If a Tree Falls in the Forest and No One is There to Hear It....

There is a great article in the May 3rd New York Times by David Segal titled The Great Unwatched.

Take a moment to read it.  The topic is not new to this post, but it provides a unique perspective of the video aspect of online advertising. 

One of my favorite passages.. “There is so much junk between us and the companies that buy ad space on our pages it will blow your mind,” he explained. “It would take us weeks of research to figure out which ad network provided that ad.” Alex Treadway, The Daily Caller

The video fraud problem is not new, but it is becoming more important.  

"The very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior."  So as the number of videos online has increased and consumers spend more time watching them, the race is on to monetize this behavior.  And anytime there is a chance to make money, you will have individuals who will attempt to cheat the system.  See 51% of Web Traffic is Fraudulent.

So what is the industry to do?  One possible solution is to embrace hiring third party online auditing firms like BrandAds.  So you receive the ad network/exchanges click, impression, CTR report and you independently verify the information by hiring firms like BrandAds to authenticate the data.  (Full discloser - I do not know anything about BrandAds other than what I read in the NY Times article.) 

Yes, I know this will cost more money.  Build it into your pricing model.  As an individual who has been on both sides of the media buying desk, I am more than willing to pay a few more cents for verifying that the inventory I am buying is legitimate.  This verification happens all the time in television using spot logs.  As a buyer you can be assured that your 5:19:00 pm spot ran on KSAT.  No guessing, no wondering, no hoping.  It is an expected behavior in the business.

And yes, I know it looks like we don't trust our ad network/exchanges to accurately report this information.  It is because we (the industry) don't trust the information we are being given.  Too much secrecy.  Not enough transparency.  I hope this isn't the only solution, but perhaps it could be the catalysis to get our industry to act.  Our reputation is on the line.