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There are sharp drops in <keyword id="130699" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="online-advertising">online advertising</keyword> bid activity during times of widespread negative news reporting, according to a report from <keyword id="1911193" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Casale-Media">Casale Media</keyword>'s Index Exchange.
The chart below shows the number of bids per impression plummeting on the days of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/boston-bombings-2013-4" title="marathon">the Boston Marathon bombing</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-gandolfini-died-in-hotel-bathroom-2013-6" title="james">the death of actor James Gandolfini</a>:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Casale Media" title_caption="Bid density for online ads drops during tragedies" class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/526575f269bedd4240baa398-960/chart-898.jpg"></a>Casale Media<keyword id="1911194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bid-Density">Bid density</keyword> for online ads drops during tragedies</div></div>
When the news is bad, "big national brands go away," Andrew Casale, VP Strategy of Casale Media, told Business Insider. These companies use <keyword id="1911195" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Negative-Targeting">negative targeting</keyword> to automatically determine which pages are carrying keywords they do not want their brands appearing next to. 
The Boston bombing is an obvious one for the keyword bots. For situations like the death of a beloved actor, technicians can add his name and related words to the system.
So next time something bad happens, expect to see fewer ads with your headlines.

The Computers That Buy Online Ad Space Automatically Stop When There's A National Tragedy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Starting in the 90s, <keyword id="193300" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cartoon-Network">Cartoon Network</keyword> Groovies fused new and old cartoons with music.</li><li>Songs included "<keyword id="3686511" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Josie-and-the-Pussycats">Josie and the Pussycats</keyword> in Musical Evolution" and "Go Monkey! Go!"</li></ul>It's hard to combine disco, punk, country, and techno into one song, but singer-songwriter Chrystina Lloree Fincher did the unthinkable.Fincher may not be a household name, but her voice echoed in just about every child's household 20 years ago as the singer of Cartoon Network's song, "Josie and the Pussycats in 'Musical Evolution.'" By her own admission, she never saw the show - a music-filled cartoon featuring the adventures of a girl pop group - in the '70s although she saw it re-air in the '90s."And when I got the 'Josie and the Pussycats' theme to get familiar with it, I just took it decade by decade," Fincher told Insider, explaining how the song seamlessly takes the pop group through different decades of music.One of the main reasons why the song worked was because of composer Michael Kohler, who has worked with Cartoon Network for years. When he got the "all genres" concept for it, he told Insider he was shaking his head initially, but still embraced the challenge. "It was really rewarding when it paid off, especially when [director] Jonas Odell finished the animated piece to the music," Kohler said.Fincher - a multi-genre, professional musician of over 30 years - looks back at the song and said it's been incredibly interesting how people in their 20s have reconnected with it."It speaks to the power of music, the power of <keyword id="6463276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nostalgia">nostalgia</keyword>, and the power of cartoons," Fincher said.The song is just one of many music videos part of the Cartoon Network Groovies series, which ran from 1999 to 2005. The series - full of songs set to videos of new and old cartoons - included a number of catchy tracks, including the Magilla Gorilla-themed "Gorilla 4 Sale" and the "Ed, Edd n Eddy"-inspired rock cut "The Incredible Shrinking Day."In the decades since, as box TV watchers grew into social media users, YouTube videos from the Cartoon Network Groovies series have seen millions of views with nostalgia-filled comments.<h2>The series started in the early days of Cartoon Network when they failed to secure advertisers</h2>Groovies was a product of Michael Ouweleen, then-creative director at a fairly new Cartoon Network and now-president of Adult Swim. He tasked Steve Patrick and his creative services department to create content to creatively fill time between the network's popular shows. The department helped make blocks like "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays" and "The Big Game.""The ratings didn't matter as much in those early days. It was just about trying to get onto as many different cable systems as possible," Patrick told Insider. "We had so much commercial time available because we didn't have big advertisers at that point." By the late '90s, Patrick said the objective was to make old cartoon characters have a contemporary feel. That idea started the Cartoon Network Shorties series, featuring modern visual renditions of characters like Hanna-Barbera's happy alligator Wally Gator and JabberJaw, the talking shark. Patrick said the ska-themed JabberJaw video did so well it paved the way for more musical shorts.<h2>The lyrics for 'My Best Friend Plank' were created because the writer's brother had no idea what he did for a living.