Two of the leading anti-fraud and brand safety standards organisations in the digital ad industry – the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) – are to merge.
The pair were already in a formal partnership, since March 2017, aligning their programs to strengthen standards, avoid duplicative effort and extend their reach. The combined organisation – the merger will be completed early September – will carry the TAG name and be headed up existing TAG CEO Mike Zaneis.
“This merger will ensure that companies around the world and across the supply chain can focus their efforts on a single trusted set of self-regulatory standards that address fraud, malware, piracy, and brand protection,” he said.
“From Manhattan to Manchester, Madrid to Macao, and Mumbai to Melbourne, every company in digital advertising can comply with TAG’s standards.”
Jules Kendrick, currently CEO of JICWEBS and who takes on the new role of Managing Director of UK and Europe, added that it would become “easier for every company in the supply chain to adopt the high standards necessary to protect themselves and their customers across the globe.
“Rather than wading through an acronym soup of regional alternatives with differing standards, costs, and compliance requirements, companies can make sure they comply with one set of industry-wide certifications,” she said.
Four UK-based trade bodies – the Association for Online Publishing (AOP), the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), and ISBA, the voice of British advertisers – will join TAG’s governing body, the TAG Leadership Council.
In addition to its JICWEBS relationship, TAG has been building global partnerships with other trade organizations for several years, including a partnership with the Chinese Advertising Association (CAA) to promote TAG’s programs to CAA’s 2,000 members in China, and a collaboration with GÜR, the Turkish platform for trustworthy digital advertising. There has also been direct dialogue with a range of other national and regional industry associations.
TAG maintains that the cross-border benefits of its programs have been proven through research demonstrating dramatically lower fraud rates in TAG Certified Channels in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the UK.
Sourced from TAG, JICWEBS
