DAA Blog

This post is another in a series of summaries from our recent Digital Advertising Alliance Summit 2014.

A panel keynote session at the 2014 DAA's Annual Summit, "The Multi-Screen Majority — Preserving Consumer Advertising Relevancy and Control," offered interesting perspective on how the proliferation of digital devices and their multiple and simultaneous use by consumers is changing the landscape for online advertising.

It's no secret that consumers are increasingly using a combination of multiple devices to view digital content in their daily lives. The continuous rise in the use of these multiple devices has created a new terrain for online advertisers to navigate, especially as it relates to keeping up with the evolving technology while trying to provide a personalized experience for the consumer. The DAA keynote session underscored the reality that the changing landscape presents an enormous opportunity for advertisers and for consumers' convenience, but first digital advertisers must understand the profile of the multi-screen environment and the implications for their efforts to preserve and improve relevant advertising.

One important point made: it is a business imperative that digital advertisers have a solid understanding of consumer activity and use of digital devices via multiple screens. According to moderator Mike Zaneis, who is executive vice president & general counsel with the...

The Digital Advertising Alliance hosted its second annual Summit for participants – its first on the West Coast – on Thursday, June 26, at the stunning art-deco City Club of San Francisco. Interest-based marketing executives representing large publishers, leading brands, ad tech, startups and agencies big and small, came to hear two keynotes, headlined by Federal Trade Commission's Jessica Rich of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and seven sessions that covered updates to the DAA program, current industry focus on the multi-screen user, compliance, competition and impact on small publishers, as well as the economic value and global expansion of the DAA program.

The event also gave DAA the "surprise" opportunity to announce a preview, with animation, of two new mobile choice tools for users – AppChoices, a free application that enables consumers to opt out of interest-based ads served across mobile applications; and the adaptation of the current

The Digital Advertising Alliance recognizes that location data requires heightened safeguards in mobile environments if we are to maintain consumer trust in this fast-growing advertising medium. This is why the DAA Principles and our guidance for adherence on mobile platforms (which was released almost a year ago) require companies to obtain consent before collecting and transferring precise location data from individuals, and that users be able to revoke that consent at any time. The DAA program is a living example of how sensitive issues like location data can be addressed through a robust, enforceable self-regulatory framework while still allowing for innovation and the ad-funded support of content and services we all enjoy in the multi-screen world.

Essentially this was my message June 4, when I testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law – articulating marketers' proactive views on adopting and strengthening our code of conduct for location-based marketing purposes. A copy of our full written testimony is available here. In...

Do consumers like interest-based advertising? In a word, yes.

Our own dedicated consumer surveys on this point, conducted independently by the respected research firm Zogby Analytics, bear this out. Once consumers see the value exchange inherent with interest-based ads, they largely understand and are supportive of it (our most recent survey, October 2013).

Our full disclosure of our survey questions is part of a culture of transparency built into the DAA Principles and program.

However, in the world of survey research, that disclosure is vital to credibility – which is why we are surprised that one recently published survey, critical of online advertising, was completely opaque in its methodology, that of Consumer Reports.

In our view, it's unfortunate that Consumer Reports has chosen to withhold its methodology and questions for this consumer survey, since those factors are critical in reading and fully understanding results.

The two Zogby Analytics surveys commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance to date, among other industry...

This week, I had the honor of sharing information about our program with the members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ), both in written and oral testimony on behalf of the Digital Advertising Alliance. Our written testimony is posted here.

The focus of the hearing was cybersecurity, malware and its impact on advertising – issues that concern both consumers and the ad business. I was joined on panel with Maneesha Mithal, associate director, division of privacy and identity protection, of the Federal Trade Commission.

Yet – as security and malware was the hearing focus – we truly believe it is necessary to provide the benefits of online advertising as an important context to recognize. While citing recent research from our own study this year, and that from the Data-Driven Marketing Institute, we also said:

“Because of advertising, consumers can access a wealth of online...