U.K. ad security firm Telemetry has been in the news a lot lately – first in a Financial Times expose on a fraud-riddled Mercedes-Benz campaign, then with a bigger reveal of the Client Connections Media scam, which stole millions from advertisers like Mondelez, GlaxoSmithKline and Burger King.
Al Torres
Recently at the Association of Canadian Advertiser’s “Where is Your Online Ad Money Really Going?” conference, Telemetry vice-president of sales and business development Al Torres gave a talk on ad quality in the marketplace. He claimed as much as half of ad dollars spent on digital video are wasted at time of execution, and not just because of black-hat fraud schemes.
Much of that waste is coming from what’s coming to be known as “white collar fraud” – publishers cutting corners on ad placements, visibility, size, and organic traffic. Low quality ads like these enhance superficial performance metrics like CPM and video completion rates, and since the programmatic marketplace is largely a black box from the advertiser’s perspective, it looks a lot like their media is performing.
“Part of the message [of the talk] was, how do you expect to stop fraud from happening when you can’t even get publishers to give you what you want from the beginning?” Torres told AD-Vantage.
“If there is zero oversight, people will take a lot of leeway in execution of what they do. In an industry that doesn’t have any government oversight – which I agree with, I don’t think we need it – the people that control the money have to take more control overall.”
He said that if brands start paying attention to the quality of the digital media they’re getting, that will force their agencies and vendors to start paying attention too. As it is, publishers and intermediaries aren’t likely to bring up issues like white collar fraud on their own.
He said that to take control, brands need to bring in someone qualified to oversee the digital ad buying and execution process. Someone who reports directly to the brand – not their agency.
He compared it to independent media audits in TV, performed by companies like Ernst & Young. “The concept of an auditing to make sure you’re getting what you pay for is nothing new to brands,” he said. “The problem is when it comes to technology… nobody’s doing this for brands directly, and the companies that have been doing it on the traditional front don’t have the technology to do it themselves.”
Many digital vendors provide third-party ad verification, meaning they follow ads that have been purchased to make sure they’re showing up where the publisher claims they are. But usually these providers are connected to the brand through an intermediary somewhere down the supply chain, rather than reporting to the brand directly. So while verification can give a clear indication of what quality of ads the client is ultimately getting, there’s not always a clear explanation of why quality was low, and who was responsible (or irresponsible).
That’s one reason Telemetry prefers to work directly with advertisers. It means it has more freedom to identify agencies and vendors that are underperforming – whether they’re complicit, unaware, or turning a blind eye.
We saw that recently in media coverage of the Client Connections Media, a fraudulent publisher network of 300 high bot-traffic sites identified in a Telemetry investigation. Telemetry didn’t just name the perpetrator, but many of the sell- and buy-side intermediaries that traded fraudulent impressions, like Adap.tv, Brightroll and SpotXchange.
One platform that was put in the spotlight was Rocket Fuel. The Financial Times reported that according to Telemetry’s research, 57% of video ads bought by Rocket Fuel during three weeks of a Mercedes-Benz campaign were fraudulent. Rocket Fuel released a terse statement claiming FT had sensationalized the story. It pointed out that according to Mercedes-Benz, only 6% of ads were fraudulent when the entire campaign was considered.
In response to the controversy, Telemetry issued its own statement, clarifying its research and implications. “There is no suggestion that Rocket Fuel sold fraudulent impressions willingly or knowingly,” it read. What the investigation did show, according to the statement, is that many ad tech platforms are exposed to fraud, despite claims that they are safe for brands and immune to fraud. The fact that Rocket Fuel was unable to detect the CCM bots calls into question claims about ad quality throughout the rest of the campaign.
“We are all about full transparency on behalf of the brand,” said Torres when asked about the CCM scam. “In every other industry you have someone watching over, and being completely clear that when people are doing things that are fraudulent to any degree, people will not stand for it. Whether it’s just moving money, or stopping doing business with certain people, whatever the case may be, it’ll be directed by the brands themselves. Brands should be aware of what’s happening with their money.”
Without independent oversight to keep agencies, vendors and publishers from cutting corners, fraud will continue to be a problem, he said – and brands will never feel confident shifting their core budgets into digital. So from Telemetry’s perspective, a cleaner marketplace will mean more investment, and a win for everyone. “If we want to actually become a real industry…. we need to start playing the game and being on the up-and-up,” he said.
