By Tom Drouillard, CEO and Managing Director
As the digital advertising marketplace faces transparency challenges, media assurance is needed now more than ever. As your media assurance partner, AAM brings independent verification across channels — websites, newsletters, events, print, out-of-home, podcasts — and across emerging buying criteria such as transparency, editorial, privacy and sustainability.
It’s been one year since AAM and BPA Worldwide merged to form the largest not-for-profit media assurance company in the world. Since then, our team has worked to bring the organizations together to provide more value to our clients and the broader media and advertising industry. I am delighted to share our progress in some exciting new areas that give buyers more assurance and showcase AAM publishers’ commitment to quality and transparency.
A key goal over the past year was to create a single destination for verified data to help buyers buy and sellers sell. Today all AAM publishers, including those that were previously audited by BPA, report data to AAM that’s included in the Media Intelligence Center. More than 250 publishers and 330 users have been added to the database in the past year. All AAM clients have unlimited access, which includes Analyzer tools and shareable Brand View profiles that present AAM-verified data with images, videos, text and links to help publishers stand out to advertisers.
To support a combined database and simplify the audit for publishers, we’ve aligned AAM and BPA standards to meet the needs of both media buyers and publishers. These rules were streamlined to make them easier to understand and reduce the effort needed for publishers to comply with reporting and audit requirements.
Industry certifications are an important way to increase media assurance. This year, for example, AAM clients were awarded 68 certifications from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) for adherence to standards for anti-fraud, brand safety and anti-malware.
In addition to TAG, leading media industry associations including the IAB Tech Lab, the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI), the Point of Care Marketing Association (POCMA), and Events Industry Council (EIC) count on AAM to verify and validate compliance to their certification programs.
Finally, we’ve combined the AAM and BPA websites to reflect AAM’s new services and certifications. Our website also provides up-to-date resources including webinars, articles and videos in AAM’s support center, newsletters and blogs that provide relevant news and insights, and complimentary one-on-one training.
Since all clients are now part of the AAM brand, we also have created ways for you to share your connection with AAM. Our audit promotion kit includes AAM’s logo for download, trust seal, promotional templates, talking points and more.
We’re just getting started. We look forward to bringing more innovative assurance services to marketers, agencies and media companies. If you have questions about AAM’s services or how you can make the most of your membership, contact us today.