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Amid industry concerns around ad fraud, viewability, transparency and more, global marketers are making radical changes to claw back control of their media activity with 70% of brands amending media agency contracts to bring clarity to the buying process.

A fresh report from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has indicated that household names are taking action to improve their media governance practices across a wide range of areas, rather than simply paying lip service to concerns.

Things came to a head last year after Procter & Gamble boss Marc Pritchard pledged to bring transparency to what he described as the murky at best, fraudulent at worst media supply chain.

As part of a step change in the way the industry scrutinises media buys, two-thirds of brands have also decided to bulk up their internal capabilities by hiring dedicated staff to ensure there is clear ROI.

Meanwhile 89% said they are currently limiting, or planning to limit, investment in ad networks that do not allow the use of third-party verification following a brand safety furore at the start of the year.

The WFA data was gleaned from marketers working at 35 multinationals with a combined annual spend of $30bn with transparency, ad fraud, viewability and brand safety coming under the spotlight as areas that have inspired action.

Media transparency

Following on the from the US Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and K2 report into media transparency, which caused waves in the industry last year, the WFA has found that transparency remains the number one priority for almost half (47%) of brands.

Mistrust in digital media has been tempered by Dentsu Japans $2.3m payout to advertisers following over estimations, and Facebooks inflated video views.

As a result, 65% of brand marketers have decided to bulk up their internal capabilities by hiring dedicated digital and media leads. The figure follows on from Tesco appointing a head of media to ensure it gets its moneys worth when it comes to such investments, and Airbnb hinting that it too was on the lookout for someone to step into a similar position.

Over the past 12 months there has been an overall sense among marketers that they had undervalued of the importance of media knowledge within brand marketing teams, but WFA data coupled with recent hires at big name brands shows steps are being taken internally to address the problem. However, just 14% of marketers said they feel like the transparency debate is de-escalating, meaning theres likely to be more big changes and calls to action before the year is out.

Others are following in the footsteps of P&G and reviewing their agency roster, with 70% saying they have already amended media contracts, and a further 41% saying they have already conducted a programmatic review.

Viewability

In the UK alone almost 600m per-year is believed to be wasted on non-viewable ads, and viewability concerns ranked high amid WFA members questioned. As such, 63% of marketers have said they are now only investing in viewable impressions which meet industry standards.

Progress in this area has been made by cross-industry body the European Viewability Steering Group (EVSG), which just last week launched a set of measurement values which aim to reduce discrepancies in the data provided by different viewability measurement tools.

However, according to the WFA, 20% of marketers say they have devised their own viewability criteria, with a further 40% announcing plans to do so; previously only 17% were doing this.

There is still ongoing conversation around what constitutes as a view, with P&G subscribing to the MRCs 50% rating and Unilever believing that ads are only worth the investment if they are 100% in view.

Ad fraud

Google admitted last year that it removed 1.7bn bad ads as part of its bid to tackle ad fraud, but some have warned the problem is set to swell unless more advertisers refuse to turn a blind eye to inflated numbers caused by ad fraud.

The figure forecast to be lost to ad fraud in 2017 currently stands at $16.4bn, and while agency heads have previously blasted platforms like Google and Facebook for marking their own homework, the WFA study found that brand marketers are taking matters into their own hands. 54% - a jump of 20% - are now working with third-party verification or counter-ad fraud partners, and many are now taking actions recommended by the WFAs ad fraud compendium like limiting run of exchange buys (55%).

A further 40% are developing internal solutions to the problem, highlighting a trend for brining digital buying capabilities in-house or working to a hybrid model.

Brand safety

Unsurprisingly brand safety is the second top concern among marketers, following on from moves by Google to assuage advertisers after their ads were served inadvertedly against controversial content.

Keith Weed, Unilever's chief marketing officer, has previously said that brands were also to blame for the furore, saying that some of the issues stemmed from shortcomings in brand's own media buying practices.

It appears marketers are taking action on this point, with 54% saying they have worked with third-party verification companies to monitor the environment in which their ads appear. Only 20% were previously doing this, and a further 54% have suspended investment in ad networks where they feel there is unnecessary risk, a jump of 34%.

"Last years ANA report was a catalyst for a new wave of action by brands not just in the US but around the world, addressing many of the media issues that our members have highlighted including brand safety and ad fraud," said Robert Dreblow, head of marketing services at the WFA.

"These actions, coupled with an increasing number of WFA members sharing that they have witnessed improved transparency, are positive signs that we can create an improved media landscape for brands, agency partners and media owners."

