Combating ad fraud fits into an overarching approach to media that Diageo has spent the past few years developing, according to the drinks giant’s global media director.

“For us, having a media supply chain that’s healthy and diverse has been a huge focus for our business and personally for me, as a global media director,” Isabel Massey told WARC.

“We want to be able to measure it consistently and robustly,” she added. (For more, read WARC’s exclusive interview: How Diageo is tackling ad fraud, data and personalisation at scale.)

It’s vital to be able to do that well, she stated, “because we want to make sure that we’re creating incredible connection strategies and ways that we can make sure that our brands are relevant to our people’s lives. So that the endpoint at which the consumers experience our brands is fair and right, both by them and by us.”

Integral to that is Diageo’s Trusted Marketplace approach, created a couple of years ago and which has since been driven through the business.

“Ad fraud and combating it is one of the key pillars of the Trusted Marketplace approach,” Massey explained: “the Trusted Marketplace allowed us to take a really firm stance around what we would pay for and how we would connect with people.

“We wanted to only connect with real humans, who are over legal drinking age.”

The last point is a particularly important consideration in a regulated market and requires responsible use of data – something at the heart of what Diageo has done.

“By that I mean targeting them in a responsible way, reusing data, and finally, in those contextual environments that are relevant to us,” said Massey.

“Brand safe, yes, but also suitable for Diageo and our brands – that’s what the Trusted Marketplace approach is. Ad fraud is at the heart of that and making sure we’re combating that is one pillar of our overall approach.”

Sourced from WARC