Tag: Integral Ad Science

Singapore – Integral Ad Science has announced senior appointments for its customer success team in Asia-Pacific, namely Rob Kay as VP of customer success for APAC; Amanda Soh as head of customer success for SEA, Hong Kong and Taiwan; Andreas Duus Davidsen as customer success account director for SEA and Jessica Reid as customer success account director for ANZ. 

The team expansion adds commercial expertise and business support to grow customers in the region — while enabling the global and local brands to navigate digital media quality and maximise their digital investments to drive actual business outcomes.

In his new role, Kay will continue to lead the regional customer success team and build deep relationships with partners to understand their performance criteria better — ensuring the application of IAS solutions complements their investments and helps deliver better brand outcomes. He reports directly to Laura Quigley, SVP for APAC.

Meanwhile, Soh will lead the team driving service to one of the fastest growing regions – ensuring efficiency and driving real business outcomes for brands and agency partners. She reports to Rob Kay. She also brings a wealth of experience on the agency side. Before joining IAS, she worked with PHD as associate director, and before that, she was with Mindshare Singapore as account director.

Reid will be responsible for shaping and spearheading the local customer growth and business development strategy. She reports directly to Chanel Barta, the head of customer success for ANZ. She also brings extensive knowledge within the programmatic ecosystem, having previously worked as the programmatic business director at Havas Media Group.

Lastly, Davidsen is responsible for partnering with global brands and media agency clients to educate them on how to best utilise IAS’s entire product suite to drive media performance. Andreas reports to Amanda Soh. Andreas has worked across regions and has deep knowledge of digital media planning and buying.

Speaking about the appointments, Quigley said, “Customer centricity is at the core of what we do at IAS. This customer-centric approach has enabled us to retain global and regional clients by providing a consultative partnership that provides long-term value. These appointments will help continue our teams to provide world-class customer service.”

She added, “These senior roles not only reinforce the importance of APAC in IAS’s growth strategy but will also support the keen understanding of clients’ needs and foster deep integrations with clients’ tech stacks, making IAS the media quality partner of choice in the region.”

New York, USA – Report uncovers how false information affects the digital advertising industry, according to the ‘Misinformation & Media Quality’ report from Integral Ad Science. 

The report of digital media experts explores the challenges that misleading content poses for media strategies, as well as what actions advertisers are taking to protect their campaigns against these growing threats.

The majority of experts agree that the spread of misinformation has been fueled by recent global developments. Media experts surveyed reported that the volume of misinformation has increased due to political polarisation with 76%, recent geopolitical developments with 68%, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with 62%.

Tony Marlow, CMO, IAS, said, “As we continue to classify sources of misinformation, our report illustrates the heightened need to focus on controlling advertisers’ contextual adjacencies, including the implementation of suitability frameworks that specifically address false or misleading content.” 

According to Marlow, the research reveals how industry leaders are grappling with misleading content and what actions they are, or aren’t, taking to protect both current and future campaigns.

IAS, in partnership with YouGov, surveyed over 500 digital media experts from brands, agencies, publishers and ad tech providers to examine perspectives surrounding misinformation, disinformation, and fake news.

A vast majority of media experts agree misinformation should be actively avoided, but few say their organisations have clear guidelines.73% of media experts agree that ad buyers and sellers must actively avoid misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. However, less than half or 47% of those media experts reported that their organisations have clear guidelines regarding advertising alongside misinformation.

Recent global events have fueled the threat of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news content. As ad spending continues to grow, total media ad spend is expected to approach $350 billion in 2022, making media quality assurance ever-present as buyers and sellers seek to minimise known and emerging threats. The Global Disinformation Index (GDI) estimates that advertisers unwittingly provide at least $235m to global disinformation sites, on an annual basis.