Excerpt from:
Brands take action to claw back control of digital media spend as 65% bulk up in-house teams - The Drum

Oil recyling refinery still hasn't installed anti-smog devices, facing fines by Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality.

After years of dithering, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is finally trying to force a North Portland used-oil recycling refinery, American Petroleum Environmental Services, to construct and install air pollution control equipment at its plant near the Expo Center.

Last December, the agency ordered the plant to install the equipment, known as regenerative thermal oxidizers, by July 25. But when that day rolled around, the pollution control equipment was still not installed. The DEQ started issuing a $1,600 fine for every day that the plant operates without it. As of Friday, Aug. 4, the fines owed for three days of violations totaled $4,800, though none were issued last week, according to DEQ spokesman Matthew Van Sickle.

The company, also known as APES, closed down the North Portland plant from July 30 through Aug. 5, said Joe Stanaway, a company executive.

Until the oxidizers are installed, the DEQ is asking but not requiring the plant to limit its operating hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, but not on weekends.

Illegally removed equipment, no fines

A previous owner of the refinery unlawfully removed the pollution control equipment in 2006, an action the DEQ says was a violation of its air pollution permit. During the last 11 years, the DEQ never issued any fines for the unlawful removal of the equipment.

APES' air pollution permit expired in 2013, but was extended for an indefinite period of time.

DEQ rules allow the agency to extend permits for polluters who are not in compliance with their permits, without giving public notice or holding a public hearing, so long as the polluter files the necessary paperwork. In the case of the APES plant, it didn't matter that the plant had generated hundreds if not thousands of odor complaints from its neighbors since 2000.

The DEQ is preparing a new permit that is expected to go into effect later this year.

Due to a series of blunders, as reported by the Tribune on March 6, the DEQ is only just now enforcing the terms of the old permit. The DEQ made errors in the way it wrote the original permit by omitting important language pertaining to daily operating requirements, and had forgotten to follow up on an inspection in 2011 that revealed the fact that air pollution control equipment was missing. According to an APES report from 2011 that was obtained from the DEQ under a public records request, the oxidizers were removed because they were "not properly functioning" and were causing odors.

The DEQ opted to issue fines recently rather than close down the plant, although it has the authority to do so, according to rules cited by Michael Orman, an air quality manager at the agency.

In a statement provided to the Tribune, the company said it is "working tirelessly to install the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer that will vastly improve air emissions from the facility. We have invested additional funds and deployed extra resources on this project while remaining dedicated to meeting our commitments to the state and the local community."

The plant's emissions lead to numerous odor complaints from North Portland residents, and its toxic emissions may have made some of the residents sick from a variety of respiratory and other ailments, as the Tribune reported in March.

The DEQ suspects the odors were caused by dangerous chemicals emitted by the plant known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, many of which can cause cancer and other types of disease. The thermal oxidizers are designed to destroy VOCs by burning them at extremely high temperatures. But the oxidizers are not capable of destroying other pollutants known to be emitted by the plant, such as heavy metals like chromium, which can also cause cancer, or sulfur dioxide.

Residents say they are weary of being asked to endure continuing delays as they wait for the plant to control its pollution, said Mary Lou Putman, a Hayden Island resident. Complaints on social media from area residents have dropped off this year, possibly due to the fact that the plant has reduced its operations since February.

"I am not anti-business, but I am pro responsible business," Putman said. "APES and their out-of-state investors continue to be in violation of the federal Clean Air Act. Period. They act like it's a game. By not shutting them down immediately for these violations, DEQ continues to pander to polluters. What's wrong with these people?"

Meanwhile, she says the odors still persist. On Sunday morning, she was awakened by what she describes as "toxic emissions."

"At 3:40 a.m. this morning ( Sunday) I was awakened," she said in an email. Her weather vane showed that the odors were coming from the direction of the plant. "And @10:30 a.m. we detected it again."

Blaming development bureau

APES officials said the installation was delayed by the city of Portland's Bureau of Development Services, which issues building permits for large and small construction projects. BDS needed to approve a permit for the construction of a concrete pad before installation of the oxidizers could proceed.

But the DEQ blames the company for the delay. It said that on multiple occasions APES "failed to provide Portland BDS with the requested documentation to support or clarify your permit applications in a timely fashion," according to a letter to the company dated Aug. 4.

APES officials said the city, not the company, had dragged its feet.

"Despite working with experienced professionals, the project experienced repeat delays brought on by the city of Portland's ever-changing requests," company executives Joe Stanaway and Mike Mazza said in a July 28 letter to the DEQ. They said the company even offered to pay a city employee overtime to help expedite its application for a permit.

They said APES has taken several additional actions "to get the permits as quickly as possible. DEQ's contention otherwise is incorrect and misguided."

