Media measurement is at a critical juncture, with the industry racing to adapt to new technologies, shifting consumer behaviors, and evolving regulatory frameworks. 

As TV and video consumption splinters across devices and platforms, the need for consistent, reliable identity resolution (IDR) has become increasingly urgent. The complexities of audience fragmentation and data loss have forced companies to rethink how they approach identity and measurement at scale.

To that end, CIMM, in collaboration with OpenAP, launched a strategic review of the identity resolution ecosystem to address the challenges of stitching together data across disparate identity spines. 

David Levy, CEO of OpenAP, has been at the forefront of these efforts, emphasizing the importance of durable, privacy-safe identity solutions that can serve both buyers and sellers in the advanced TV landscape. OpenAP’s commitment to this project reflects its broader goal of establishing a more transparent and interoperable marketplace, ensuring that IDR evolves to meet the growing demands of advertisers and consumers alike.

Dennis Buchheim, Managing Director of ThinkMedium, shared that while identity resolution has made strides, the current environment is “fragmented and inconsistent,” calling for data quality and interoperability improvements. He emphasized the need for more transparency, saying, “The industry must work together to create an adaptable, privacy-safe identity ecosystem that can evolve with changing regulations and consumer expectations.”

At the recent CIMM Summit, sessions provided a look at the industry today with a roadmap for what lies ahead as data quality, transparency, and interoperability dominate the conversation.

5 Big Ideas We Took Away From CIMM Summit

Insight 1: Identity Resolution Is Still Fragmented — But Progress Is Being Made

The complexity of identity resolution continues to challenge the TV and video marketplace, but significant advancements are being made.

• Fragmentation Issues: The TV identity ecosystem is fragmented, with different identity spines and providers offering disparate solutions, making it difficult to track audiences across multiple screens and devices.
• Comcast’s Solution: Comcast’s deterministic signal authentication offers a promising privacy-safe solution to unify fragmented audience data, yet broader industry standardization remains elusive.
• Data Quality Challenges: The lack of data quality in some identity resolution practices is a consistent concern, with many speakers calling for more transparency and better labeling of data sources.
• Need for Buyer Education: As identity solutions evolve, marketers need more education around data quality and transparency, ensuring that they understand the signals they are working with and how those signals influence campaign outcomes.

Insight 2: Fragmentation of Media is Both a Blessing and a Curse

The rise of programmatic buying and connected TV (CTV) is transforming how media is bought and sold, but the growing complexity is a double-edged sword for buyers.

• Opportunities for Personalization: In the session Building the TV Ad Market of the Future, speakers like Freewheel’s Mark McKee and LG Ad Solutions’ Michael Hudes pointed to opportunities that media fragmentation offers. McKee described how personalization across fragmented content creates new touchpoints for audience engagement.

• Challenges in Measurement: As content spreads across different platforms, buyers face the growing challenge of managing reach and frequency. As Katie Klein noted, the difficulty lies in tracking audiences across a fragmented media landscape while delivering meaningful performance metrics.
• The Role of LG Ads Innovation Lab: Hudes emphasized that behavioral and emotional cues are critical to surfacing relevant content, making personalization even more integral to managing fragmented content across multiple devices.

Insight 3: The Shift to Multi-Currency Measurement is Gaining Momentum

Multi-currency measurement is quickly becoming necessary in advanced TV, but implementation is still in its early days.

• Enabling Optionality: During Ready or Not, The Advanced TV Ad Market Is Here, panelists like Paramount’s Michele Stone stressed that offering measurement flexibility — allowing buyers to transact based on the currency they’re comfortable with — is critical to the future of advertising. As agencies work with multiple measurement providers, they are increasingly focused on aligning these metrics to serve both buyers and sellers effectively.

• Growing Complexity: Publicis Media’s Sam Armando highlighted the complexity agencies face when dealing with multiple currencies during major events like the Super Bowl, where several measurement systems must work together. The challenge lies in ensuring consistency across these systems while maintaining accuracy.

Insight 4: AI’s Role in Measurement is Just Beginning

AI-driven media measurement is still in its infancy, but it has the potential to revolutionize how media is planned, bought, and measured.

• AI for Personalization and Automation: In the session Into the Future of Media Measurement, panelists discussed how AI will drive more personalized and immersive experiences by 2030. Automating content delivery and optimizing audience engagement is seen as a major benefit.

• Ongoing Challenges: AI also introduces challenges. As Sonata Insights’ Debra Aho Williamson pointed out in the AI-Driven Roadmap to 2030, questions around transparency, data ethics, and the accuracy of AI-driven insights remain unresolved. CIMM”s Tameka Kee stressed the importance of industry-wide collaboration to address these issues and ensure AI can deliver on its promises.

Insight 5: CTV’s Growing Influence on Performance Metrics

Connected TV (CTV) now plays a bigger role in performance-based advertising, offering brands opportunities to drive outcomes that were once difficult to measure with linear TV.

• Impact of Live Audiences: IPG Media Brands’ Maureen Bosetti noted that while linear TV still offers significant reach, CTV complements it with advanced performance metrics. Brands are increasingly using CTV’s flexible formats to deliver both brand-building and performance-driven campaigns.

• Cross-Screen Attribution: As highlighted by the panelists in Building the TV Ad Market of the Future, the ability to track audience behaviors across multiple screens is improving, with programmatic buying allowing advertisers to optimize reach and frequency in previously challenging ways.

Navigating these growing complexities — identity resolution, audience fragmentation, and measurement standardization — requires collaboration across the sell-side, buy-side, and tech platforms. 

The future of media measurement depends on the industry’s ability to adopt multi-currency frameworks, embrace AI-driven solutions, and improve the cross-screen attribution model to reflect today’s fragmented viewing habits. As AI integration advances and CTV continues its rise, the next steps will involve finding ways to unify fragmented data ecosystems and develop scalable solutions for cross-screen measurement.

Moving forward, the industry must keep pace with technological innovations and regulatory shifts to ensure that identity resolution and media measurement evolve together to support advertisers, publishers, and viewers alike.

The post 5 Big Ideas We Took Away From CIMM Summit — Identity Resolution Was the Biggest appeared first on AdMonsters.

Publishers have enough to juggle without worrying about sketchy ads sneaking in through video inventory. But with malvertising on the rise — especially those sneaky auto-redirects infecting VAST tags — EX.CO and GeoEdge are joining forces to shut it down.

This partnership is grounded in ad quality to safeguard user trust and ensure publishers’ revenue keeps flowing without the hassle of bad ads ruining the party.

The post EX.CO and GeoEdge Team Up to Shut Down Video Malvertising appeared first on AdMonsters.

