URL Masking Enables Fraud; WPP The Trendsetter

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Scary Masks

The ability to cloak an ad’s domain information is often cited as a major reason fraud persists. The practice enables undesirable properties (porn, piracy, ad farms, etc.) to masquerade as YouTube or The Washington Post, for example. DoubleVerify estimates that 23% of ads bought programmatically land on URL-masked sites, and Ghostery places that figure number to 40%. “It makes it very difficult to determine … in what context was this ad ultimately served,” explained John Murphy, a traffic quality exec for OpenX. “We see it as a major threat to the validity and the integrity of the exchanges out there.” Ad Age has more.

Sir Martin Smiles

WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell touched on the holding company’s tech-investment strategy during the Q3 earnings call. Never one to miss an opportunity to swipe at competitors, Sorrell claimed WPP’s investment in AppNexus sparked “considerable … consternation and disruption” among its rivals. As reported by Business Insider, Publicis Groupe had been working on an AppNexus deal in Europe, and Omnicom “would very much like to establish a relationship with AppNexus.” More. Separately, WPP claims that, based on market comparisons, Xaxis would be valued at $4 billion if it were a standalone company. Earnings release and analyst presentation.

TV Automation Down Under

AOL Platforms partnered with Aussie media company Multi Channel Network (MCN) to pilot a programmatic private marketplace for TV. According to the press release, the effort is designed to “greatly advance the $4 billion TV industry in Australia towards unified ad sales across TV and digital screens.” MCN group sales and marketing director Mark Frain said, “More than two years of industry research and consultation tells us automation and programmatic TV are exactly what the Australian TV industry needs to stay relevant in this digitally driven environment.”

Cannes + Ad Tech

Cannes is expanding with a new “festival within the festival” – called Lions Innovation – that will last two days and focus on the interplay of data, technology and creativity. Ad tech has been a growing presence at the 62-year-old event in recent years. The problem, for Cannes event organizers anyway, is that much of that presence has been at private events, not at the official venue, the Palais des Festival. Press release.

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