But in a recent statement to the Tribune, company executives said the city caused only a "slight delay."

"We have had a strong partnership with BDS in each phase of needed approvals," they said.

Nevertheless, installation of the oxidizers is now moving forward.

Ross Caron, a BDS spokesman, said the city issued the permit for the concrete pad on July 26, 2017, two days before Stanaway and Mazza sent the letter. Although the company declined to provide an updated timeline for completion of the project to the Tribune, the company said in a July 14 letter to the DEQ that "we anticipate requiring an additional 10 to 12 weeks to obtain city permits and complete installation."

Past violations

The APES plant has a long history of struggling to meet the requirements of city and state building permit codes, starting even before it removed the thermal oxidizers in 2006.

Last fall, the city's Bureau of Development Services notified APES of 21 building code violations at the plant, including some that occurred as far back as 2002. The notice of violations said numerous structural, electrical and plumbing projects at the plant had not been permitted or inspected. In addition, the installation of several storage tanks went ahead without obtaining necessary permits.

Although the permits and inspections do not guarantee the safety of new construction projects, they do ensure that they meet minimum standards laid out in state and local building codes, Caron said. He said the city is working with the company to correct the violations, and has issued no fines.

At plants like APES, safety is a major concern, not just for plant employees but for people in the neighborhood. In July 2009, several of the storage tanks at the plant exploded, according to news reports at the time.

"A huge explosion went off. It was just almost instantaneous. I went over and looked out the window and 20, 30, 40 foot wall of flame out there," Matt Coale, the owner of a neighboring business, told KPTV news.

Freelancer Paul Koberstein can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Read more from the original source:
APES pollution control still up in the air - Portland Tribune

A leadership candidate forAlberta's United Conservative Party iscalling on other candidates to condemn Rebel Media for its coverage of the deadly clash between anti-racism activists and white nationalistsin Charlottesville, Va.,on the weekend.

Doug Schweitzer, facing a tough battle against leadership front-runners Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, took to Twitter on Saturday to accuse the right-wing media outlet of defending white supremacistsduring its coverage of the violence.

Heather Heyer was killed when a car was driven into a crowd of counter-protesters. Suspected white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr., 20, has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene.

In a tweet over the weekend, Schweitzer a Calgary-based lawyer accused The Rebelof "defending Nazis" in its coverage.

Just before the fatal collision, Rebel personality Faith Goldy was livestreaming from the scene and condemning authorities for allowing counter-protesters to rally, after they declared the Virginia march an illegal gathering.

Goldy was still live when the car crashed into the crowd where she stood.

Schweitzer called on other UCP leadership candidates to distance themselves from the organization, which was founded by outspoken conservative commentator Ezra Levant.

"We heard the Rebel Media providing coverage on it, and right before the individual was hit by that car and died, they were offering soft support to some white supremacist groups that were out there,"Schweitzersaid to CBC News on Monday.

He said Rebel has evolved from a site that offered a "fresh voice for issues" into a platform for the alt-right.

"It has no place in United Conservative Party. We cannot be playing footsie with this and enough is enough," he said. "Conservative politicians should no longer be participating in a platform that allows for the facilitation of hate."

Levant himself issued a memo on The Rebel website Monday that distances his organization from neo-Nazis, marching through Charlottesville.

He also distanced the organization from the alt-right label, saying it has evolved from "unashamed right-wingedness, with a sense of humour" to something driven by white nationalists focused on race.

"That term now effectively means racism, anti-Semitism and tolerance of neo-Nazism," he wrote.

The statement wasn't enough for Schweitzer.

"I think that condemning them is obviously a step that they're doing. They're trying to do damage control over their current actionism."

Leadership hopeful Brian Jean tweeted on Saturday he agrees withSchweitzerthat white supremacists have no place in society.

At a media availability on health policy on Monday, Jean whose campaign manager is a director for Rebel Media again denounced racism, but did not explicitly condemn the right-wing outlet's coverage.

In an email, Kenney'scampaign team also denounced the weekend attacks,but did not condemnRebel Media's reporting of them.

"Jason has been building bridges between Canadian communities of all races,ethnicitiesand religions for over a decade,"KenneyspokespersonBlaiseBoehmersaid.

JeffCallaway, the fourth candidate for the UCP leadership, has not responded to requests for an interview.

Pollster Janet Brown said Schweitzer is using the issue to set himself apart in the leadership race.

"He's definitely trying to make Rebel Media a wedge issue," she said.

"He's really trying to separate himself from the other candidates, as someone who hasn't been involved with Rebel Media and doesn't have anyone on his campaign involved."

