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| FTC Lawsuit Steeps Amazon in Hot Water |
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| If recent allegations against Amazon are true, then they have set the user experience bar to a new low. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the company of signing users up for Prime without their knowledge. Now, when any website only provides a halfway decent ad experience, they can fall on the crutch of, "At least I didn't sign my users up for a subscription service without their permission." All jokes aside, why would a company as profitable as Amazon need to allegedly trick consumers into spending money? The complaint: The FTC alleged that Amazon "used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as 'dark patterns' to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions."
"The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design, we make it clear and simple for customers to sign up for or cancel their Prime membership," said Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle. "As with all our products and services, we continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience, and we look forward to the facts becoming clear as this case plays out." |
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| Trust between publishers, advertisers, and consumers is a touchy subject in the ad tech industry. Over the past few years, a consumer privacy reckoning has caused the industry to restructure data targeting and aggregation practices. In retrospect, as the advertising industry became digital, many marketers felt their ability to be better marketers contributed to the determinants of consumer privacy standards. The death of the third-party cookie is a sign of the changing times, but the allegations against Amazon exemplify that there is still a bit of work ahead before the tide shifts completely. How do publishers and advertisers work to build consumer trust when a few bad apples spoil the garden? Consumer Trust and The User Experience: At the beginning of the year, Secure Data Recovery conducted a study about consumers' trust in publishers, and the results showed that there was a general mistrust that apps were mishandling user data. A Maze of Dark Patterns: Amazon is not the only company allegedly using dark patterns to trick consumers. Last year, the FTC released a report on the rise of dark pattern use. While the FTC is working on ways to actively prevent dark pattern deception, the bad actors are becoming exceptionally sophisticated. They are using several tactics to force consumers to buy products or to steal their data:
Amazon's alleged tricks are not new and aren't going away anytime soon, but the FTC and other regulators are working to stop these deceptive practices. |
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| European Ad Tech Sector Keeping IVT at Bay, With a Little Help From TAG |
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| The News: TAG’s most recent European Fraud Benchmark Report shows that invalid traffic (aka fraud) isn’t inevitable. But, you can minimize the occurrence by following rigorous standards, such as those laid out by TAG Certified Against Fraud. The proof? For the past half-decade, publishers, ad tech companies, and advertisers that adhere to them have seen less than 1% of IVT in their campaigns. The Caveat: That low fraud rate is only attainable when campaigns run through fully TAG Certified Channels. These are channels in which all the entities — the media agency, buy-side platform, sell-side platform, or publisher —have achieved the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal. IVT rates go up if just one or more entities lack the certification. The analysis conducted by The 614 Group shows that non-certified channels have more fraud, particularly in the all-import CTV channel. In that channel, IVT rates are 86% higher in non-TAG-Certified Channels than in Certified ones. The Good News: CTV is heading in the right direction. IVT rates in TAG Certified Channels for CTV improved during every consecutive quarter of 2022, falling from 2.03% in Q1 to just 0.45% in Q4 of the year. This is good news for advertisers who have followed the consumer to CTV and have struggled with fraud. Also noteworthy, concerns about tech taxes are cooling, at least regarding IVT mitigation. Per the study, “Amid uncertain global economic prospects and ongoing risk of recession, agencies and their clients are increasingly cost-conscious, but they continue to value and are willing to pay a premium for high-quality, low-IVT inventory.” Areas to Focus On: As part of the report, the 614 Group interviews executives of major media holding companies to get a pulse on the market. This year’s interviews revealed an increased need for inventory that protects advertisers from fraud and brand safety threats and ways to help them address privacy and ESG goals — a complex set of priorities requiring a dramatic increase in supply chain transparency. |
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| Many players in the European market have taken a rather lackadaisical approach to IVT. Advertisers don’t need to pay for fraudulent impressions, so why pay a premium to ensure fraud-free campaigns? Agencies have long battled this attitude, patiently explaining that the existence of fraud ultimately takes a hit on business outcomes. Bots can click on an ad, but they’ll never become a loyal customer, which is the ultimate goal of every ad campaign. Every ad shown to invalid traffic is a lost opportunity to build the business. It appears as if the agency’s message is finally getting through. The report notes that European advertisers' increased interest in global standards can validate IVT rates. “Regional advertisers are showing increasing interest in certifications that help them identify and purchase low IVT inventory.” The sooner the world coalesces around global standards, the sooner we’ll reach a stage where all campaigns have less than 1% IVT. |
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| At Cannes, Albertsons Says It's Time to Regulate Retail Media |
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| A new batch of regulators is in town! Attempted ones, at the very least. At Cannes Lions, Albertsons unveiled a proposal for a retail media revolution. The proposal introduces a new framework for measurement and other industry standards. Partnering with Omnicom Media Group, Unilever, Pinterest, and R3, the grocer seeks to create more transparency within the RMN space. Standardizing RMNs: The goal is to create standard definitions among retail media network metrics such as return on ad spend, clicks, conversions, conversion rate, new-to-brand customers, incremental sales, customer lifetime value, and third-party measurement.
