In a webinar hosted by the Advertising Business Group (ABG), the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s GCC chapter (IAB GCC), Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) launched its international standards across the GCC region. An impressive roster of panelists from OMG, P&G and Choueiri Group roused the debate on why solutions against ad fraud are becoming the need by the hour in the region.

The virtual gathering opened with a quick introduction to the official launch by Charlotte Fernandes, from ABG. Following which Nick Stringer, Vice President of Global Engagement & Operations at TAG delved straight into explaining TAG’s approach in the GCC. “The growth across individual markets has come with some significant challenges here,” said Nick. He further explained the findings of a recent study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) which cited how advertisers across the globe lost 5.8 billion dollars in 2019, to piracy and malware.

A successful partnership

As brands, agencies and businesses are keeping digital advertising and marketing at the heart of their consumer’s experience, keeping an eye out for concerns that can become grave becomes crucial.

With over 700 companies on board and its standards applied and running across 40 countries, TAG will now tap into piracy, malware and provide solutions to reduce the risk of ad displacement to advertisers across the region. Elaborating on the process, Stringer explained how being legitimate is the gateway to having a trustworthy inventory. “We verify the legitimacy of every business that is part of TAG, since there are many ad frauds out there that are signifying themselves as legitimate,” he added.

Action against malware and piracy hazards to ensure brand safety

“Each of our standards are supported by a working review of companies, who ensure that they meet the market’s needs and trends,” explained Stringer. TAG’s four filters – protection removal, application, and domain filtration as well as data threat filtering, will help deploy valid traffic across digital advertising platforms.

Elda Choucair, CEO at Omnicom Media Group (OMG) and Vice Chair at ABG added:” It’s all about elevating the premise of advertising, fighting ad fraud, and making sure that return on investments is being recorded. From an agency perspective, we have a responsibility to our clients and brands to justify the effectiveness, especially of the content we put out in spaces where it is exposed to such threats.”

A responsibility towards clients, brands and agencies

“Driving action against ad fraud is not an option, we need to take it on ourselves to foster it across our digital supply chain,” said Rohit Batra, Senior Director at P&G. TAG aims to boost trust and protect investments in digital ad spending while also driving increased returns.