Brown said most Albertans identify as fiscally conservative, but are not comfortable with social conservatism.

"This really is the sort of weak link for the UCP, this is the quicksand they have to avoid," she said.

Brown said it looks as though Jean and Kenney are trying to avoid the "distraction of having a fight with Rebel Media" by not condemning the organization.

"I don't know that Rebel Media is really all that important that their success would live and die on them being aligned with Rebel Media," she said.

Schweitzer'stweet prompted a response from Goldy.

"Lawyer confused by concept of first amendment," she tweeted.

Schweitzerreplied: Hi@FaithGoldy- I'm not neutral on white supremacism. I oppose it. /1#ableg#ucp

The coverage was also the final straw for Brian Lilley, listed as a co-founder on The Rebel website, who posted to Facebook on Monday that he could no longer be part of the organization because ofits increasingly harsh tone on issues like immigration and Islam.

"There are ways to disagree on policy without resorting to us versus them rhetoric," he wrote.

"What The Rebel suffers from is a lack of editorial and behavioural judgment that left unchecked will destroy it and those around it. For that reason, I am leaving."

See original here:
Ezra Levant's 'damage control' not enough for UCP leadership ... - CBC.ca

Ever since he first started listening to KISS on his 2XL robot tape player, former AOL executive Mike Macadaan, knew that voice commands would be the future for computer interactions.

That obsession stuck with Macadaan through his long years as a technology executive focused on user interfaces and then again as a co-founder of the Santa Monica-based venture studio, Science.

With the emergence of Alexa and through the future envisioned in movies like Her Macadaan saw his chance to bring that long-held childhood dream into reality.

The vehicle for this new venture is a company called Ground Control, which, in partnership with the talent agency CAA, will be building a new platform for voice-based applications using the biggest names from sports, entertainment, and media.

Ground Control started because CAA developed an interest in the voice space, Macadaan tells me.

Macadaan was introduced to Michael Yanover, the head of CAA Ventures, and Michael Blank, who heads the agencys AR/VR and mobile business development arm, and the three men began hashing out their vision for how the agencys talent could tap the emerging voice-based technology systems on the market.

Ive always hated the fact that weve had to rely on these graphical interfaces and computer screens Voice is the first time where you can say, as a designer, No. You dont need any of that stuff,' Macadaan told me.

While Alexa and Googles Home may have liberated users from the tyranny of the mouse click, they remain, to Macadaan, kind of terrible.

In his mind, a better experience would be to have the ability to listen to the voices that are already a part of a daily routine the newscaster, the entertainer, the athlete, and the politician give you the information you need or guide you to the content you want.

In this world of voice, the interface is voice over actors, its writers, its people who do foley work and sound effects, says Macadaan. LA is the perfect place for this.

And CAA, he says, makes the perfect partner. The CAA roster of talent, coupled with all the people who are storytellers in LA and my background in user experience design? We put that together and we can do interesting things, says Macadaan.

Imagine, he says, a celebrity host emceeing game night in anyones living room. We have the chance to give celebrities this digital expression and give them an opportunity to make some money there and further their brand, he said.

Ground Control will be the home for those experiences, but itll also be working to develop software to make the process of integrating among different voice-controlled devices easier for developers.

Macadaan actually sees a three-tiered problem with the adoption and use of applications on current voice-controlled devices. The first is the usability itself, the second is discoverability, and the third is the integration of applications across platforms.

With Ground Control, he says, he hopes to solve all three problems.

See the rest here:
Ground Control launches with CAA to bring entertainment's biggest stars to Alexa, Siri, and Google - TechCrunch

President Donald Trump responds to questions from the media in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday.

My head is spinning, one White House aide says after the president also pins blame on the alt-left.

By ANNIE KARNI, ELIANA JOHNSON and NOLAN D. MCCASKILL

08/15/2017 04:27 PM EDT

Updated 08/15/2017 10:07 PM EDT

NEW YORK It took President Donald Trump two days to explicitly call out the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who engaged in violent protests over the weekend that resulted in the death of a 32-year-old Charlottesville woman.

It took him less than 24 hours to undo the damage control that had been foisted upon him by teleprompter-wielding, crisis-managing aides.

Story Continued Below

Bridling at the term alt-right, Trump attempted to redirect blame for the violence at the rally onto the other side.

What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? he said at an unplanned news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower, referring to the alt-right protesters who gathered to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue from a park.

Trump also said he has yet to speak to the family of the woman killed, Heather Heyer, but promised that he would be reaching out and applauded her mothers beautiful statement, in which she praised Trump.

