ANA sets team for its probe into programmatic media buying

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) today announced the leaders of a probe investigating how advertisers can eliminate waste in the programmatic marketplace and supply chain. PwC, the professional services network, will serve as team leader and project manager and support the probe with its Media Intelligence platform; Kroll, an investigations and risk consulting firm, will serve as investigative media partner; and TAG TrustNet, an industry initiative that builds trust and transparency across the digital ad supply chain, will serve as technology platform partner. The probe comes as the ANA reports a troubled programmatic marketplace, hobbled by a lack of transparency regarding data and money, fractured accountability and overall complexity. Over two dozen companies responded to a request for proposal (RFP) that the trade association commissioned in April, and were evaluated in the search process throughout the summer. “As powerful a tool as programmatic advertising has been for marketers, the programmatic market has been riddled with material issues, Bob Liodice, ANA CEO, said in a statement. “These issues impair critical decision-making, leading to wasteful and unproductive media-buying decisions.” PwC estimates that over 70% of an advertiser’s programmatic budget does not result in media that reaches consumers. This inefficacy is due to a host of factors including ad fees, non-viewable impressions and unknown allocations. Other issues illustrate a lack of safety in the programmatic marketplace. Connected TV ad fraud is a significant issue stymieing brands that buy in open auctions. OpenX, a programmatic ad exchange, this week was fined $2 million by the FTC for secretly collecting data from children’s apps. The ANA’s probe will be divided into two phases. Phase One, which is expected to start this month and run through the end of the third quarter of 2022, will focus on programmatic spending in the open web. Phase Two will investigate spending in walled gardens, with overall results expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2022. In addition to eliminating waste, establishing transparency and improving decision-making, the probe will also seek to determine whether industry oversight bodies are necessary to ensure integrity in the programmatic ecosystem. These goals were cited in the April RFP.

ANA sets team for its probe into programmatic media buying

Featured Stories