Twitter partners with IAS, DoubleVerify on brand safety solutions

After brand safety and content moderation concerns in recent months have led to many major advertisers rethinking their spending on Twitter, the platform has established new partnerships with measurement companies Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify in an attempt to put their minds at ease.

Available to clients of either company, or directly through Twitter, the new services monitor and quantify ad placement adjacent to content that is deemed unsafe or unsuitable based on standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). According to a press release from Twitter, beta tests run over several months showed that 99% of impressions were adjacent to brand safe content.

The service is currently only available to advertisers in the U.S., with no indication as to when it may roll out to other markets.

Since going private, Twitter no longer releases revenue or ad spending figures, but according to data from Standard Media Index, global ad spending on Twitter dropped 71% year-over-year in December after falling 55% in November. In Canada, the December decline in spending was 62%.

U.S. authorities want Google to get rid of part of its ad business

The U.S. Department of Justice has brought a lawsuit to force Google to divest major parts of its global advertising business, alleging anti-competitive practices and self-dealing that forced publishers and advertisers to use Google’s ad products.

The 155-page complaint uses Google’s response to header bidding, a technique that emerged in the mid-2010s meant to allow other ad tech firms to compete for revenue, as an example of the company’s control over digital advertising and the anti-competitive tactics it has available to maintain that control.

The DOJ alleges that Google developed Project Poirot to manipulate programmatic auctions: advertisers using DV360, Google’s DSP, would automatically bid lower on exchanges that allowed header bidding – in some cases, by as much as 90% – so those exchanges brought in fewer ad transactions and less revenue. It also resulted in publishers served by these exchanges bringing in less revenue, and Google would later implement new pricing rules for its publisher-side ad server to limit their ability to steer spending to other exchanges.

As a remedy for Google’s control over the ad market, the DOJ wants the company to divest from the Google Ad Manager, a suite of products that includes its publisher ad server and the AdX ad exchange. It is, however, likely to be some time before the case is decided and potential impacts on the global ad market are clear: another anti-trust suit brought by the DOJ against Google in 2020 related to the company’s search business is not expected to go to trial until this September.

In a blog post, Dan Taylor, VP of global ads at Google, responded to the suit by saying the DOJ was “is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow,” citing reasons similar to those the company has used when responding to complaints about its ad business from Texas’ attorney general.

Annex Business Media names new digital leadership

Kyle Shay has been promoted to VP of digital media at Annex Business Media.

He was been tasked with leading the company’s digital strategy, including new technology, email marketing, online advertising and social media, working with other departments to align with overall business goals. Shay has been with Annex for more than 12 years, most recently as director of digital media.

Filling Shay’s previous role is Stacy Bradshaw, who will be responsible for the day-to-day operation and implementation of digital initiatives. Bradshaw first joined Annex in late 2012.

Annex Business Media is a B2B publisher that owns over 60 brands providing news and content for sectors including agriculture, construction, manufacturing and healthcare, among others. Last year, it launched Amplify, a new studio division meant to serve growing demand for branded content solutions within B2B media.