With no teleprompter to keep him on a message crafted for him by his top aides, like chief of staff John Kelly, Trump reverted to the many sides language he ad-libbed on Saturday remarks that earned him criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, and even pushback from his own top aides.

You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, Trump explained Tuesday, and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch.

He added: I think theres blame on both sides.

The free-wheeling remarks represented an about-face for the president, who after two days relented to pressure from his administration to read the statement that included the words racism is evil, while calling out specific types of hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis.

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In his only appearance in front of the press on Tuesday, Trump was originally scheduled to make a short announcement on infrastructure from the lobby of his Manhattan home. He came equipped with charts to show how his administration was cutting the regulatory red tape to make building roads less onerous. Reporters were warned he would take no questions, and that two of his top aides, economic adviser Gary Cohn and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, would take questions after the president departed.

But Trump overruled his staff.

Kelly stood off to the side while Trump spoke, staring down at the marble floor as the president doubled down on his widely criticized many sides rhetoric. Kellys stiff body language appeared to reflect the feeling among many Trump aides.

My head is spinning, texted one White House aide watching the president unleash himself on television.

When asked whether he and other officials supported the presidents views on the protest, Cohn hedged. We share the presidents view that infrastructure is really important to America, and our infrastructure is crumbling, he said.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the two family members who serve in Trumps administration, were absent from Trump Tower on Tuesday they were on a two-day, pre-scheduled trip to Vermont, a White House official said, and were planning to rejoin the president at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club on Thursday.

Trumps charged statements on Tuesday inflamed the controversy his aides had just started to contain.

After Trump's original ad-libbed comments on Saturday, his communications staff went into immediate crisis control, according to a White House official. An anonymous press statement was released, stating that the president "condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups."

The statement was put out with no name on it because press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was on a brief vacation in Bermuda, the official said. The statement was written by another more junior press aide, Jessica Ditto, and the hope was that it would gird against the backlash to the president's own words.

But by Sunday night it was clear that a statement from a nameless aide was doing little to staunch the outrage, and that only the president could clean up his own mess.

While the revised statement on Monday eased some of the outcry, Trump was quickly hit by a fresh backlash including from prominent Republicans after his Trump Tower news conference.

We must be clear, House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said the white supremacist rally organizers are 100% to blame and that its dangerous to put some of the responsibility on the counter-protesters.

The #WhiteSupremacy groups will see being assigned only 50% of blame as a win.We can not allow this old evil to be resurrected, Rubio tweeted.

Later Tuesday, the White House circulated a talking-points memo to congressional Republicans emphasizing many of Trump's assertions during the impromptu news conference.

Among other things, the document asserted that "the president was entirely correct both sides of the violence in Charlottesville acted inappropriately, and bear some responsibility." The guidance also blamed the press: "The media reacted with hysteria to the notion that counterprotesters showed up with clubs spoiling for a fight, a fact that reporters on the ground have repeatedly stated."

The talking points also blamed the media for "inciting more division."

In his remarks on Tuesday, Trump cast himself as a cautious, fact-focused president, insisting that despite a long history of celebrating vicious attacks and reveling in conspiracy theories, he was simply reserving judgment until the full story unfolded.

Before I make a statement, I need the facts, he explained. So I dont wanna rush into a statement. So making the statement when I made it was excellent.

Trump described the alt-left as a very, very violent group that charged at protesters without a permit to even assemble in Charlottesville. He reiterated that he condemned hate groups but argued that not everyone was a white supremacist or neo-Nazi.

Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee, Trump said. So this week its Robert E. Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jacksons coming down. I wonder: Is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, Where does it stop?

Trump, who appeared to relish his time battling with the press, even used the opportunity to promote one of his properties, a winery in Charlottesville.

"Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville? he said, pausing to continue bantering with reporters as he walked out of the lobby. I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States in Charlottesville."

Trump claimed that he did not know that David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, attended the rally. But Duke further inflamed the situation when he thanked Trump on Tuesday afternoon, via Twitter, for his honesty & courage to tell the truth about Charlottesville and condemn the leftist terrorists in Black Lives Matter and anti-fascists.

Trumps show on Tuesday also lent new skepticism to the idea that Kelly, a retired United States Marine Corps general who has been trying to instill new order in the West Wing, would be able to affect any real change on a president like Trump.

At a press conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Vice President Mike Pence was speaking shortly before Trumps new comments on Charlottesville, his No. 2 praised the man at the top for his forthrightness.

"We have an American President who says what he means, and means what he says," Pence said.

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Continued here:
Trump blows up damage control as he blames 'both sides' for Charlottesville - Politico