Technology is evolving faster than we can blink and it’s becoming clear that it’s time creativity and control were reclaimed. As monopolies and walled gardens dominate and limit access, the balance between innovation and content creation is more crucial than ever. In a rapidly changing ecosystem,  publishers are exploring strategies to navigate an open internet increasingly challenged by distribution obstacles and signal loss.

Once a beacon of free and open access, the open web faces an identity crisis. Media companies that once thrived on direct consumer connection are struggling with the rise of walled gardens. Marketers, for their part, acknowledge their role in building these silos as they increasingly funnel media budgets into tech giants. Reclaiming control of data, creative strategies, and audience engagement is critical to preserving the future for both sides.

Publishers should not look at these shifts as threats but as opportunities to develop new strategies that align with consumer behavior and market demands. 

From the rise of social-driven search and FAST channels to Google’s ongoing antitrust trial, ProgIO spoke to many of the challenges facing publishers today. As the industry continues to push for transparency, fairness, and a more open ecosystem, the path forward depends on innovating while maintaining trust with consumers and each other. 

Here are our top takeaways from Day 1.

Breaking Free: How Marketers Can Reclaim Creativity in a Tech-Driven World

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, talking about convergence at programmatic IO. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, walked us through industry shifts driven by audience, inventory, optimality, and privacy. He says, “The technology we have today is not the technology we’ll have tomorrow.”

Let him tell it: marketers need more control to move away from monopolies and hone in on new technologies to transform their roles in the industry. Eoin emphasized that marketers spend too much time on tech rather than creative marketing. We are evolving from scale, automation, and walled gardens to a new phase focused on integration, alignment, and collaboration. 

More highlights from his talk:

• Let AI automate the hard stuff.
• Take advantage of multi-faceted solutions that integrate third-party data and work across walled gardens.
• Adopt new technology and legal frameworks to ensure compliance and consumer trust.

Eoin’s main argument is: “Let marketers be marketers” free them from technological constraints!

The Future of the Open Internet Is?

Allison Schiff, Managing Editor at AdExchanger, Ben Hovaness, CMO at OMD, Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black, and Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor of Marketecture Media discuss the future of the open internet. Photo by Donna Alberico.

What is the open web? The term has gotten lost in the mix, and AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff ensured the panelists revealed the definition from their perspectives early in the session. According to Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor at Marketecture Media, if you can access a website for free and buy ads freely, it is part of the open web. 

Media companies are losing distribution channels and struggle to connect directly with consumers. What are the biggest challenges of the open web? Walled gardens and signal challenges. Can marketers blame consumers for this mess? Not exactly. Marketers helped create the walled gardens by continuing to invest in and work with them.

“The open internet lost the resources to create the content and do a lot of things that it did to keep the communities it had built,” revealed Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black. “That’s why we are all seeing the decline over the last three years. Big publishers are going out of business or restructuring.”

More key points from this session:

• The cloudiness around Chrome’s plan for cookies makes it difficult for publishers to determine the best strategy to combat signal loss. 
• Publishers have great tools like WordPress, Beehiiv, and Ghost, along with podcasting, as new solutions for reaching people and monetizing those connections. 
• When asked what the future of the open internet was, the panelists responded bright, sleek, diverse, and changing. 

TikTok, The Latest to Step In the Search Game

AdExchanger’s Executive Editor Sarah Sluis sits down with Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok, to talk about the platform entering the search business. Photo by Donna Alberico.

TikTok is the app beating Google as the number one search engine. With data showing significant search activity on the app, we’re learning that rich, social media-driven search results are key for connecting with consumers and influencing their discovery and purchase intent. It’s no surprise the company is investing in bringing advertising to search. 

“There are two key data points that triggered this for us. One is that independent research proves that 55% of people get their search results from social media and video,” said Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “It was just a very good box of rich examples. An example might be if you’re planning to travel to Singapore when you visit a traditional search engine, you’d find links to guide you through that process. On the other hand, you go on to TikTok or some other platforms where you’ll get really rich videos of people like you going through the same decision-making with their experience. It’s a very different experience in the back end of this.”

Ads have been part of TikTok’s monetization model for a while now, but the TikTok shop shook up the game when it came to fruition last year. Live-streaming allows creators to earn money by getting “tipped” from their audience, while the TikTok shop facilitates seamless transitions within the app. TikTok’s investment in logistics and the closed-loop shopping experience allows it to fully capitalize on the commerce generated by creators.

More interesting insights:

• The social media company’s motto: “Don’t make ads, make TikTok’s” works.
• TikTok caters to its users’ diverse interests, allowing brands to connect with highly engaged audiences.
• Ensuring that ads are native is key; don’t oversaturate because ad fatigue can be real.
• TikTok stands out because it is independent and doesn’t rely on partnerships or external links for e-commerce.

Why The Trade Desk is Winning According to Wall Street

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director of Wolfe Research shared her predictions for the industry from an investor’s perspective. Photo by Donna Alberico.

With the ongoing regulatory scrutiny of Google and the pending cookie deprecation, scale and first-party data are both emerging as leaders in the industry.

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director at Wolfe Research, dove deeply into The Trade Desk’s success. Partnering with agencies leads to higher retention rates. Product innovations like CTV and UID2 have kept The Trade Desk at the top of the industry. Also, their independence and omnichannel approach allow them to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest. 

“Trade Desk saw the potential of bidded programmatic and connected TV before most others in the industry,” said Shweta. “As a result, with the head start that they saw, they saw a step change in their growth rates and trajectory.”

Shweta also predicts that Google will spin off one of its ad tech businesses, which could level the playing field. 

Shweta’s other predictions:

• The Trade Desk’s Open Path and Magnite’s clear line anticipate the convergence of the demand and supply sides.
• Efficiency gains will be necessary, and pricing pressures might arise as DSPs and SSPs merge.
• Larger publishers may develop their yield management systems, leading to supply-side consolidation.
• The demand side might gain an upper hand due to its proximity to ad budgets.

Google on Trial: The Battle for Fairness, Transparency, and the Future

Allison Schiff talked to Claire Atkin, Co-founder & CEO of Check My Ads and Jason Kint CEO of Digital Content Next about the ongoing DOJ vs. Google antitrust trial. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Google’s monopolistic practices have heavily hindered the publishing industry, and we are all standing on our toes, waiting to see the outcome of this decision. Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, explained how Google is extracting value that should go to newsrooms and entertainment companies. 

Jason talked about “dynamic revenue sharing,’ where Google manipulates bid prices to maintain its margins, often behind publishers’ backs. With a press box seat at the trial in Virginia, he says Google’s defense strategy is to confuse the market and redefine it to include more competition, like TikTok or TV. Isn’t this what we’ve all been thinking? Isn’t this a weak defense?

It was great seeing Claire Atkin again doing her best: exposing the real. According to Claire, Google plays a huge role in monetizing misinformation and lacking transparency. Smaller businesses suffer since they don’t receive funds or adequate support from Google when campaign issues arise. Claire argues for log-level data transparency and know-your-customer laws to ensure fair practices. 

