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November 20, 2013

One-third of brands ‘do not know where online adverts appear’

Project Sunblock publishes research as it updates content verification tool.

By Joe Curtis

A content verification firm has updated its software to offer companies insight into the effectiveness of their adverts as it published a survey suggesting many have no idea where their online ads appear.

Project Sunblock says the latest iteration of its product offers brands granular detail about the effect their adverts have and where in the world views come from.

The firm also claimed the new version stops ads appearing alongside potentially embarrassing content within three milliseconds, as it published a study stating that a third of companies are ignorant of where their adverts appear online.

The findings collated from 268 "senior marketing decision-makers" in the UK also suggest that 62% of brands have no way of accessing real-time analytics on their advertising.

More than half the respondents said online advertising was not transparent enough, while they said porn sites were the most damaging to advertise alongside, followed by pro-terrorism sites and illegal download sites.

Project Sunblock said its own research showed that around 7.78 billion advert impressions are found alongside damaging content each year, such as phishing, malware, illegal drugs and porn.

COO Andrew Goode said: "The buy and sell of digital advertising is becoming more instantaneous and harder to track than ever before. Big brands are effectively allowing their collateral to be hosted on illegal or sexually explicit websites, and each time that happens, brands are putting money in the back pocket of criminals.

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"We’ve even seen examples of banks appearing on porn sites. Brands need to address the threat sooner rather than later, and with our new technology platform we’re offering them to chance to do just that."

He told CBR the new version of Project Sunblock’s software would offer brands detailed insight into their digital spend.

"There’s a question of effectiveness," he said. "If your ads were all seen but only seen for on average one second, is that a good use of your spend?

"We looked at geolocations, so where in the world views are coming from, and we looked at things like fraud-bot detection, looking at have you actually got real people visiting the sites your ads are on?"

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