The move marks another industry-first initiative by the company to ensure the highest quality marketplace for brands, publishers and consumers.

300×250 video ads are a prime example of ads that provide a poor user experience. The 300×250 size does not match any standard video ad size and consists almost entirely of in-banner video (IBV), a video ad that is “stuffed” into a banner ad but sold as in-stream video inventory or mislabeled outstream units.

In a joint study with Pixalate, the data platform that offers a comprehensive suite of products that bring transparency to programmatic advertising, OpenX confirmed that the 300×250 video unit accounts for over 30 percent of all video sold programmatically today. The study also found that this particular video ad unit had Invalid Traffic (IVT) rates nearly a third higher than the average of all other programmatic video ad units sold today.

“Video is a rapidly growing part of the programmatic ecosystem, and as the medium matures, the industry needs to constantly stay ahead of format variations to ensure brands, publishers and consumers experience the highest quality video engagement,” said John Murphy, head of marketplace quality, OpenX. “Quality has always been a priority at OpenX, and this step confirms our conclusion that this ad unit has no place in any advertising exchange that values quality. Put simply, it is an ad unit that should be stopped in its tracks.”

According to a separate OpenX performance assessment of 300×250 video ads, the company also found that this particular ad size is 80 percent less viewable compared to all other video ad sizes and they are 98 percent less likely to be completed while visible and audible.

“Quality is a choice. Whether it is choosing to work only with TAG certified companies, or limiting ad buys to ads.txt approved partners, or, as in the case of video, choosing to work with partners that will put the interests of the entire ecosystem above short-term gain, we must expect every player in digital advertising to make quality and value central pillars of their business,” said Jason Fairchild, co-founder of OpenX.

The post OpenX Cracks Down on Ad Unit Abuse appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

As a free and open contribution to the ad tech community, OpenX is also making available a GDPR-ready data processing agreement (DPA) drafted in consultation with leading U.S. and EU privacy counsel.

This “open source” DPA was published today to www.openx.com/GDPR as a resource for publishers to expedite their compliance process with other technology partners that may process the publisher’s EU personal data. OpenX is also making available other GDPR-related resources on its website, including a guide for obtaining certification under the Privacy Shield, which is an important legal mechanism for validating the transfer of EU personal data out of the EU to the U.S.

“GDPR is the single most significant regulation in the history of digital advertising,” said Doug McPherson, chief administrative officer and general counsel at OpenX. “It replaces a patchwork of EU national rules with a single regulatory framework with global reach and strict penalties for those who fail to comply. GDPR applies to every company, wherever they are located, that offers goods or services to EU citizens or receives, stores or sends personal data from any EU citizen. At OpenX, we are committed to being the highest quality and most trusted partner to the thousands of leading publishers and top brands that rely upon our exchange. We committed early on to investing significantly in GDPR compliance and in educating the industry about its implications. We have taken the extra step today to make available a data processing agreement and other resources in order to move the entire industry towards greater accountability and trust.”

According to one recent analysis, leading publishers today can have hundreds of technology partners with access to their consumer data via code on their page. Under GDPR, publishers will be responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance for data security for every single partner they allow to access their data. Failure to comply effectively could result in significant penalties — up to the greater of €20,000,000 or 4% of worldwide annual revenue.

The post OpenX Announces GDPR Publisher Compliance Ahead of Schedule appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to a statement emailed to MMW, the company also announced the release of the latest version of its mobile SDK, optimizing for video formats to enable publishers and app developers to better monetize their mobile apps with video in a high-quality, scalable environment that connects to the most respected buyers, brands and agencies worldwide.

The growth of the company’s mobile business follows a dedicated investment in building innovative solutions catered specifically to the mobile environment. More than 90% of OpenX’s top customers globally now use the OpenX Exchange to monetize both desktop and mobile inventory.

“With mobile advertising overtaking desktop spend globally, OpenX has made the right technology and team investments to grow with the industry’s expansion into mobile and cross-screen consumer engagement,” said Jason Fairchild, co-founder and chief revenue officer at OpenX. “As mobile continues to command greater consumer attention and advertiser spend, OpenX’s exchange has rapidly grown to become one of the largest mobile marketplaces in the world connecting hundreds of millions of consumers with the most trusted and respected brands.”

Long-standing publisher and mobile app developer partnerships fueled rapid growth for the company’s mobile business in the first half of 2017 and spurred significant adoption of its mobile SDK which initially launched in August. In just the first ten weeks of general availability more than 100 premium mobile apps have integrated the SDK. Following strong early adoption and the opportunity to increase demand for high value video ad units, OpenX today announced the SDK is now video-optimized to provide publishers and app developers with the ability to leverage interstitial video formats in their monetization strategy.