Other important highlights:

• Judge Leonie Brinkema is skeptical of Google due to evidence purging, which impacts the credibility of Google’s witnesses. 
• The trial is part of a broader antitrust movement against major tech companies, and breaking them up could lead to more opportunities and fairness in the industry. 
• Both speakers hope to see a future where advertisers can better track and verify their ad placements, leading to more accountability and fewer fraudulent practices.

FAST is Moving Fast

Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions talks the future of FAST at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO Day 1. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Several factors are contributing to the rise of FAST, such as subscription fatigue and evolving audience behavior. On a daily basis, consumers are shifting their mindset from avoiding ads to accepting them if they come with free content. 

“We see that 53% of our consumers are spending at least 2 hours a day in FAST, and the average time of the session is 73 minutes,” said Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions. “Eighty-seven percent of FAST users have free streaming channels they watch regularly. This shows high levels of habitual viewing. Eighty-one percent believe that FAST streaming channels offer high-quality content. This is important because this perception of fast being low quality is being challenged here.”

Contrary to popular belief that FAST viewers are less engaged or loyal, Katie argues they are developing strong followings due to curated content. The stereotype that FAST viewers are solely budget-conscious is false, as the data shows a diverse and affluent audience.

Other Factors of FAST:

• The median income of FAST users is $85,000, with an average of $110,000, and 43% earning over $100,000 annually. 
• FAST is popular among family units, with a high percentage of users owning homes, being married, and having children, underlining its family-friendly nature.
• FAST is a valuable platform for brands aiming to reach key demographics.

On the Horizon: A New Era for Publishers and Marketers

Publishers and marketers are standing on the brink of significant change. With walled gardens tightening their grip and signal loss challenging traditional methods, publishers are redefining their approach to audience engagement, while marketers are pushing for more autonomy in how they reach and connect with consumers. 

From publishers exploring innovative content distribution methods to marketers reclaiming creative control, the next chapter is about pushing beyond the familiar and embracing new opportunities. 

The journey doesn’t stop here. Day 2 included more revelations and strategies, so stay tuned for our Programmatic IO Day 2 wrap-up on Monday. We’ll dig deeper into the discussions, highlighting key takeaways and what lies ahead for publishers and marketers in this fast-moving space. 

The post PROGIO Day 1: The Next Chapter for the Open Internet, Google vs. DOJ Face-Off, and More appeared first on AdMonsters.

New players entering the CTV and streaming TV advertising game must overcome specific roadblocks. From low inventory prices and a limited viewership base to few partnerships with premium advertisers, it can take a long time before your expenses pay off and you enter the growth stage. 

But the good news? There are ways to fast-track your path to revenue growth and get those ad dollars flowing in sooner rather than later.

To scale your revenue effectively, focus on a few key areas: setting and tracking the right metrics, expanding your pool of demand partners, and finding creative ways to increase revenue through alternative methods. Here’s how you can piece together a strategy that works for you.  

Steps to Create Ad Monetization Strategy

1.   Set Metrics That Matter

In CTV/FAST advertising, you will focus on the revenue generated from your ad pod — a commercial break of a specific length. So, you need to factor in the duration of the video ad slot and calculate how much you can earn from it. The most optimal way to do so is to calculate RPS (Revenue per Second).

RPS is a metric that defines revenue per 1000 ad impressions:

RPS= CPM/Ad duration

 While RPS will suggest the most optimal way to structure ad slots, it won’t factor in customer acquisition costs and accompanying expenses. Therefore, premium publishers should focus on tracking Average Revenue per User (ARPU). By calculating ARPU, you’re not just looking at how much each ad slot earns — you’re understanding how much each viewer contributes to your revenue over time.

ARPU is calculated by dividing the total revenue by the total number of impressions per specific period per each device:

ARPU= (Number of impressions*(CPM/1000)) divided by device count

Say a new video publisher sells its inventory at $4 CPM and has 7,500 monthly impression opportunities per device. The ARPU will be calculated as follows:

7500*4/1000=$30

The monthly ARPU reaches $30, assuming there’s 100% fill. This figure tells us that each active user contributed $30 in revenue.

2. Build a Strong Demand Stack

Instead of gradually building up the demand stack for transactions, you can generate more chances to sell ad slots. In this context, consider implementing a backfill strategy, which helps monetize impression opportunities with no placed bids in the programmatic flow.

Say interested buyers need more time to be ready to pay for an ad opportunity. You can turn to CPA (cost per action) buyers — direct response (DR) agencies and affiliate networks. These parties pay per conversion, such as website visits, purchases from a TV shopping channel, or registration forms.

3.   Scale Revenue

Monitoring your metrics will show how to build ads for the ad break with the best yield.

Monitor and Optimize RPS

When focusing on RPS, you can filter out underperforming ads. For example, some video publishers would stick only to 15-second ads and improve yield. 

However, you may only sometimes have control over how much an advertiser is willing to pay. In such cases, it’s advantageous to have multiple buyers bidding on your ad slots. This scenario, known as bid density, focuses on increasing the number of buyers interested in purchasing your ad space. The higher the bid density, the better the chances of maximizing your revenue.

How to Increase the Bid Density?

You should encourage media buyers to secure ad slots and submit more attractive bids than competitors. Supply partners usually have a specially allocated sales team. You, in turn, will need a sales unit of experienced specialists capable of bringing aboard different advertisers. They will negotiate and convince ten, twenty, and more partners to bid on the inventory.

Monitor and optimize ARPU

Optimizing CAC and verifying that the LTV (lifetime value derived from ARPU) surpasses CAC and associated viewer expenses is best for publishers tracking ARPU. LTV acts as a rough ROI on CAC investment over time, but you must also factor in churn.

So you’ve minimized your revenue loss – time to level up your strategy:

Through Demand Facilitation.

The idea is to negotiate with demand facilitation partners to secure more impression opportunities. Third-party SSPs such as Xandr aggregate multiple publishers’ inventory through packaging similar offerings. This involves bundling diverse content, such as sports programs, comedies, movies, etc., to create enticing sales packages for DSPs.

Through Invite-only Programmatic Demand.

This approach involves elevating the status of your inventory to premium and selectively granting access only to specific advertisers. To execute this strategy, you will rely on a combination of SSP demand facilitation and direct DSP integrations enabled by your custom AdTech development vendor.

Through Direct Deals.

Direct deals involve your negotiations with SSPs. They enhance revenue through strategic partnerships and serve as a ground for educating the market. Engaging in direct contracts with high-profile advertisers creates valuable PR opportunities, establishing credibility and increasing awareness in the market.

