Association of Online Publishers

CRUNCH 4.2: Solve ethics to solve programmatic

Date: 29 Apr 2021

Our CRUNCH series continues to be supported by our TAB partners, Xandr & Google

The momentum around ethical advertising will be the single biggest driver of progress in our industry and particularly in the programmatic ecosystem. There are four interconnected factors that we, the industry, are trying to solve separately.

Advertisers and agencies funding diversity and sustainability with their media spend
Leading advertisers working to stop the ad funding of hate speech and misinformation
The need for greater transparency in the programmatic ecosystem
The need for advertising to be far more clearly connected to positive business outcomes

The AOP believes that a connected solution is required and through the CRUNCH events, we have been working with the industry to join the dots. Our first event of 2021 focused on Truth and Trust in Journalism, and how to identify publishers of integrity within the programmatic ecosystem. This session discussed progresses to how to solve the ethical challenges within a programmatic led market. Every CRUNCH event aims to identify actions.

Bitesize

We need to be prepared to have the uncomfortable discussions as an industry – there’s never been change without discomfort.
Blocklists can be vehicles for discrimination, and are wildly over-prescriptive with their criteria. Examination of one blocklist identified that over 93% of sites were actually brand safe, and there is often rampant spelling errors. Human error is impeding algorithms for doing their work correctly and we need to address this.
Research has shown that there is a linear relationship between diversity and profitability. Aside from the moral imperative, there is clear business incentive to growing diverse teams and supporting diverse voices. However, we need to update our metrics to be able to support this better ecosystem
Can we self-regulate as an industry? Do we need policies and regulations to outline what best practice should look like? We need a North Star to aim for, and although there’s positive momentum across the advertising ecosystem, it seems likely that regulations will be needed to encourage the traditionalists among us to evolve with the times.
Change can’t be driven by one organisation, or by one sector of the ecosystem. All the stakeholders need to be at the table to understand how we can ensure a campaign is ethical and sustainable. A joined-up approach is the only way we can affect real change.

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