“Mobile video is poised for explosive growth in 2018, continuing to grow in popularity among advertisers because of its unique position at the intersection of quality and user experience – a position where OpenX thrives,” said Maggie Mesa, vice president of mobile business development at OpenX. “Consumers viewing mobile, and specifically in-app video content, offer a unique opportunity for brands to drive powerful engagement and for publishers and app developers to drive increased revenue. OpenX’s high quality global mobile exchange is perfectly positioned to support both buyers and sellers in this valuable environment.”

The post First Look: OpenX Mobile Business More Than Doubles In First Half of 2017 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

OpenX is also one of the first global exchanges to be independently validated by a third-party across all four TAG certifications, demonstrating its deep commitment to anti-fraud, anti-piracy, anti-malware and inventory quality standards.

To earn each certification, OpenX has met stringent guidelines as determined by TAG, a first-of-its-kind, cross-industry accountability program, created by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to fight deceptive activity across the digital advertising supply chain.

“As one of the first fully TAG-certified exchanges, OpenX is taking material steps to rid the industry of the bad actors perpetuating fraud, malware and other quality issues,” said Mike Zaneis, president of TAG. “OpenX has been, and continues to be, a leader in quality as measured by a trusted, independent third party and sets the standard for exchanges across the entire digital advertising industry.”

We’re told that the “stringent requirements” to acquire each TAG certification are designed to protect advertisers, publishers, technology providers, and consumers from the fraudulent actions of bad actors that cost the industry billions of dollars each year.

The post OpenX Receives Full Tag Certification for ‘Commitment to Quality’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Paul will oversee the growing technical teams at OpenX to foster the development of new, innovative programmatic technology.

From the official announcement:

With over 30 years of technology leadership experience, Paul will lead a global team of more than 250 engineers and data scientists as the company continues to grow to meet the needs of the digital advertising marketplace.

Paul was previously the CTO and founder of mobile search company Zowdow, where his technical expertise and mobile first technology strategy scaled the business to over 40 million daily active users worldwide.

“I am thrilled to welcome Paul Ryan to OpenX to lead our incredibly talented engineering team. Paul has helped engineer many of the fundamental technologies our industry relies upon today and has been at the forefront of the mobile-first evolution,” said Tim Cadogan, CEO of OpenX. “I have known Paul for nearly two decades and I am confident that with his strategic vision and leadership, we will continue to innovate ahead of the market and provide our customers with the technology they need to grow their businesses.”

The post OpenX Touts Strengthened Technology Leadership appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The company announced today that its Mobile SDK entered General Availability following strong early results for mobile app publishers.

The company also shared insights from one of the world’s top entertainment applications that participated in the beta, showing significant double digit CPM and revenue increases after integrating the SDK.

The OpenX Mobile SDK enables app publishers to take full control of their programmatic advertising through a direct-integration that delivers improved speed, monetization and premium ad formats without impacting the stability of the app. The efficiency of the advanced integration empowers app publishers to receive the highest value for each impression through OpenX’s mobile-optimized ad exchange. OpenX’s marketplace provides the highest quality protections in the market today and offers app publishers access to every AdAge top 100 advertiser, more than 11,000 brands, and over 100 mobile-first demand partners.

We’re told that OpenX’s SDK addresses a key concern of app publishers in the market today: latency. Beta users experienced as much as 200% decreases in latency once they integrated the SDK.

iFunny, an initial beta partner and a top 10 Entertainment app that accounts for 2% of total time spent on mobile applications for the highly coveted 18-24 demographic, experienced a 50% increase in CPMs and discrepancies dropped below 1% after implementing the OpenX Mobile SDK into their monetization strategy. iFunny selected OpenX based on their expertise in the mobile environment, superior quality standards, and longstanding relationships with brand advertisers, which was also a big factor in helping the publisher effectively monetize MRAID formats.

“Strong performance and the ability to deliver immediate results are top priorities for us when selecting monetization partners. In addition to these two areas, iFunny selected OpenX’s mobile SDK because we believe their exchange offers the right mix of global scale and commitment to quality and service we are looking for in our strategic partners,” said Sergei Efimov, director of monetization at iFunny. “As a leading mobile app, it is crucial for our partners to provide guidance with a mobile-first mindset. OpenX’s mobile team has built a smart and technically sophisticated suite of app products, and we trust them to work with us on developing the capabilities that will drive our business forward.”

To review the full iFunny case study, click here.

The post OpenX Rolls Out Advanced Mobile SDK to Market appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“OpenX continues to operate as a top source of high quality inventory in the U.S. market,” the firm said in an emailed statement earlier this summer after Pixalate honored OpenX in June.

Ensuring buyers have access to the highest quality inventory in programmatic has been a priority for OpenX since 2012 when the company introduced the industry’s first Traffic Quality Monitoring Platform to eliminate fraud in programmatic advertising.