…Or Through an Alternative Revenue Stream – Audience Extension (AudEx)

Video publishers can leverage AudEx to accept advertising contracts by procuring inventory from other suppliers within the ecosystem. This move helps to enhance the perceived scale of operations and surpass the limitations of the current user base.

Improve Your Revenue Using A Comprehensive Approach

It takes various ad monetization strategies, focusing on metrics, demand stack build-up, and alternative revenue streams to get ahead of the game. Each tactic offers a unique approach to optimizing costs and expanding viewership.

Success relies on strategic planning, data-driven decision-making, and a dedicated team of specialists who will implement the strategy. By aligning these elements, new video publishers can overcome initial challenges and establish a solid foundation for future growth.

The post How Video Publishers Can Create A Comprehensive Ad Monetization Strategy appeared first on AdMonsters.

The revolution in live-streaming sports is unfolding before our eyes, disrupting the broadcast and cable industry as new media giants, including Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube, enter the field. Sports organizations are finding themselves negotiating deals with lots of layers, where specific streamers get a certain night, like Amazon while free streaming is available on Twitch and aired on local broadcast stations. 

The stakes are incredibly high as everyone figures out the rules for live-streaming sports. The NBA’s rights are valued at $75 billion over 12 years, and the NFL’s rights are worth upwards of $110 billion. The current court case against the NFL won’t just affect NFL franchise revenue, but the entire advertising and streaming ecosystem, which relies heavily on these extremely popular mass live events. 

With all of this upheaval and complexity, it seems logical for advertising to follow the same path — with digitization, fragmentation, targeting, and more. But that’s actually the opposite of what’s going to happen. Live sports events on streaming channels actually work very much like linear broadcast sports events, and both streamers and advertisers need to understand why the industry will succeed.

Streaming Can’t Change Live Sports

Streaming sports has hit a tipping point — 53% of adults stream sports at least once per month, and it now accounts for 30% of all streaming views in the US. For multi-channel media companies like NBC, striking a balance on live sports is critical to ensure they aren’t out-maneuvered by a native digital competitor.

Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Apple, and Netflix have the resources to dominate streaming sports. Unlike traditional broadcasters, they lack legacy relationships and dependencies, allowing them to operate more flexibly. Without the constraints of politics, multiplatform contracts, and outdated technology, these companies can leapfrog traditional broadcasters.

However, streaming might be upending most things about watching TV, but a lot about live sports looks a lot like linear. People can binge-watch shows, watch new movies in their living room, and access content from around the world, but sports are resistant to a lot of these elements.

The excitement of the game happening live doesn’t change much just because it’s streamed instead of broadcast — few people time shift an important game. Sure, some people might discover they love Canadian curling or Indian cricket on streaming, but most people are going to root for the same local teams that they always have, streaming or broadcast. The big games like NBA finals, the Super Bowl, and the World Series will draw huge audiences all watching at the same time.  

Premium Content Demands Premium Prices

The mass live appeal of sports means that the digital, often programmatic advertising that digital companies know and love isn’t as relevant. Amazon might have an advantage of cash and streaming technology, but their advertising savvy doesn’t come into play. It doesn’t make sense to allow a performance-oriented advertiser to bid on individual impressions during an NBA game when a brand-oriented advertiser is willing to pay premium CPMs for an entire audience – maybe even several national ad slots during a single game. 

Live sports advertising makes media companies the most money when they stick to old-school ratings-based metrics and price-based on branding at scale, not precision targeting. This means that any streaming sports rights-holder is still going to consider the UpFronts important. They’re going to want some direct premium ad sales executives. And, they’re going to need to be able to program advertising directly coded into the content, not dynamically serve it to individual households through a big complex supply chain.

The Trickle-Down Effect to All Streamed Sports

By leading with brand awareness and following with addressability on major sports events, streaming platforms create a valuable ecosystem, avoiding the race to the bottom seen in programmatic advertising. 

However, betting solely on brand advertising carrying streaming sports at the long tail is risky. The math of sports broadcasting shows that larger audiences generate greater revenue, but not every game attracts millions of fans. Mid-season baseball games for a mediocre team, college basketball, hockey, and many other popular but smaller sports streams can and should deliver a hybrid of premium brand advertising and targeted advertising. 

As all of these details get worked out, the future of live sports streaming will remain complex. Half of American households still have cable. Sports rights holders need licensing deals that cater to both groups and offer flexibility for a variety of ad-sales strategies. Converged media planning across platforms will be essential. Convergence means different things for buyers and sellers, with varying performance KPIs. Success with converged platforms requires unified sales, delivery, performance metrics, and reporting. 

Streaming will continue to grow in importance, but it won’t lead to an all-programmatic world. The ad market will resemble network TV more than walled gardens, with mergers and acquisitions likely shaping the future landscape as linear slowly fades out and streaming evolves. The convergence of live streaming and traditional advertising will define the next era of sports broadcasting.

The post Live Streaming Takes Brand Advertising Full Circle appeared first on AdMonsters.

Video advertising has always been a bright spot for the industry: effective, profitable, and malware-free. Because it’s threat-free, AdOps teams don’t need to spend a lot of time scanning for scams. Sadly, that is changing rapidly. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about ScamClub’s breach into the video channel, successfully injecting malicious redirects through VAST and VPAID tags in Q4 2023. Since then, video malvertising attacks have proliferated and show little sign of abating anytime soon. Worse, other scammers have no doubt noted the success of ScamClub’s assault on video ads. In the months ahead, we should expect a surge in automatic and malicious redirects, and everyone — publishers, SSPs, and video platforms — should begin hardening their video tech stack immediately.

How Video Automatic Redirects Work 

In case you missed the first article, here’s a rundown of the ScamClub scheme, the first industry-wide attack against video ads. GeoEdge discovered the scheme injected malicious redirects through VAST tags, sending users to a malicious website regardless of whether they played the ad or how long they watched it.

Essentially, the scammers run fingerprinting tests on both the client and the server sides, looking for malware detection systems. Once the information from the client is sent and checked by the malicious server, the POST request’s reply or response includes instructions that tell the user’s device to navigate to a new website. This redirect code includes several different methods to initiate the forced redirect. This diversified attack strategy increases the chances of successful redirects, making it harder for security vendors to detect and identify the attack.

Bad Actors Have Breached Video Advertising

For a long time, video has been considered the safest channel in digital advertising. The high inventory cost has deterred scammers from attacking the channel, concentrating on the abundance of low-cost and vulnerable display ad units. As a result, many publishers, SSPs, and even video platforms haven’t screened for malware even as they actively screen for it in their web and mobile inventory.

But we need to understand that scammers have breached the video world. GeoEdge’s security research first exposed the video malware epidemic in July 2023, but as you can see in the chart below, the number of instances has escalated dramatically. 