A large number of industry experts report high levels of concern regarding media threats. As ad spending grows, media quality threats will remain top of mind, with 84% of experts reporting high levels of concern about at least one threat. A majority of these industry experts flag content-spreading misinformation, disinformation, and fake news as the most concerning media quality threats, with 63% reporting high levels of concern. 

In such an event, impact on company reputation and consumer distrust are of greater concern than campaign ROI. Around disinformation, 42% of experts conveyed concern about the impact on their company’s reputation or consumer distrust in legitimate content and advertising, whereas 29% cited concern over reduced audience reach and only 22% around lost media budget/revenue.

Though digital media experts agree that the spread of misinformation is the most concerning media quality threat, apprehension persists around ad fraud, adjacencies next to questionable content, and low viewability for more than half of respondents, according to the report.

Digital advertising allows marketers to target consumers more precisely with more personalised, relevant information, in real-time, on multiple devices, and on the go. Digital advertising’s highly personalised nature should make it more relevant to audiences, but brand risks, supply path murkiness, privacy concerns, and ad fraud create barriers. 

Advertisers are looking for more transparency around targeting customers online after the deprecation of cookies. I believe there will be even more demand for scalable and privacy-friendly attention metrics beyond viewability and clicks to provide more granular insights, engagement and outcomes. Brands are focused on driving outcomes and conversion from ad spending and they’re looking for more privacy compliant and scalable solutions. 

Optimising attention drives outcomes

Our research team analysed data to understand how our partners could leverage technology to capture more significant attention to understand correlations between quality, suitability, and time-in-view. The research uncovered that viewability and time in view have a medium correlation (intuitively makes sense). Moreover, when only looking at impressions on contextually relevant pages (i.e. Toyota ad on an automotive site), the correlation becomes more vital. The practical implication of insight like this is that you can drive greater attention by targeting higher viewability rates in programmatic prebid targeting and utilising contextual targeting solutions.

For example, when we analysed the automotive vertical, we saw that when the context was relevant and optimised for viewability, there was an 8.3-second increase in time-in-view for every 10% increase in viewability rates. This was 2.4x higher than in a non-optimized context. 

Here’s a preview of what we discovered:

  • Time-in-view increases as viewability and brand safety increase
  • 57% increase in conversions for viewable and brand-safe impressions compared to non-viewable and not safe
  • 171% increase in conversions for impressions with time-in-view greater than 15 seconds

Creative, contextual, and privacy-compliant advertising 

It is essential to consider how relevant the ads are to the consumers to drive greater attention. It’s human nature to engage with information that we find interesting — whether that’s through engaging in creative or contextual relevance.

IAS research showed a 40% lift in memory of a particular ad when contextually aligned. Brands can harness the dual power of contextual targeting and high-quality placements to drive greater brand engagement. It’s also vital to acknowledge that placing ads beside low-quality content can have significant consequences, including a high risk of damaging brand reputation. To ensure online ads drive the right attention and outcome, aligning with suitable contexts must be a top priority.

As our industry prepares for a cookieless future and increasingly moves away from third party audience targeting, advertisers have a significant opportunity to be intentional with contextual tools. While many brands will focus on building and investing and first-party and second-party data, marketers will start blending this expensive and highly targeted approach with scalable advertising that can be achieved via environments that are contextually relevant, using contextual as a proxy for third party audiences.

Ultimately, a shift to contextual advertising is also good news for the industry because it aligns with the preferences of privacy-conscious consumers while achieving the brand’s goals for engagement.

This article was written by Laura Quigley, SVP for APAC at IAS.

Sydney, Australia – Around 94% of Australian users think there are features of the CTV ad experience that make it better than linear TV, according to the latest data from media company Integral Ad Science.

According to the data, Australians prefer the ability to skip ads, fewer ads and shorter ads, which are critical differentiators for connected TV. In addition, people are streaming with CTV, and most are watching at least some ad-supported content with 91% of consumers surveyed saying they stream content on CTV and 97% of CTV users have access to a paid subscription to ad-free platforms.

