4As

Instead of trying to reduce AI hallucinations, AI startup Springboards is leaning into them, intentionally generating inaccurate, absurd outputs to spark creativity.

The broadcaster-backed joint industry committee certified iSpot as a national currency. The JIC already certified Nielsen’s other competitors – VideoAmp and ComScore – in April.

The 4A’s measurement committee, a working group for marketers and media buyers to discuss their opinions and concerns about video ad measurement, has some thoughts on the status of alternative TV currencies.

The CEOs of the three largest advertising trade orgs – IAB, ANA and 4A’s – agree that we need a federal privacy law. They just don’t agree on exactly how to get there.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. OMG A ‘Trusted Tech Partnership’ OMG OMG OMG For the first time in all recorded history, people went bats over a “trusted technology partnership.” That’s because the partnership is between Oracle and TikTok owner ByteDance. And maybe that means Oracle will buy TikTok, now that Microsoft […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cookie Crumbs Industry trade bodies are not pleased with Google’s bombshell announcement this week that it would phase out support for third-party cookies over the next two years. In an open letter, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising […]

Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. It’s been rough sledding for agencies since the 2008 recession. Client cost cutting, the rise of procurement, loss of trust and growing competition from platforms have led to a persistent, low-growth environment where it’s hard to innovate. This […]

Ad tech startup Ad/Fin saw an opportunity to build a business by partnering with the ANA and Ebiquity on a programmatic study. Here’s the story of how it made enemies of agency holding companies – and got caught up in the industry’s transparency reckoning. In early 2016, Ad/Fin met with leadership at Ebiquity and the […]

Big agencies’ inability to quickly change their legacy structures has eroded their value to clients. “We are too passive,” said Nick Brien, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network in North America, on stage at the 4A’s Decisions 2020 conference in Washington, DC on Monday. “We are slow to change. We’re too incremental. We have legacy structures […]

Attention: Attorney General, State of California Re: California Consumer Privacy Act You’re killing us here. Thanks, The advertising industry The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is set to take effect in 2020 and the advertising community is desperate for some clarification. On Tuesday, a coalition of ad trade orgs sent a joint letter to the […]

Agency cost-cutting and deteriorating trust with clients hasn’t deterred Marla Kaplowitz, CEO of the agency trade organization the 4A’s, from fighting. “[Taking] a business problem and coming up with an incredibly elegant and different creative solution is what the best agencies do,” she said. Agencies have been tarred by scandals around transparency, thanks to the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Back To The Bench The US Justice Department is appealing the decision by Senior US District Court Judge Richard Leon to allow AT&T to acquire Time Warner. “Most legal observers believe the government faces an uphill battle in overturning the ruling,” reports The Wall […]

When Marla Kaplowitz took the helm of the 101-year-old American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4As) just over a year ago, a scathing report about agency rebates had just dropped from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). “There was an erosion of trust when that happened,” Kaplowitz said. “Everyone was guilty without any sort of […]

Six ad industry trade groups have called for Apple to rethink an upcoming change to Safari that will unilaterally block some first-party cookies. Apple’s Safari browser started blocking third-party cookies by default earlier this summer with the release of its Intelligent Tracking Prevention, a machine learning-based feature that discourages cross-site user tracking. But an extension […]

Demand-side platform (DSP) DataXu hired former 4As exec Peter Kosmala as its VP of platform solutions, the company said Friday. With Kosmala, who started in late July and will report to chief revenue officer Ed Montes, DataXu hopes to grow its self-serve business with agencies. “This is about forging even stronger relationships with a channel […]

Marla Kaplowitz, named president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) on Friday, has made mending fences with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) a top priority. Addressing the rift between the two organizations – and, more broadly, between marketers and agencies themselves – over agency transparency has “got to happen this […]

Direct mail has always performed well for Citibank. But like most advertisers, if the company wants to push more dollars into digital, top brass expects marketing to prove the impact on short-term revenue growth. With digital, it can be technically easier to prove – in near real time – what drove a conversion rather than […]

The Association of National Advertisers voted “transparency” as 2016’s marketing word of the year. Although this year is still young, “crap” is shaping up to be 2017’s word. “The reason why so much of digital marketing doesn’t work is because it’s basically crap optimized on crap,” Rishad Tobaccowala, strategy and growth officer at Publicis, said […]

Advertising trade groups are seizing the political moment in a bid to dismantle the Federal Communications Commission’s recently passed broadband consumer privacy laws. With the commission on the cusp of a Republican majority – Chairman Tom Wheeler has said he’ll step down on inauguration day – the writing could be on the wall for the FCC’s […]

Aside from some fiery rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) transparency report, the overall response of agencies to the trade group’s findings has been fairly muted. But independent agencies Mediasmith and Empower MediaMarketing have taken a stand by ending their memberships with the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) […]

Agencies that don’t comply with the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ (4As) Transparency Guiding Principles of Conduct (TGPC) will risk losing their memberships. Under the new rule, which the agency trade body blogged about on Monday, anyone (from marketers to executives from other agencies) who finds an agency is not compliant with the 4As’ guidelines […]

Eight trade associations, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab, the 4As and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), have teamed up to develop cross-platform standards for video ad delivery. Their goal, according to Alanna Gombert, SVP of technology and ad operations for the IAB and GM of the IAB Tech Lab, is to […]

Nancy Hill, who served nine years as president and CEO of the agency trade group the 4A’s, will step down next year, the group said Wednesday. Read the release. The 4A’s board of directors, led by Horizon Media head honcho Bill Koenigsberg, will search for her replacement and “ensure a smooth transition” by June 2017. Hill wrote […]

Advertisers don’t have a strong enough grip on the technological ecosystem to make informed buying decisions, agreed leaders of several leading ad organizations at AdExchanger’s Clean Ads IO conference. Panelists from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) got on stage in New […]

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4A’s) are divided over how to shed light on issues of transparency and agency rebates. The two trade groups – the ANA representing brands and the 4A’s representing agencies – collaborated last spring by forming a working group of about 15 […]

Creative and tech have an uneasy coexistence. But the advertising world is in the early stages of a new hybrid model, where creative relies on tech for personalization and storytelling. “With programmatic buying and targeting, the contextual opportunities are increased to quantum levels, and we’ll need machines in order to address them,” said Chick Foxgrover, […]

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is looking into kickbacks following allegations leveled at agencies. Several months after the ANA formed a joint transparency task force with the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4As), it revealed Tuesday it has hired two firms, K2 Intelligence and Ebiquity/FirmDecisions, to do more fact-finding around the issue of media transparency. The vetting process included 26 firms, […]

The viewability standard may be better served by saying what it isn’t, rather than what it is. “Viewability does not guarantee that an ad will be looked at, or that an ad will be appealing, or have an impact or generate awareness or change brand perception,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP of research, analytics and measurement at […]

Linda Woolley wants TAG to have teeth in the fight against online ad fraud. The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) is part of a cross-industry coalition composed of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers (which launched its own anti-fraud initiative with White Ops in July), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). […]

Resistance to Mozilla’s proposed blocking of third-party cookies got a boost yesterday from the IAB. The trade organization released a statement from president and CEO Randall Rothenberg opposing Mozilla’s plan, and an online FAQ about the situation for those who may want to learn more. In late February, Mozilla announced that for Firefox version 22, […]