We’ve seen dozens of SSPs—all the major industry players—affected by the ScamClub malicious VAST and VPAID attacks. The same goes for video platforms, which scams have infected in equal measure. Any publisher that relies on an SSP or video platform to fill video inventory is likely exposed. 

In fact, AdOps teams are now receiving complaints from publishers, who are receiving complaints from their users and editorial team about sketchy ads that pop up on landing pages that look like system messages prompting users to download fake software updates or fake antivirus software that records and transmits their bank information or credentials to the scammer’s servers.

Even though we already see hockey stick growth in the ScamClub version of the attack, we are at the beginning of the growth trajectory. For this reason, we should assume that automatic redirects in video will dramatically increase over the next 12 months.

Time to Harden the End-to-End Video Tech Stack

This means it’s time to harden the video tech stack. Publishers must recognize the importance of monitoring and safeguarding their video technology infrastructure, as it’s no longer secure. This shift in mindset is crucial.

SSPs need to begin to reassess their video demand, with an understanding that they can no longer assume it’s safe. They must acknowledge the presence of malvertising in the channel, which many expect to increase significantly.

Additionally, the entire video platform segment, which supports video players and previously remained unscathed, now faces new threats. These platforms must start monitoring and addressing security issues at their own level.

This, of course, brings up the question of CTV. Is that channel safe? It’s unlikely that consumers will click on ads, visit landing pages, and fill out forms from their smart TVs. However, as QR codes become common in CTV advertising, they will introduce new risks, as fraudsters will have the opportunity to redirect the user who scans that code via a mobile device.

A New Approach Required 

Because of the multiple mechanisms that block attacks from security vendors, new approaches are needed. In our experience, it’s not enough to monitor the video ad units themselves but the entire page itself. By monitoring the entire page, security teams can identify, analyze, and classify copycat and emerging variants of redirect scams immediately and proactively block them every time they appear. 

A Call to Action

Video is no longer a safe haven; we need to pay attention to it. The channel has been breached, and fraudsters are rushing in. However, we are by no means defenseless. To combat this rising threat, we must embark on a new era of cooperation across the entire industry. By working together, we can identify and mitigate video threats more effectively and share our learnings to strengthen our collective defenses.

The post Automatic Redirects Flood Video Ad Space (and it’s Just Getting Started) appeared first on AdMonsters.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2024 was a whirlwind of innovation and insight, from the buzzing panels to the casual yet powerful conversations outside The Palais. While Elon Musk’s headline-grabbing interview drew a lot of attention, the ad tech discussions in the quieter corners truly stole the show. Publishers showcased their latest strategies to diversify revenue, leverage AI, and champion transparency in a rapidly evolving industry.

Amid the seaside backdrop and occasional gusts of wind that even interrupted a Yieldmo rooftop panel, industry heavyweights shared their visions for the future. From AI-enhanced campaign execution to the power of community-building, the sessions were rich with actionable insights and collaborative spirit. Let’s dive into how leading publishers are navigating these trends and setting the stage for what’s next.

AI and Human Governance: A Dynamic Duo

During a lively Yieldmo rooftop panel on the Evolution of AI in Ad Tech, participants faced an unexpected challenge: the wind. Yet, the show went on with Craig Miller from Amazon Web Services, Valerie Davis of Assembly Global, Jesh Sukhwani from Lenovo, and Yieldmo Co-Founder Teddy Jawde leading a robust discussion on generative AI. Sukhwani emphasized the irreplaceable role of human governance in AI implementation, noting, “AI is there to improve productivity and provide a more seamless decision-making process. It is not there to overtake and think for humans.”

Future Today: Leveraging Contextual Buying 

Future Today is making waves with its latest integration with IRIS.TV, allowing the publisher to contextualize its vast content library into various segments, like travel, food, and fitness. This move has standardized the process of contextual buying, making it easier for advertisers to target specific audiences. Co-founder Vikrant Mathur highlighted the importance of this integration for revenue growth, especially with the ongoing cookie deprecation bringing contextual advertising back into focus.  

“IRIS.TV is trying to standardize the process of contextually buying itself,” Mathur explained. “If I have a movie and another publisher has the same movie, sometimes how we pass information to the buy-side is not the same. IRIS.TV allows us to pass and receive signals in a way that makes sense to everybody, which is crucial for standardization.”

In the last quarter or so, revenue from leveraging IRIS-enabled private marketplace deals has been in the six figures for Future Today, and it’s growing. 

The Daily Mail: Dominating in the World of Video 

DMG Media’s Hannah Buitekant shared the company’s ambitious global video strategy, positioning video as the future of revenue diversification. As the leading video publisher on TikTok, with over 13 million followers and one billion monthly views, the Daily Mail combines creativity and tech to expand its video operations. Buitekant advised that authentic content tailored to each platform is crucial for success, emphasizing agility in content development across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels. According to Buitekant, managing director of digital at DMG Media, innovation within publishing is in the company’s DNA. 

“The video content needs to feel authentic to the platform it appears on, so take that into account when developing new offerings,” Buitekant said. “What works on YouTube may not work on TikTok or Reels, so publishers need to remain agile and amenable to quickly pivot and change formats when rolling out new content platforms.”  

Bloomberg Media: Innovating with Content

Bloomberg Media’s presence at Cannes was marked by discussions about women’s leadership and the power of AI in the C-Suite. Ashish Verma, Global Head of Bloomberg Media Studios, discussed the company’s focus on “content innovation,” combining data science and strategy to connect authentically with their audience. Verma pointed out that live journalism events and bespoke brand content are integral to their diversified media strategy.

“Bloomberg Media has been a heavily diversified media company for many years; one of our points of pride is content innovation, which means that our content is ours and on owned channels, but also social platforms and video distribution streaming services,” Verma explained. “We’ve had a robust live journalism events business for several years, and it plays a part in our diverse offering. In 2025, we will focus on continuing to expand the product offerings from Bloomberg Media Studios, which produces bespoke brand content and experience in a way that understands and connects with our audience — from print to audio and video.”

When asked about AI, Verma noted, “With the growth of AI, we are finding that business-to-business executives are seeing greater value in meeting to discuss key trends and do deals face-to-face and hearing from our journalists face-to-face. Cannes itself was in AI overdrive. Up and down the Croisette, every tech institution was talking about its tools (which were fantastic to play with).”

Mediavine: Don’t Sleep On The Power of a Strong Email Strategy

With the hype surrounding AI and a bunch of new strategies, tools, and technologies on the market, let’s not forget an area thats data rich and has  never steered us wrong: email. When we asked Eric Hochberger, co-founder and CEO of Mediavine, about how publishers can boost revenue these were his sentiments:

“As we reach the halfway point in 2024, it’s a critical time to have conversations with publishers on how they can better diversify their revenue and traffic sources for next year. One approach publishers should consider is a robust email strategy for audience connection and first-party data.

