Month: January 2023

Starting in 2023, five U.S. states (California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut and Utah) will require companies to offer an opt-out on the collection and sale of personal data, as well as targeted advertising. California’s new regulation amends and expands on the requirements of CCPA, while the other four represent an entirely new set of obligations. 

A new approach to consent

U.S. data privacy laws are currently built on an opt-out model, meaning personal data can be collected and processed unless the individual indicates otherwise. 

However, many new laws require companies to provide notice at the time data is collected. 

The new laws take effect throughout the year, and while all five state laws feature similar language, their requirements differ slightly. 

For instance, California and Colorado require companies to respect a “universal opt-out” signal, and the states plan to publish technical specifications on how to comply with their requirements. Colorado further requires that, as part of respecting the opt-out signal, companies must “…be as consistent as possible with any other similar platform, technology, or mechanism required by any federal or state law or regulation.” 

Meanwhile, neither Virginia nor Utah include an obligation to respect a universal opt-out preference signal, but they do require companies to provide a way for consumers to opt-out.

In the world of digital advertising, where auctions happen in a matter of milliseconds, these new approaches present a significant challenge, but a consent management platform (CMP) can streamline a publisher’s compliance efforts. This tool presents site visitors with choices according to state-specific requirements regarding using their personal data, which can be compiled into a consent signal and leveraged by all downstream partners.

Each of the five state laws uses unique revenue and data volume thresholds to determine applicability and specific exemptions. Publishers should consult with legal counsel to determine which laws apply and how best to comply with the relevant requirements. That said, even small publishers that fall below these thresholds should prepare for the new requirements, as the technology partners and other vendors they work with are likely subject to the new laws. A few examples include privacy policy disclosures, notice at the time of data collection, opt-out mechanisms and processes for supporting the exercise of data rights.

New technology aids in compliance

These new and varied consent requirements present a significant technical challenge for publishers, largely because they lack visibility into the residence of each site visitor. This makes it difficult to determine the applicable data rights — and indirect identifiers like IP addresses tend to be fallible with so many people using mobile devices or a virtual private network to mask their location.

Fortunately, publishers have a powerful, proactive partner in the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The IAB Tech Lab was instrumental in developing the California, U.K. and EU consent signals that have been widely adopted for CCPA and GDPR compliance. 

After two years of industry collaboration, IAB Tech Lab has released the Global Privacy Platform (GPP). This flexible, scalable technology can pass privacy, consent and consumer choice signals from a publisher’s CMP via the browser or an API. It provides a framework for all parties across the digital advertising supply chain to recognize and act according to each consumer’s preferences on personal data processing and targeted advertising.

How publishers are preparing to future-proof their revenue

At the end of the day, online publishing is a business. And while it’s critical to safeguard consumer privacy and stay in compliance with ever-changing laws, publishers must also protect their ability to earn revenue. 

Using a CMP and the IAB’s GPP makes it easier to comply with complex privacy regulations — without reinventing the wheel. They also help to streamline compliance throughout the digital advertising supply chain so a publisher’s downstream partners can support their revenue opportunities.

Publishers know their audiences better than anyone else and are well-positioned to gather information about users directly whenever they visit. Collecting first-party data does carry notice and disclosure requirements, but the rules surrounding its use are more flexible than for third-party data. And first-party data provides valuable insights for advertisers, who are willing to pay premium rates for access to relevant, engaged audience segments.

Relying on partners is critical, whether it involves publishers reaching out to their partners throughout the advertising ecosystem or joining an IAB working group. Most will be more than happy to discuss their approach to data privacy and demonstrate how their tools and technology can support your compliance efforts.

While the future of privacy legislation is impossible to predict, there’s no question that laws around the globe will continue to evolve. Taking advantage of technologies such as the IAB’s GPP will help publishers adapt to changes in existing privacy regulations and quickly implement new technical requirements. 

Sponsored by: Sovrn

As video platforms and channels continue to proliferate in the digital marketplace, brands are increasingly paying attention to safety and suitability concerns, recognizing that an ever-expanding quantity of content flowing through these spaces heightens the risk of unsuitable messaging appearing in campaign pipelines.

Pixability, a software and insights platform, is one company helping brands and agencies ensure brand-safe ads on YouTube and CTV while also taking campaign performance and audience makeup into account.

Pixability’s CPO, Jackie Paulino, recently spoke with Mike Shields, co-founder of Marketecture Media and host of the ‘Next in Marketing’ podcast, about how brands are using video advertising platforms to improve campaign performance and ensure they align with brand values.

“We’ve always wanted to be close to the advertiser, highlighting what best serves ad performance,” Paulino said. “Not just the content, although we do take it into consideration alongside brand safety and suitability. There are other things on YouTube and connected TV that are important as well, such as who your ads are serving.”

Why brand safety solutions are becoming more vital for video advertising

According to Paulino, brand safety wasn’t a big topic for advertisers when video platforms such as YouTube first launched. Back then, many brands focused primarily on growing their digital presence across fast-growing audiences.

As Pixability began assisting clients with ad insights for their YouTube campaigns, it soon became clear that the vast expansion of ad content could eventually spell trouble for brands without some form of moderation and control.

“We were talking much less about brand safety and suitability, but we anticipated that problem even back then,” said Paulino. “YouTube has user-generated content, and people don’t always upload what aligns with brands.”

To address this challenge, platforms like Pixability began focusing on developing solutions to help brands identify and remove unsuitable ad content on YouTube and CTV channels as quickly and efficiently as possible. According to Paulino, this prioritization of safety is necessary for measuring campaign success across video environments. 

“We look at brand safety and suitability as table stakes,” Paulino said. “You should expect that from anyone you’re working with. We also focus on the next part, which is your return on investment, and then we measure all the way down the funnel.”

“There is so much content uploaded to YouTube that it’s hard to keep track,” she continued. “As a third party, we can be much more strict with our [safety] guidelines. YouTube has to appease creators and can’t have too strict of rules.”  

However, as an advertising channel, CTV is not generally associated with user-generated content, so marketers may wonder whether this area needs a brand safety focus. As Paulino notes, the main issue on this channel is content alignment, an issue CTV providers are now seeking to address by providing greater transparency into the data.

“One problem we’re interested in solving is transparency,” she said. “CTV has been a black box … Now the market is expecting the same amount of reporting and transparency as the rest of their digital buys.”

How machine learning is powering video advertising suitability and performance 

With so much ad content needing alignment, many brands require more resources to flag misaligned content and identify suitable channels and formats. They’re looking for solutions to set video campaigns up for success from the get-go. 

Rather than focusing on adjusting YouTube and CTV campaigns on the fly, Pixability prioritizes the planning process advertisers take before anything gets off the ground. It uses machine learning to identify safety issues in these video ads and provide audience insights. This can include highly contextual demographic information that brands may have difficulties obtaining, both on linear and even CTV channels

“Clients give us suitability, content alignment and KPIs — what you actually want out of the campaign,” Paulino said. “We then curate a list of channels that we think will work best for you … We’ll also tell you who your audience is.”

“YouTube brings a tremendous amount of data that no one else in the video world does, especially linear,” said Paulino. The rich data in play includes knowing where the ad ran, what demographic received it, and whether viewers chose to watch it or skip it.

“That’s a lot of data to give back to brands, and we get a lot of insights from those data sets,” Paulino added. “We’re able to tell brands things they can apply to the rest of their marketing strategy.”
To learn more about monitoring CTV and YouTube campaigns, listen to more of the conversation between Marketecture and Jackie Paulino here.