SpotX Earns Independent Recertification for TAG Anti-Fraud, Anti-Piracy, Anti-Malware, IQG Seals via BPA Worldwide
Video advertising and monetization platform among first supply-side platforms (SSPs) in industry to achieve “TAG Platinum Status” by earning all four seals from Trustworthy Accountability Group
SHELTON, Conn., DENVER and LONDON (30 May 2019)
SpotX, the leading global video advertising and monetization platform, today announced it has maintained its TAG Platinum Status by being recertified for all four seals awarded by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) through independent validation by global assurance provider BPA Worldwide. Seals earned by SpotX include the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal, TAG Certified Against Malware Seal, TAG Certified Against Piracy Seal, and TAG Inventory Quality Guidelines (IQG) Compliance. The independent recertification of all seals further strengthens SpotX’s long-time commitment to brand safety and full transparency.
“SpotX is one of the few companies to achieve TAG Platinum Status and independent validation of all four TAG compliance programs: Inventory Quality, Anti-Fraud, Anti-Malware and Anti-Piracy,” said Richard Murphy, BPA’s Executive Vice President of Technology Assurance. “Their commitment to quality and transparency should be recognized and applauded by the industry.”
The TAG Certified Against Piracy Program helps advertisers and ad agencies avoid damage to their brands from unsafe ad placements that facilitate the distribution of pirated content and counterfeit products. By blocking sites that commit piracy, SpotX ensures that no money is paid to these entities. The TAG Certified Against Malware initiative works to eliminate the distribution of malware through the digital advertising supply chain, and the TAG Certified Against Fraud Program combats the negative impact of counterfeit online traffic by providing a suite of anti-fraud tools to aid in compliance. The goal of TAG’s IQG program is to create a common framework and language to ensure both campaign goals are reached and informed decisions can be made in programmatic environments.
SpotX is recognized as a leader in brand safety and was also an early adopter of ads.txt, the IAB Tech Lab’s technical solution for publicly declaring which companies are authorized to sell digital inventory, thereby combating unauthorized and spoofed impressions across the platform. SpotX is also in full support of app-ads.txt which is identical to ads.txt but specifically designed for mobile in-app and over-the-top (OTT) inventory .
“At SpotX, we’re committed to ensuring a brand-safe environment for our advertisers and eliminating any and all bad actors,” said J. Allen Dove, CTO at SpotX and one of the founding members of the IAB’s ads.txt and ads.cert initiatives. “We believe in the importance of implementing multiple processes and technologies to combat fraudulent activity and will continue to keep our ecosystem free of fraud and push to maintain the integrity of the industry as a whole.”
Although there is no silver bullet to eliminate ad fraud, SpotX offers multiple layers of protection by taking a commonsense approach in identifying and eliminating suspicious traffic and bad actors via its in-house Brand Safety Team, licensing with several anti-fraud vendors that both pre-filter invalid traffic and monitor impression quality. The company has also made a strategic decision to avoid doing business with any entity that is not seen as adding value to the ecosystem, and has taken a firm stance on not allowing any low-quality OTT apps or OTT resellers on its platform. In fact, only one out of 100 media owners wishing to do business with SpotX are actually approved and integrated.
“The TAG Platinum Status achieved by SpotX marks the highest level of achievement across all four of TAG’s program areas, and it demonstrates the extraordinary commitment of SpotX to ensuring a safe and transparent advertising ecosystem,” said Mike Zaneis, CEO at Trustworthy Accountability Group. “We are delighted to recognize SpotX for its recertification across TAG’s programs and equally pleased it took the extra steps of independent validation through BPA Worldwide, one of TAG’s most important partners in ensuring rigorous compliance across the industry.”
This marks SpotX’s fourth consecutive year as a TAG member since the program’s inception in 2015. To learn more about SpotX’s multi-pronged protocol to maintain a brand-safe platform, please visit https://www.spotx.tv/services/brand-safety/.
About SpotX
SpotX, an RTL Group company, is the leading video advertising platform unifying TV and digital video globally. Our solutions enable media owners to monetize content across all screens and streams while providing advertisers with direct access to premium inventory. We deliver the data, control, transparency, actionable and real-time insights, and expert service needed to understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximize revenue. With best-in-class technology purpose-built for video, our brand-safe solution is employed by some of the largest media owners in the world including A+E Networks, AT&T, The CW Network, Discovery, Electronic Arts, E.W. Scripps, Fox Corporation, fuboTV, Gannett, Microsoft, Pluto TV, Roku, Samba TV, Sling TV, Vudu by Walmart, as well as IP Deutschland in Europe and Dentsu CCI in Japan. SpotX also partners with a variety of different companies within the digital video ecosystem including comScore, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, JW Player, MediaMath, MOAT, Nielsen, Oracle, and more. Headquartered in Denver, SpotX has 26 offices worldwide including Amsterdam, Chicago, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, and Tokyo. Learn more at www.spotx.tv.
About the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG)
The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) is the leading global certification program fighting criminal activity and increasing trust in the digital advertising industry. Created by the industry’s top trade organizations, TAG’s mission is to eliminate fraudulent traffic, combat malware, prevent Internet piracy, and promote greater transparency in digital advertising. TAG advances those initiatives by bringing companies across the digital advertising supply chain together to set the highest standards. TAG is the first and only registered Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO) for the digital advertising industry. For more information on TAG, please visit tagtoday.net.
About BPA Worldwide
BPA Worldwideis in the business of providing assurance. For 80+ years as a not-for profit assurance service provider, BPA was originally created by advertisers, advertising agencies and the media industry to audit audience claims used in the buying and selling of advertising. Today, in addition to auditing audience claims, through its iCompli service, BPA verifies compliance to defined government, industry, and organizational standards as well as adherence to privacy, data protection and sustainability guidelines and best practices. Performing nearly 2,600 annual audits of media channels in over 20 countries, BPA is a trusted resource for compliance and assurance services.