It’s key to reinforce the prioritization of human-made content industry-wide by implementing a framework for vetting mass-produced, undisclosed generative AI content. The most effective way to protect against a generative AI content takeover is by making sure bad actors aren’t incentivized to produce it. Not only because it’s essential for a free web but because it performs better for marketers. Looking ahead at 2025, this will have the biggest impact and wield the greatestcreative influence, boosting revenue for publishers and demonetizing low-quality generative AI content.” 

OpenWeb: Building Community for Revenue Diversification 

Max Weiss, OpenWeb’s Chief Strategy Officer, highlighted the importance of community in today’s media landscape. With AI search tools impacting traffic and cookie deprecation on the horizon, publishers are focusing on building loyal user bases. Weiss noted that a strong community amplifies every new revenue stream, and OpenWeb’s mission is to foster a thriving ecosystem for publishers and content creators. 

“The business model of today’s media industry is under threat. At Cannes, the conversation was about diversifying revenue streams to keep growing while AI-fueled search results impact traffic and cookie deprecation looms. So many publishers are renewing their focus on building a community of registered users — they know that every new revenue stream, every innovation, is amplified by a strong base of loyal users.”

On foreseeing the future of AI development, Weiss said, “While AI can help publishers drive efficiency and streamline processes, it also has the potential to eat into publishers’ traffic. Publishers must focus on lifetime value, loyalty, and community to grow in this new era. At OpenWeb, our mission has always been to create a thriving, healthy ecosystem for the open internet with publishers and content creators at the center.” 

Embracing Transparency: Publisher Panels Insights

Bridging the Gap: Control vs. Transparency in the Streaming and CTV Landscape 

At an OpenX panel, Rose McGovern, Head of Programmatic & Digital Ad Sales at DirecTV, stressed the importance of passing contextual signals to ensure audience targeting while complying with privacy regulations. The discussion also touched on innovative ad formats and the shift from cookies to persistent identifiers.

She elaborated on the importance of passing contextual signals, such as genre, rating, and network, rather than series-level data. This specificity ensures publishers can reach the right audience while remaining compliant with privacy regulations. Moving away from cookies towards more persistent identifiers like universal IDs was discussed to protect customers and enhance targeting accuracy.

Looking ahead, Rose expressed a desire for more innovative ad formats and the need to move beyond the traditional 15- and 30-second spots. She pointed out, “If we can’t run cool ad formats programmatically, then we are really lame. We must innovate and scale these formats to keep up with the evolving CTV landscape.”

Insights into the Evolving Open Internet Market

During a panel hosted by Ogury, Gabriel DeWitt, Head of Monetization at Yahoo, and Heather Carver, Chief Revenue Officer at Freestar, highlighted the complexities of ad monetization and the need for greener infrastructures. They emphasized collaboration in addressing issues like MFA sites and the importance of incrementality in ad formats.

As DeWitt pointed out, “Running ads for a publisher is very complicated and has become more complicated over time, so increasing numbers of publishers need help with their ads.”

Carver highlighted that SSPs must be more carbon-effective, and buyers should choose more efficient paths. Monetization challenges often lead publishers to create complex, wasteful bid request systems. She talked about the positive impact of collaboration in combating issues like MFA (Made-for-Advertising) sites, stating, “We should celebrate the content owners who are actually trying to create good consumer relationships and not just try to drain the money from buyers.”

Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive, noted that constrained caps require better tools to bring incremental demand, and better signals should judge the effectiveness of partners. When asked if there was something he’d like to see changed, Bannister responded, “Instead of open RTB, I think about close RTB. There are too many bad actors extracting value. I’d love to work out a way to restrict access to make it a more premium supply.”

The ROI of Openness: Enhancing Publisher Performance Through Transparency

Mike Racic, President of Prebid and Saiful Ahmed, SVP Ad Tech, Global Investment at OMG Global discussed fostering transparency and trust within the programmatic supply chain. They introduced new initiatives to combat ad fraud and enhance Supply Path Optimization (SPO), underscoring the need for standardized and transparent practices.

Racic highlighted the importance of transparent technology solutions. He emphasized Prebid’s commitment to solving publishers’ problems by connecting them to the marketplace transparently. He also announced that Prebid is working with Human to launch an initiative to combat ad fraud, which will be unveiled at their summit in October. “Everything we do is transparent,” he stated, underscoring Prebid’s approach to building trust through clear and open practices.

Ahmed introduced OMG’s Accountability Transparency Framework (ATF), which sets legally binding agreements to push transparency and protect the programmatic trading ecosystem.

He noted, “We give our clients full disclosure into media tech and data costs and domain-level reporting.”

Chen, Co-founder and CRO of RISE, discussed the role of data in SPO and why it’s important  for publishers to understand how SSPs and DSPs classify their inventory. He highlighted the need for transparency in inventory segmentation and value assessment.

All panelists concluded that we can’t dismiss MFA sites as bad without proper standardization and compliance. With transparency supported by clear industry-wide standards, we can address this ongoing issue.

Shaping the Future of Ad Tech

The Cannes Lions 2024 was a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration in the ad tech industry. From leveraging AI to building strong communities and embracing transparency, publishers are navigating a complex landscape with creativity and strategic foresight. As the industry evolves, these insights and strategies will be crucial in shaping the future of ad tech and media.

The post Power Moves: Publishers Unveil Cutting-Edge Revenue Strategies and AI Innovations at Cannes Lions 2024 appeared first on AdMonsters.

From an early age, Vanessa was inspired by her mother’s determination and perseverance. Her mother’s journey from Hong Kong to a successful career in the United States and her father’s hard work deeply influenced her values and work ethic. Growing up in New Jersey, Vanessa learned the importance of diligence and resilience, which have propelled her through her career.

Moving to the US at 13, her mother learned a new language and established a successful career as an accountant at Mount Sinai Hospital. This example of hard work and dedication set a strong foundation for Vanessa, who saw firsthand the importance of balancing professional ambitions with family responsibilities.

Vanessa’s journey is a testament to continuous learning and maintaining a hands-on approach, even as one climbs the corporate ladder. Unsurprisingly, Vanessa is also a 2024 Top Women in Media & Ad Tech honoree in the Programmatic Storytellers category. 

Despite facing hurdles as a young Asian-American woman in a male-dominated industry, Vanessa has carved out a successful career. Her deep understanding of her field has earned her respect and recognition. She emphasizes the importance of representation and the need for more Asian women in executive roles, advocating for diversity and inclusion within her team and the wider industry.

Learn more about Vanessa’s journey by reading our discussion below. 

Yakira Young: Tell me more about yourself. Where is your family from, and what was it like growing up?