“As programmatic advertising continues its rapid growth, the overall health and success of the industry depends on being able to provide all participants in the digital advertising ecosystem with scalable, fraud free marketplace solutions,” the company said in a news release earlier this year. “OpenX remains focused on delivering the highest quality and best performing solution to our clients, and we are especially gratified by our #1 quality ranking in mobile, given its growing share of advertising dollars,” said John Murphy, vice president of marketplace quality at OpenX.”

The post OpenX Once Again Tops Pixalate’s Global Seller Trust Index appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the company — a leader in creating programmatic advertising marketplaces — OpenX international inventory also secured the #1 ranking for quality.

“OpenX continues to operate as a top source of high quality inventory in the U.S. market,” the firm said in an emailed statement.

Ensuring buyers have access to the highest quality inventory in programmatic has been a priority for OpenX since 2012 when the company introduced the industry’s first Traffic Quality Monitoring Platform to eliminate fraud in programmatic advertising.

“As programmatic advertising continues its rapid growth, the overall health and success of the industry depends on being able to provide all participants in the digital advertising ecosystem with scalable, fraud free marketplace solutions,” the company said in a news release. “OpenX remains focused on delivering the highest quality and best performing solution to our clients, and we are especially gratified by our #1 quality ranking in mobile, given its growing share of advertising dollars,” said John Murphy, vice president of marketplace quality at OpenX.”

The post OpenX Tops Pixalate’s Global Seller Trust Index appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

On Tuesday, Pixalate — a respected fraud protection and data intelligence company — unveiled the industry’s first in-app Mobile Seller Trust Index (MSTI).

“With the new MSTI,” a provided statement reads, “Pixalate is providing clarity on how supply quality in mobile should be evaluated based on factors including legitimate inventory, fraud, transparency and location.”

All told, the MSTI evaluates 125 supply-side platforms with in-app mobile inventory based on comprehensive analysis of some five billion impressions. It’s a sweeping assessment that VentureBeat‘s Barry Levine playfully calls a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for sellers of in-app ad space.”

Pixalate, however, prefers to liken the ranking system to Amazon’s online marketplace, which lends buying guidance to others through the meticulous ranking of both sellers and products.

By the fraud protection firm’s own admission, the inception of this index warrants mixed reaction — jubilation in response to the growing number of ad platforms that have stepped up their game, but also concern about the long and lingering list of those still beleaguered by low quality of traffic and relatively high levels of fraud.

Pixalate CEO Jalal Nasir says that supply quality measurement for in-app mobile ads “has become a minefield for buyers,” noting further that the study revealed how 38 percent of in-app mobile ad inventory remains fraudulent.

Consequently, of the laundry list of ad platforms ranked, all eyes are gravitating toward the cream of the crop — the top ten platforms ranking highest in quality and trust per Pixalate’s pervasive criteria:

1. Amobee
2. Rubicon Project
3. Big Mobile Group
4. Millennial Media Exchange
5. OpenX
6. Airpush
7. Marketplace
8. Google AdExchange
9. Nexage Inc.
10. InMobi

Those making the top ten cut understandably appreciate the recognition following protracted efforts to deserve such elevated placement.

“At Airpush, we have always had a heavy focus on keeping the quality of our mobile inventory at or above industry standards,” said Cameron V Peebles, Head of Global Marketing for L.A.-based Airpush, in response to the publication of Pixalate’s Index.

Of the 125 sellers of mobile ad inventory, Airpush was ranked No. 6 worldwide.

Asserting that Airpush has dedicated “immense resources and manpower” to reduce mobile ad fraud, Cameron says the Pixalate acknowledgement “is a huge validation of all of our hard work we have done to ensure that Airpush advertisers around the world have consistent access to one of the largest, most reliable and most profitable mobile ad libraries available today.”

Pixalate plans to update the Index monthly. To learn more or to download the full report, click here.

The post Industry-First Pixalate Index Ranks Ad Platforms Highest in Inventory Quality and Trust appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“MLG is one of the most recognized brands in e-Sports and one of the fastest growing digital networks worldwide,” the formal announcement reads.

MLG has extensive reach, connecting with 20 million committed fans via web, mobile, connected TVs, gaming consoles, and social media channels.

MLG is billed as “the definitive property for advertisers to reach young men.”

“Under the terms of the exclusive agreement, MLG will leverage OpenX’s full stack platform to optimize its digital advertising inventory,” added the announcement. “OpenX’s integrated solution will manage MLG’s ad serving and programmatic monetization, which includes directly sold inventory, Real-Time-Bidding (RTB), and ad networks in one overarching auction.”

“OpenX is the most thoughtful and collaborative partner we’ve found in the industry,” said Don Reilley, Executive President of Global Sales at MLG. “That quality of listening, partnered with their industry leading technology and monetization solutions, made OpenX the best choice for us. As we have grown our business, OpenX has provided ways for us to continually scale up and increase revenue.”

The post OpenX Gets the Tap: Major League Gaming Selects Company for Its Digital Advertising Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.