In addition, YouTube with ads is the top ad-supported content on CTV, with 73% of consumers using their connected TV to watch YouTube with ads. Moreover, 53% of consumers say they will view an ad to completion if it is relevant to the content they are watching.

Jessica Miles, country manager for ANZ at IAS, said, “Australian consumers have been quick to embrace CTV and streaming platforms as the future of television. They have high expectations for ad relevance in these new digital environments. The SVOD (subscription streaming) market in Australia is at saturation point, and publishers are pivoting to offer AVOD (advertiser supported streaming) to maintain profitability and retain audiences.”

She added, “The demand from buyers for AVOD on CTV is also growing exponentially, fueled by increasing targeting options, increased measurement, and CTV’s ability to be bought programmatically. Combining transparency and programmatic efficiency will allow advertisers to reach wide audiences more efficiently and engagingly.”

Singapore — Integral Ad Science (IAS), a digital media company, has launched Control Panel, a suite of reporting and planning tools that Context Control customers can use as an added value. The new capabilities will enable customers to more clearly understand the value and return on investment that IAS’s contextual targeting solution delivers.

The Control Panel suite offers the following new tools namely Context Control Segment Catalog, which provides easy discovery of all Context Control Avoidance and Targeting off-the-shelf segments all in one place; and Contextual Segment Reach Calculator, which advises on the prospective reach of IAS contextual targeting segments to appropriately plan campaigns.

There is also the Contextual Targeting Reporting tool that offers insights into targeting segment performance, specifically focusing on viewability, reach, and programmatic dimensions. The last tool is Contextual Targeting Profiles which enables clients to bundle all of their desired targeting segments into one profile with a single segment ID for easy activation in their demand side platforms (DSP).

Tom Sharma, chief product officer of IAS, said, “Using our new Control Panel, advertisers will gain the ability to strategically plan, activate, and optimize their targeting campaigns all within the IAS Signal platform. This is yet another example of our ongoing efforts to empower our customer organizations and clients to confidently lean into our contextual targeting solution while hitting campaign KPIs.”

Advertisers can average more than 400 contextual segments from IAS on a pre-bid basis to avoid undesirable content or target content that is suitable for their campaigns. Major DSPs including Adelphic, Adform, Amobee, MediaMath, Xandr, Yahoo, and others have integrated Context Control, making these tools readily available for advertisers wherever they choose to buy.

Seoul, South Korea – Global digital ad verification company Integral Ad Science (IAS) has announced the appointment of Inwon Park to lead its sales operations in South Korea. Park will be working with brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms in the region, and will be based in Seoul, to report to Takeshi Yamaguchi, country manager for Japan and South Korea.

In this new role, Inwon is tasked to help create education and awareness about media quality and how using IAS solutions can help clients create efficiencies and make online advertising a safe place for advertisers and publishers alike. Previously, he served as an account director at Jellyfish, a marketing performance platform, where he accelerated their client relationships across key verticals. Prior to that, he had notable stints with companies like iProspect, Carat and Google in South Korea.

Park commented that South Korea’s digital media market is evolving quickly, and educating the clients on the value of media quality for their digital campaigns presents a big opportunity.

“Joining IAS at this critical point in the company’s journey is an exciting opportunity, as the growth of digital advertising drives a greater need for media quality measurement,” Park said.

Takeshi Yamaguchi, country manager for Japan and South Korea at IAS, shared, “As IAS continues to expand in the APAC region, we’re delighted to bring Inwon aboard as the Head of Korea Market to spearhead the media quality mandate in South Korea. Inwon brings a wealth of experience in digital advertising, strategy, team building and programmatic.

“As marketers in South Korea invest more significant budgets across digital advertising channels, IAS offers the solutions they need to measure quality impressions for their campaigns. We are thrilled to have Inwon on board and look forward to accelerating our growth in South Korea with his sales leadership, industry knowledge, and proven success working with major brands and agencies locally,” Yamaguchi adds.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s magazine publisher SCMP Magazines has integrated global digital adtech Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) Publisher Optimisation Solution, aimed at delivering quality impressions for its advertisers.