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| As the retail media boom kicks into high gear, creating industry-wide standards for RMNs is the smart move to ensure the rise is sustainable. The Importance of Creating Standards: We recently spoke to representatives who worked with the IAB to create standards around instream and outstream video content. They released standards in 2022, but publishers and advertisers needed clarification about how to define certain content. After reworking the definitions a few weeks ago, we learned a lesson about how standards can often make or break something. Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer, Raptive, elaborated, “Standardization benefits every advertising medium — CTV, video display, mobile, etc. The more we can standardize and increase transparency, the more we can make it so buyers know what they’re buying and feel they can trust who they’re buying from.” As the Albertson Retail Media Group works to create standards in their space, they should be aware of the learning curves of the process. But they are aware of it. “It’s not a stone tablet,” said Argyilan. “It’s a call to conversation.” They are not acting like God handing down the ten commandments. They are having an open dialogue to improve the space, which is the right move. |
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| Around the Water Cooler |
| AI, DEI, CTV, and Sustainability Top Cannes Convos The reports are in, and despite an economic slump and massive tech layoffs, things along Boulevard de la Croisette felt a lot like pre-pandemic times. And what were the major themes to emerge? You guessed it — DEI, AI, CTV, and sustainability. And if that's more acronyms than you can handle, get over it. If you work in ad tech, it's par for the course. TTD has all the scoop on what was said by who. (The Current) Albertsons, Omnicom, and VideoAmp Party in the Snowflake Clean Room In a unique collaboration that merges grocery shopping with advertising, Albertsons teamed up with Omnicom and VideoAmp to utilize Snowflake's clean room technology. This partnership brings the worlds of retail and media buying together, creating an exciting playground where data is channeled through a secure clean room, unlocking new possibilities for personalized marketing strategies. (Digiday) The Trade Desk and Walmart Connect Team Up to Unleash UID2 Integration The Trade Desk and Walmart Connect have joined forces to explore the integration of Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) into Walmart's custom-built DSP, leveraging first-party data and customer insights. This collaboration aims to allow Walmart Connect advertising clients to target Walmart audiences across the internet, including connected TV, even after phasing out third-party cookies. (MediaPost) System Initiative Raises $18M to Reimagine the Toolchain System Initiative, a trailblazing startup, aims to revolutionize DevOps by reimagining the fragmented toolchain. The company has secured $18 million in funding, including a $3 million seed round led by Amplify Partners and a $15 million Series A round led by Scale Venture Partners, propelling their vision forward. (TechCrunch) Omnicom Joins Forces with Google's AI to Empower Brands Omnicom, and Google joined forces to bring the power of generative AI models to advertising. The partnership marks the first commercial utilization of Google's generative AI tech, with Omnicom leading the charge in revolutionizing the advertising industry by harnessing the creative capabilities of these cutting-edge models. (Ad Age) |
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