</h2>After Cartoon Network Groovies featured the likes of "Yogi Bear" and "Super Friends," a series featuring Justice League superheroes, a video based on a modern show was Patrick's James Taylor-inspired "My Best Friend Plank."The song, produced by late composer Eddie Horst, explored the friendship between a wooden board Plank and Jonny from "Ed, Edd n Eddy." In the video, Plank hops around various, vintage scenes like a park, a campground, and a forest. Patrick said he crafted the lyrics because his brother didn't know what he did for a living."He was a huge James Taylor fan so I wrote 'Sweet Baby James'-era lyrics with as many different woodworking puns I could throw in there," he said.Some of puns include references totree disease Dutch elm disease, swelling up in the rain and former Vice President Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore, a name to rhyme with "chipper." <h2>The producer of 'Gorilla 4 Sale' called the rap song 'the best porn track ever.'</h2>Patrick also wrote this jazzy, rap song inspired by the popular cartoon ape <keyword id="11035200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="magilla-gorilla">Magilla Gorilla</keyword>. The accompanying video is a mix of random clips from "The Magilla Gorilla Show," a show about a talking ape that spent his days in a pet shop and ran from 1963 to 1967, overlaid with colorful blocks to evoke a minimal, '50s feeling.It's a product of Sandblast Productions co-owner and producer Michael Ungar and audio mixer Diriki Mack. The two were at audio post-production facility Broadway Sound, an extension of "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video, when Patrick asked the pair to add their musical flair to it."The wording was so packed in and the beat was so laid out, you could never get through it just trying to be on the one, and the two," Mack, who also rapped the track, told Insider. "You kind of had to get other syncopation in there to fit all the wording for it to make sense and speak it clearly."Mack said Ungar, the track's producer, showcased his editing genius."I remember one comment, which I loved, that was like 'this is the best porn track ever,'" he told Insider. "Put that on my tombstone."<h2>'Circles' and 'Rolling' recycled retro cartoon footage, introducing older cartoons to newer audiences</h2>Alternative rock band <keyword id="11035202" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="soul-coughing">Soul Coughing</keyword>'s hit record "Circles" saw animated airtime with a video full of scenes from old Hanna-Barbera cartoons - literally - walking amongst circles. The group's "Rolling" also mended "Betty Boop" footage with lyrics from a repetitious alternative bop.Mike Doughty, the vocalist and guitarist for the band, told Insider that former Warner Bros. Records' president Steven Baker helped craft the videos. "This guy who was the most important person at the label, as kind of a last stand of the old artist-oriented Warner Bros. to the new corporate Warner Bros., made this beautiful thing," he added. Doughty said it was a massive effort on Baker's part as it took a level of obsession and a "massive" effort to find the old cartoon clips and clear them or get permission to use them.As a kid, Doughty himself saw old black and white cartoons and predicted children were "fascinated" by the mystical spookiness offered in the "Betty Boop" clips seen in "Rolling." Throughout the video, Betty Boop is taking part in a wacky automobile race.The group had ties to other animations, as well, beyond Cartoon Network."Rolling" and "Circles" came from the group's "El Oso" album, a project featuring artwork from cartoonist Jim Woodring's comic "Frank" about a cat's psychedelic journey. Doughty said Soul Coughing's first album also features a sample by Carl Stalling, a composer who used Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" in old Warner Bros. cartoons.<h2>'Go! Monkey Go!'spurred a <keyword id="2066091" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="devo">Devo</keyword> song years later</h2>Devo's "Go! Monkey Go!" - inspired by "Powerpuff Girls" villainous ape Mojo Jojo, who is hellbent on destroying the girls - included everything from a dancing woman to flashy visuals. The video also featured Mojo Jojo with a laser blaster as the ape presses various destructive buttons. After the network asked rock band Devo to do the song, founder Gerald Casale told Insider he started paying closer attention to Mojo Jojo."You can't have superheroes without a supervillain. It's mythology, it's Jungian, it's the duality that we all live with about human nature," Casale said. "But you're having fun with a kid's cartoon [and] here's an evil character that's interesting. So I wrote lyrics about him that were sympathetic towards his self-conflicted personality."Fellow Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh laid down a mean, "cascading carnival" riff that took listeners back to Devo's 1983 album "Oh, No! It's Devo!," Casale said. He said the group later used the song again in the form of 2010's "Don't Shoot (I'm A Man)." <h2>'The Incredible Shrinking Day' features lyrics that were relatable to kids</h2>This infectious rock number follows the trio from "Ed, Edd n' Eddy," the animated TV series that ran for five seasons until 2008, as they are shrunk to fit inside the dollhouse of Ed's sister Sarah. After Sarah's lemonade shrinks the trio, the video shows Ed, Edd, and Eddy as they try to escape in a toy car.It started with composer Eddie Horst, according to musician and vocalist Garrett Freireich, who was working for Turner Broadcasting at the time. Originally, the idea was to animate a band - Freireich's rock band Eden - for "Ed, Edd n' Eddy" although budget cuts made the plan not see the light of day. Instead, Freireich would sing a song based on the show, produced by Horst and penned by writer-producer Stuart Hill. Hill told Insider he thought the song would be relatable to kids."If the story is her putting you in this house, it was like 'I'm not staying in there, I'm not coming in, my friends are more important to me,' [it's] something kids would sing," Hill said.After the pandemic hit in 2020, Freireich hopped online to stream an acoustic version of the song, now available on YouTube. He said it's only proved the song's lasting power."I'm getting messages from Estonia and from Russia, even one kid commented, 'You saved 2020,'" Freireich told Insider. "It's quite an honor to be a part of something that's become that big."