By activating the IAS Publisher Optimisation solution, SCMP Magazines aims to directly improve its ad inventory’s viewability and match its advertisers’ brand risk threshold by avoiding risky content. The partnership entails measurement and optimisation toward low IVT rates in real-time to ensuring its traffic is worth the investment and to reduce the redundancies of manual campaign optimisations.

Jennifer Tsang, SCMP Magazines’ VP of digital, shared that their goal has always been to uphold high standards of MRC viewability and brand safety for advertiser campaigns running on Cosmopolitan, Harper’s BAZAAR, ELLE, and Esquire Hong Kong websites. 

“IAS’ Publisher Optimisation Solutions allows us to do so effectively through intelligent ad inventory management and optimisation,” said Tsang.

Meanwhile, Laura Quigley, IAS’ SVP for APAC, said that their Publisher Optimisation solution seamlessly integrates publishers’ ad servers and powers inventory to automatically optimise ad delivery down to the placement level for direct and programmatic deals. 

“We’re very excited to partner with SCMP magazines to help advertisers ensure that they continue to invest in digital safely and efficiently,” added Quigley.

Singapore – Amid consumers’ online content consumption, in-feed advertisements show up to monetize the traffic it gets from online readers. And with that traffic, online consumers now expect that there should be an evident correlation between the article they are reading versus the in-feed ads they are served, new data from technology company Integral Ad Science and Neuro-Insight, a neuromarketing and neuroanalytics company.

Said data was collected not through traditional survey data methods but rather through examining brain activity in response to contextually matched ads, showing context can significantly impact ad memorability.

According to the report, matching informational ads with an article’s message creates a very strong detail memory response, and drove a 36% lift in detail memory compared to when there was no match. This can be especially relevant for campaigns that focus on a clear call to action that brands want consumers to respond to.

Part of what consumers also get a closer affinity to as well is that endemically matched ads drive higher memorability: Endemically matched ads, or those that align with and match the surrounding content based on vertical, such as auto ads near auto content, drove a 23% lift in activation within the part of the brain responsible for the memory of practical details, which includes key messages, calls to action, and branding elements. These ads also boosted global memory by 27%, or the memorability of broad themes, overarching narratives, or audio and visual elements.

‘Detail memory’ pertains to the type of memory based on specific themes the consumer observes among the advertising being served, whereas ‘global memory’ pertains to the type of memory based on broader topics.

Meanwhile, ads focused on an emotional response are best paired with content themes. Ads that aim to leave an emotional memory, a particular feeling, or overarching brand perception among consumers performed best when placed alongside articles with a matching theme, such as an ad with a seasonal summer theme adjacent to summer season content. The study found that emotive ads drove 40% higher global memory within thematically matched articles compared to when there was no match.

Lastly, consumers recognize ads as part of their online experience, as the vast majority of consumers (63%) viewed ads as part of their online reading, not disruptive or a distraction. Only 36% of participants said they scrolled past an ad without reading it.

“Using the latest neuroscience and neurometrics, this groundbreaking study demonstrates the specific ways that a webpage’s context can dramatically alter how audiences recall and respond to ads. As our industry prepares for a cookieless future and increasingly moves away from audience targeting, advertisers have a significant opportunity to be intentional with contextual targeting tools, such as IAS Context Control, to drive greater campaign outcomes,” said Tony Marlow, CMO at IAS.

Sydney, Australia – Two new senior appointments, namely Clem Birdsall, strategic partnerships director and Grace Parker, commercial lead in ANZ, are recently hired by global digital adtech Integral Ad Science (IAS) for their Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) market to further continue the company’s growth in the region.

In their new roles, Birdsall will lead IAS’s publisher and programmatic business in the region. He will work closely with publishers, brands, and agencies to navigate opportunities in contextual targeting and avoidance, supply path optimization, and programmatic buying efficiency with IAS’s solutions.