Vanessa Eng: My mom grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States when she was 13. My dad was born here in the US. He grew up in West New York, New Jersey, and I grew up in North Bergen.  On my dad’s side, my grandparents came on a boat from China. My grandma was pregnant with my dad at the time from what I remember. 

I remember my grandpa fondly because he lived to be around 83 when I was about 30. He used to share stories about our family’s journey to the States, and their decision to migrate to the US to provide a better life for my dad, which ultimately impacted my own life and my children.

My mom worked hard, commuting to New York to work from the burbs in NJ, and making dinner for us. Although it was a dual household income, I remember my mom struggling with it a little. She would never say anything about it and always had a very tough exterior. 

One aspect of Asian culture is the ability to identify one’s needs versus one’s wants. There were instances when I wanted to buy something when I was younger, and my mom would say “no, it’s too expensive.” That also shaped how I raised my kids, and not wanting to tell them no because of something we couldn’t afford financially but the ability to say “no” to prevent them from being spoiled and entitled. 

I don’t hold my mom in any mean regard with that whatsoever; in fact, I deeply respect her for it because I knew financially we weren’t as well off as some other people. That also inspired me to strive to be very career-driven and offer a better life for my family.

YY: How has your heritage influenced your upbringing and values?

VE: My upbringing helped me understand foundational principles. As I mentioned, my mom worked hard, and my dad also worked hard and would stay late in the office. Watching them work hard taught me to work hard as well. 

At some point, as you climb the corporate ladder, you start to have a team under you and begin to delegate, and with that, people start to forget the nitty-gritty of how things work. I like to give 110% no matter how small the task is, which has instilled in me the ability to always work hard at everything I do. 

As I climb the corporate ladder, I want to ensure that I still know how things work intimately to be knowledgeable in my role. It’s important to know what’s happening in the industry, so I’m always making sure I stay on my toes, which is part of my “perfectionist” demeanor.

YY: Any key moments or milestones in your 14-year career that have been particularly significant to you?

VE: At a point in my career, I preemptively discovered my manager was trying to fire me. I took that to heart because I became very complacent in my role, lacking passion and genuine enjoyment for my work. While I don’t have any ill will towards that manager, this experience deeply affected me and served as a wake-up call.

Conversely, I’ve also been fortunate to have excellent managers. Some have stayed with me late at night in the office to whiteboard and help me comprehend the entire ecosystem. These experiences provided me with a solid foundation in terms of knowledge. 

Sometimes, you need a great teacher and mentor to guide you to where you are. It’s great to read industry-related articles and converse with other folks in the space, but nothing compares to someone who takes the time and patience to help you understand all the nuances and various acronyms.

YY: What challenges did you face as an Asian-American woman climbing the corporate ladder, and how did you overcome them? 

VE: Some of the challenges I face are definitely related to my appearance. I’m often told I look young, and as a woman in tech, I face additional hurdles. This means I have to work even harder to earn the respect of others and to be taken seriously. 

Adtech can very much feel like a boys’ club, and as an Asian woman, I sometimes face the stigma of not knowing what I’m talking about. 

This motivates me to read a lot of documentation within our industry and research various topics because the best way to challenge misconceptions is to be exceptionally knowledgeable. When you know your stuff inside and out, no one can outmaneuver you.

I’ve dedicated significant time to learning every aspect of the ad tech life cycle to ensure no one can undermine me due to a perceived lack of knowledge, and I will continue to do so. I understand that I have to work harder to earn respect. 

YY: What does representation of Asian Americans in the industry mean to you? How have you seen it evolve throughout your career? 

VE: There’s a better presence now regarding where Asians are in the industry, some holding leadership positions, myself included. But I think there’s more work to be done. There are still very few and finite women, Asian women, who hold executive level and c-suite positions. It’s gotten better, and it will continue to improve over time.

It also comes down to companies genuinely supporting and embracing diversity. We can all talk about it, but company cultures must actively change to reflect these values. There have been instances where I’m on a company’s profile, and if you look at their investor relations page, board members, etc., they’re primarily white males. 

YY: Did you have any mentors or role models from your cultural community who impacted your career path?

VE: I have had the privilege of working with many women leaders. My first boss, my most memorable from when I was an intern at Viacom, is someone I still keep in touch with. She’s held numerous executive roles and has always been so supportive and an incredible role model. She’s been my number-one cheerleader to this day. 

If I ever show any uncertainty, she immediately counters with, “Vanessa, what are you talking about? You absolutely can do this.” Sometimes, you need that person who’s in your court—your coach—who always encourages you that you can do this as long as you apply yourself. 

YY: Do you have any advice for young Asian-Americans aspiring to enter the advertising industry?

VE: I think there is a stereotype about Asian individuals suggesting that we are inherently analytical, number-focused, and diligent worker bees. My advice is to always assert your opinion. Don’t just do what you’re told and follow instructions blindly. Speak up if your instincts tell you there’s a better way or a different approach.

It’s crucial to transition from a “doer” and become a leader. Express your opinions and ensure your voice is heard. Don’t settle for being the quiet one in the room. I find this is a confidence issue. When you’re confident in your knowledge, this will naturally lead to a domino effect.

The post ​​From Hong Kong Heritage to Programmatic Leadership: Vanessa Eng’s Ad Tech Journey appeared first on AdMonsters.

The video publishing industry is a strange enigma. In what other industry do you create a product, only to make revenue from a byproduct of those products?

And it’s not a small amount of revenue either. Total ad spend is predicted to reach up to $390 billion in 2024, of which publishers get to keep a large majority. With such a large percentage of revenue in the video content space, outside of SVOD, coming from the sale of the ad space, the value of the content itself has been severely underplayed.

Typically, when direct-selling, a publisher can offer advertisers data surrounding user behavior, cookie-based demographics, and traffic metrics, which only assigns value to the audience and not the content. This is how many Made-for-Advertising sites have flown under the radar for so long, with many DSPs providing traffic metrics over quality metrics.

However, with the death of cookies, the decline of MFA sites, and 96% of publishers depending on contextual targeting for their business, a paradigm switch is set to occur, placing more value, and power, to the publishers who create high-quality content. Content creators who can provide precise data on their content and whom it resonates specifically will have an impressive advantage against the competition.

The Golden Age of Video

The growing ability to understand content through advanced metadata analysis truly makes this era the golden age of video. Content creators, SSPs, and DSPs that can provide deeper analytics on what video content is available will reign supreme.

Contextual targeting in the video space has thus far been relatively limited to relating ads to the general content scheme of the text on the page or the overarching IAB category of the video in its entirety.

This happens all the time when advertisers and brands purchase contextual placements through DSPs that don’t have advanced video analysis tools. Imagine a publisher packaging up 50 travel videos and presenting them to Delta Airlines. Usually, ads are placed on an overarching content scheme – i.e. “travel,” then an advertiser like Delta Airline ads may be placed within videos about the “Best Way to Travel Without Flying” or “Backpack Itinerary for the West Coast.”

