Advertisers, prioritise standards over silverware

Opinion

This industry has award-winning creativity in spades, but it has to go hand-in-hand with a responsible approach that demands shared standards as a given.

Spring is — finally — in the air and you know what that means: in just a few short months ad land will descend on the Croisette and these pages will be filled with who won what at Cannes. A bit like Hollywood, we’re an industry obsessed with awards (unfortunately without the added bonus of Jennifer Coolidge behind the mic). Walk into any ad agency’s reception and you run the risk of stumbling into a cabinet stuffed with gongs. We just can’t get enough.

There’s nothing wrong with that. This industry produces brilliant, boundary-pushing work and that deserves to be celebrated. No one gets into advertising just to spend their evenings clapping colleagues on and off stage, but it’s undeniably a nice perk. Plus, it’s human nature to want to achieve and have those achievements recognised. From that first gold star on the classroom wall to the trophy-laden shelf in the boss’ office, we’re programmed to strive for awards and the prestige that they bring.

Why it’s time to shelve the silverware

Yet awards alone are not enough. This collective back slapping is ultimately meaningless unless it’s matched by an equal enthusiasm for the core standards that underpin a more responsible, safe and efficient ad ecosystem. Agreed — talk of standards is much less exciting than the glitz of award ceremonies, especially when you throw the south of France into the mix. But, while gold medals will pay homage to the creativity that great advertising embodies, they won’t address the essential issues our industry needs to solve in order to thrive in the long run.

This is why the IAB is calling on advertisers to take action with a simple message: Shelve the silverware and demand the Gold Standard from your media partners.

For those that haven’t heard of it, the Gold Standard is an IAB initiative open to anyone that buys and sells digital media. It incorporates tools to tackle ad fraud; uphold brand safety; improve the online experience for consumers; help businesses comply with GDPR and eprivacy laws; and strengthen supply chain transparency. Basically, it’s a catch all for everything advertisers should want from their media partners.

Everyone could be a winner

Our aim is ambitious but not unreasonable: we want every major advertiser in the UK to demand the Gold Standard from their media partners as a matter of course. The complexity of digital — especially programmatic — gets a lot of stick from commentators that label it murky and opaque, but advertisers aren’t powerless. By taking action and insisting their partners are Gold Standard certified, advertisers have a simple yet effective way of ensuring they’re working with responsible players that are using the right tools to address existing issues.

This should be a priority for every advertiser because — to put it bluntly — there’s no point running award-winning work in an unsafe environment, or if your media partners are strangers to ads.txt.

The fact that advertisers are spending three quarters of their annual ad budgets on digital channels makes this task all the more crucial. Money talks and it’s essential that spend is rewarding the publishers, agencies and ad tech businesses that have taken the time and effort to undergo the rigorous Gold Standard certification process.

Prioritising these companies isn’t only the right thing to do from an individual business standpoint — I mean, who wants to be losing money to ad fraud or have their ads wind up in unsafe environments? — but it’s also the right thing to do for the long-term health of the ad industry. The more advertisers that work with Gold Standard certified suppliers, the healthier the ecosystem.

This industry has award-winning creativity in spades, but it has to go hand-in-hand with a responsible approach that demands shared standards as a given. So here’s my ask: advertisers, throw your weight behind the Gold Standard with the same gusto that is usually reserved for bagging a Grand Prix. If you do that, everyone’s a winner.

James Chandler is chief marketing officer at the IAB UK