Meanwhile, Parker is tasked with building strong partnerships with agencies and brands across Australia and New Zealand. Her role focuses on helping advertisers leverage IAS tools that drive transparency and operational efficiency, achieve Quality Impressions™, and increase control over contextual environments.

Previously, Birdsall was the sales director at IAS, supporting publishers across Northern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Prior to that, he held several commercial roles at News Corp working across key business units, including News Corp Australia, News UK, Dow Jones, and REA Group.

Meanwhile, Parker has held sales and business development positions within the adtech industry in Sydney and London. Most recently, she was a strategic partnership manager at Bench Media and a senior sales manager at Blis, bringing key experience in driving revenue growth. 

“Our partners in Australia trust IAS as an industry leader in digital media quality and recognize our consultative approach to help them drive results. I look forward to applying my global industry experience to strengthen our leadership position in ANZ, and I’m thrilled to be leading the charge to foster deeper relationships with our publisher and programmatic customers,” Birdsall said regarding his appointment.

Meanwhile, Parker commented, “IAS is experiencing exciting growth across programmatic, CTV, and social platforms, and I am delighted to join at this critical point in the company’s journey. I look forward to leveraging my wealth of adtech experience to partner with brands and agencies to help them take advantage of IAS’ leading solutions.”

For Jessica Miles, country manager for ANZ at IAS, these appointments are part of the company’s commitment to continue forging strong relationships with agencies and brands in Australia and New Zealand, adding that customer obsession is their number one priority at IAS, and as programmatic growth accelerates, they are using their technology and data to create greater value for clients.

“Both Clem and Grace join us with a wealth of commercial experience, making them well-positioned to continue this momentum and drive growth for IAS. We will continue to expand our local customer support team as well. I look forward to our growing team strengthening industry relationships, providing excellent customer service, and driving market-leading solutions in ANZ,” Miles concluded.

Sydney, Australia – Global firm Integral Ad Science (IAS), which delivers ad fraud solutions to brands and publishers, has announced the expansion of its ‘Center of Excellence’ in Pune, India with a new office facility, and plans to hire top engineering talent locally. 

The IAS Center of Excellence (COE) was established in 2020 to focus on expanding the company’s engineering and operations talent and develop innovative digital ad verification technology, drive critical partner integrations, and ultimately to provide excellent customer experience support.

IAS aims to be the global benchmark when it comes to trust and transparency in digital media quality for brands, publishers, and platforms. It offers solutions in ad fraud, brand safe and suitability, contextual targeting.

IAS said that the extended office of the COE will be housed in a world-class facility, located in the heart of Pune’s IT business district. The COE and the local engineering team will be led by Mehul Desai, IAS’ country manager in India, and VP of engineering & operations. 

IAS further shared that the team in Pune will collaborate closely with the company’s global data science, data analytics, and product teams to drive innovation and operational excellence. IAS will continue to expand its team in Pune and will be hiring for several key roles. 

“With our Center of Excellence in India and talented local team, we’ve developed cutting-edge technology and established the latest data and analytics capabilities at IAS. We’re growing rapidly, as IAS delivers excellent digital media quality solutions for advertisers and publishers while establishing a great place for top talent to work,” said Desai. 

Desai will be reporting to Tony Lucia, IAS’ chief technology officer. 

Lucia commented, “Expanding our Center of Excellence is a key part of our global strategy to drive continued technology innovation and operational excellence at IAS, backed by the highest caliber of engineering talent. As we grow our engineering team around the world, our team in Pune brings exceptional talent, cross-collaboration, and technological expertise as we build the future of digital media quality at IAS.”

Similarly within this month, IAS has announced the appointment of Saurabh Khattar as the commercial lead for IAS India. Khattar is charged with leading sales operations of the company in India, to work with brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms in the region.