Let’s say the content is narrowed down to “Air travel .” Still, the general nature leaves advertisers with crucial questions about the emotion and deeper context – is it a joyous family trip to Disney World, or perhaps, it depicts a tragic incident involving an airplane?

Understanding this distinction is important, as it heavily impacts the advertisers’ interest. This is one of the reasons why advertisers are typically wary of news and Made-for-Advertising sites. There is so much bad news out there, that the probability of an advertiser showing up on a news article or video that is inappropriate or just plain insensitive is high.

However, by offering Delta Airlines the same package of 50 videos that are guaranteed to feature families happily flying to Disney World on their planes, the content’s worth becomes immeasurable. Some studies have shown that strategies like this boost brand recognition, awareness, and consideration by up to 30%, showcasing that the ability to understand and contextualize content intimately is a game-changer.

The Transition From Cookies & MFA

The current model of publisher and digital advertising puts content as the vehicle for ads, instead of being the main show, capable of engaging specific audiences that advertisers are interested in. However, this wasn’t always the case. In an essay by Bill Gates in 1996, he said “Content is king.” Somewhere along the journey, we got away from that as the mode for buying and placing ads.

If content is king, then context is queen. With the shift from cookie-based advertising to more context-based advertising, publishers can confidently approach brands, presenting content that resonates specifically with their desired audience.

In addition, the decline of Made-For-Advertising sites marks a critical pivot in the preference for advertisers and users alike to have a user-friendly, more content-focused experience. Statista reported that from September 2022 to January 2023, 15% of programmatic spend was spent on MFA sites. Companies like Magnite, Sharethrough, and Pubmatic have announced that they are blocking MFA sites moving forward.

In this landscape, where personalized, targeted and user-first approaches reign supreme, content creators with precise data can confidently approach brands, leveraging intelligent insights that navigate the traditional uncertainties.

How Publishers Can Take Control of Content

Due to the 93% of advertisers who said that they will use contextual advertising for some or most of their purchases and their increasing reliance on attention metrics vs. traffic metrics, a deeper level of contextual understanding needs to occur. This shift is poised to be the biggest game-changer in the industry this year, unlocking new possibilities for publishers and advertisers alike.

Publishers and content creators should look to equip tools that analyze video content in real-time, capturing trends and behaviors that unlock a world of enhanced media investment decisions that prioritize premium, trustworthy content. Utilizing AI and computer vision technologies, content creators can contextualize a video frame-by-frame, enhancing how content is packaged and presented. This level of insight allows for strategic positioning of content to advertisers, offering not just exposure but alignment with precisely curated content that speaks directly to target demographics, because where the great content is, the people are.

Publishers equipped with the ability to detect keywords, tags, and topics at scale within their content are not just responding to the post-cookie challenges and the transparency-first future; they are setting new standards for engaging and captivating audiences. For those who master the art of leveraging detailed video analytics, the future is bright.

The post Power Returns to the Content Creator: Why MFA & Audience-based Advertising Is No Longer the Way appeared first on AdMonsters.

Towards the end of last year, my company began to notice an uptick in malicious redirects stemming from video ad units—a first for the digital media ecosystem. Specifically, scammers have begun injecting malicious redirects through VAST tags that redirect users to a fraudulent website, regardless of whether the ad was played or for how long a user watched it.

The redirects started slowly as fraudsters were testing the strategy. In January, however, the number of such attacks exploded. It is the first time we’ve seen such large-scale fraud in video ad formats, which have traditionally been considered safe. In fact, publishers have assumed that the high cost of video inventory was enough of an impediment for fraudsters that they didn’t need to deploy malware detection and mitigation tools to the channel. This assumption of safety was the opening scammers needed to exploit VAST and VPAID ad units.

Our research shows that nearly a dozen major SSPs and DSPs across multiple regions have been affected by these attacks, although mobile devices in the US were the worst hit, accounting for 60% of the attacks.

So, who is behind the scam, how does it work, and, most importantly, what can we do about it?

ScamClub’s Sophisticated Attacks

These scams are the work of ScamClub, a persistent and well-organized crime ring group that has been plying malvertising schemes since 2018. ScamClub uses sophisticated techniques, such as Obfuscation and real-time bidding integration, to push malicious codes to users.

In this scenario, ScamClub actors act as a go-between, selling redirected traffic to other scammers who then trick users into downloading fake antivirus software or purchasing fake gift cards.

How it Works

This is an incredibly sophisticated attack with many mechanisms to prevent security vendors from detecting and reverse engineering them so they know how to block the scam.

Step: 1: Creating the Malicious Script. The first thing ScamClub did was inject malicious code hidden in the “MediaFile” element of the VAST tag—the same element that calls the ad’s video file. This malicious code collects fingerprinting data about the client to detect clients of a security vendor (if security is detected, the attack isn’t deployed). At this stage, they store the collected data in an environment external to the script.

Step 2: Executing the Malicious Obfuscated Script. This script, which is deliberately scrambled or obfuscated, then probes the client device for information, such as its settings and installed software, looking for suitable targets.

Step 3: Server-Side Fingerprinting. Once the script finishes fingerprinting the client, it proceeds to the server-side fingerprinting phase. Basically, it makes a request to a malicious ad server hosted on a private domain to which it passes additional information about the users’ devices, client applications, and web pages they’re on. This triggers a series of high-level, server-side fingerprinting tests in order to reassure the attackers that their scam will not be exposed to security vendors.

Step 4: Redirect Code. Once the information from the client is sent and checked by the hidden server, the POST request’s reply or response includes instructions that tell the user’s device to go to a new website. This redirect code includes several different methods to initiate the forced redirect. This diversified attack strategy increases the chances of successful redirects, making it harder for security vendors to detect and identify the attack.

Step 5: Redirect Domain Chain. The domain obtained from the redirect code initiates a redirect chain, taking the user to a fraudulent website. This is the final step; they’ve delivered traffic to their clients, who somehow attempt to defraud the user. 

In the most recent variant of the ScamClub scam, the attacker moved the malicious script’s hosting server to their own domain instead of Azure. 

For a more detailed explanation of this attack, including fingerprinting information inside the attacker environment variable, the fingerprint functions used in the script, and other technical details and sample code, please see Decoding ScamClub’s Malicious VAST Attack.

Protecting Your Inventory

The best way for a publisher is to ensure a real-time protection service (if they don’t already have one) that covers their video demand channels and video players.  

Additionally, platforms should consider applying higher scanning rates to their video demand because it is not as safe as they used to think.

The post What Every Ad Ops Team Needs to Know About ScamClub’s Malicious VAST & VPAID Attacks appeared first on AdMonsters.