powered by IAS’s Multimedia Technology, IAS Brand Safety and Suitability Measurement for Kwai utilizes responsible AI for frame-by-frame analysis, combining image, audio, and text signals to accurately classify content at scale, including misinformation, aligned to industry standards. 

Moreover, Through trusted, third-party daily reporting in IAS Signal, IAS’s unified reporting platform, advertisers can ensure their ads are driving engagement and reaching real users with key metrics including Viewability, Time-in-View, Percent Completed, IVT Rate, and more.

Marcia Byrne, managing director for LATAM at IAS, said, “We are excited to enhance IAS’s partnership with Kwai for Business, as we empower Brazilian and Indonesian marketers with a best-in-class solution to improve media quality and reduce brand risk. Now, advertisers have additional assurance that their ads on Kwai reach real users in brand-safe and suitable environments.”

Meanwhile, Vitor Yu, general manager at Kwai for Business LATAM, commented, “Third-party measurement is critical to Kwai, and demonstrates our commitment to building a safe environment and providing advertisers with the right tools they need to grow with Kwai. Our partnership with IAS equips our clients with the precise insights to understand where their ads are appearing and how they’re performing on Kwai so they can continue to meet their campaign goals on our platform.” 

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IAS aims to enter the world’s second-largest advertising market to support advertisers tapping into China’s growing digital media potential. With digital ad spending in China expected to surpass $140 billion in 2024, IAS aims to deliver greater value and results for its clients.

Moreover, this expansion aligns with IAS’s long-term international growth strategy, addressing a critical need for advertisers seeking comprehensive measurement coverage across global markets. 

Through the establishment of a subsidiary in China and its role as a founding member of IAB China, IAS will also provide dedicated local support to Chinese advertisers aiming to expand their reach globally.

IAS has collaborated with global luxury clients, many with significant media investments in China, to develop this market initiative. The company emphasised that they are dedicated to working with industry partners to create solutions tailored to China’s unique advertising landscape.

“IAS is one of the only measurement solutions able to meet the unique demands of the Chinese market, and we’re aiming to fill a crucial gap in coverage for advertisers,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS. 

“With an expanded footprint, we will empower advertisers with actionable data they need to maximise their return on investments and support their growth in this dynamic and evolving digital advertising landscape,” she added. 

Tracy Cui, vice secretary-general CAA at IAB China, also shared, “IAS and IAB China are pleased to be working together to provide international brands with better access to global standards in China and helping to bring new technologies to the market.”

Earlier this year, IAS announced expansions into key APAC markets, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, alongside senior leadership appointments. Its APAC operations now span a wide network, covering Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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