The creators of Cartoon Network Groovies break down the iconic music videos and explain why these songs have resonated for over 2 decades

<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="" title_caption="AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley." class="zoomin" href="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5166b3f469bedd391a000013-960/brian-okelley-appnexus.jpg"></a></div>AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley.</div>Spring has brought with it a season of confession in the online ad world: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2013/04/08/the-new-normal-for-digital-marketing-automated-ad-buying-hits-tipping-point/">AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley recently told a conference</a> that his company does not always reveal the original price of ad media to the clients who pay for it.
The admission comes after <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/groupms-rob-norman-hits-back-on-ad-price-arbitrage-2013-3">GroupM CEO Rob Norman, and his chairman, Irwin Gotlieb, both said something similar</a> at a different conference.
The context to the debate is about real-time buying by demand side platforms (DSPs) — which is jargon that describes how ad buying companies analyze web users' browser histories, and then use that data to target them with ads.
The controversy is over whether advertisers should be told what the original price of the inventory was, and whether it's fair for them to pay a premium price in an auction without knowing the original price, or who the losing bidders were and what prices they bid at. (Or whether they even want to know.)
Some clients, like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ford-pg-and-others-in-full-scale-revolt-against-ad-price-arbitrage-2013-4">Kimberly Clarke and Ford, have pulled away</a> from such practices.
Some agencies, like IPG Mediabrands, say they offer clients full transparency.
At the Programmatic I/O conference in San Francisco this month, the price transparency debate was raised by moderator Mark Mahaney, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.
Here's <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2013/04/08/the-new-normal-for-digital-marketing-automated-ad-buying-hits-tipping-point/">a section from the transcript</a>. The controversial bit is near the end, where O'Kelley is asked on the subject of price transparency, "Do you expose the price of each individual publisher?" He replies, "No."*
O'Kelley tells Business Insider the transcript is wrong and that he's misquoted. The term "publisher" should not be in the transcript, he says, because the question referred to buyers, not publishers. In fact, he says, the question as recorded in the transcript doesn't make any sense unless it refers to buyers rather than publishers.
O'Kelley's response, he says, refers to whether buyers are allowed to know the prices offered by other buyers who failed to win the bidding for a given piece of inventory.
He also pointed that AppNexus doesn't do arbitrage because its services as offered at a fixed cut of the sale price, which buyers can check. The cut doesn't change from deal to deal, he says.
O'Kelley did, however, tell us that buyers often don't know the original floor or reserve price that inventory was offered at. Given that they can only win the inventory in an auction, that price is relatively meaningless anyway.
He was debating the point with Andrew Casale, VP of strategy for Casale Media. Casale tells us that his original point stands: That buyers should know what the losing bids were and who bid them. Not knowing that info leaves the market opaque and prices distorted — Ford would adjust its buying strategy if it knew it was continually losing bids to Chrysler. Right now, neither company knows who they are bidding against.
The other people on the panel were Victor Milligan, chief marketing officer for mobile ad exchange Nexage; and Rajeev Goel, CEO of Pubmatic, which offers publisher ad exchanges.
Q: What will be the next tipping points that will be proof points to force more dollars to programmatic?
O’Kelley: It’s very tough to sell media by hand. Salespeople are a pain in the ass. We’re getting lots of questions about what’s the ROI of replacing salespeople with real-time bidding. There are still a lot of questions, like what does “quality” or premium inventory mean? As we hone in on what that means, it’s easier for a marketer to make sure their ads only appear near quality content. We need to find ways to determine what the online equivalent of good TV shows are.
Casale: The exchange market needs to be more transparent. It breaks one fundamental tenet of a market, which is price discovery. They’re completely opaque.
Q: In what market does that really happen?
Casale: Nasdaq. You can purchase that knowledge. No one in our business is transparent.
O’Kelley: I call bullshit.
Casale: Do buyers on your exchange know where the price comes from?
O’Kelley: We publish a full price history, though we won’t reveal a publisher’s price unless they want to.
Casale: I’m talking about the buyer, not the publisher. Do you expose the price of each individual publisher?
O’Kelley: No.
*Correction: This story was changed to include O'Kelley's statement that he believes the transcript is wrong.

AppNexus CEO Admits Original Web Ad Prices Are Sometimes Not Revealed

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Digital Capital AdvisorsJay MacDonald, the CEO and cofounder of Digital Capital Advisors.</div></div></div><ul><li>A wave of acquisitions and funding rounds this summer indicates that investors are warming back up to <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> technology.</li><li>Industry insiders point to factors like Europe's GDPR law and an industry-wide movement to clean up digital advertising as driving the renewed interest.</li><li>Plus, the dominance of Google and Facebook shows no signs of slowing down, so traditional companies like telecoms and agencies are investing in ad-tech firms for data and technology expertise.</li><li>At the same time, ad-tech companies that have been around for a while - like Integral Ad Science and MediaMath - are doubling down on private equity to grow their businesses.</li></ul>If you work in advertising or media, this summer has most likely felt a lot like an episode of the TV game show "Deal or No Deal."After a few years of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ad-tech-share-prices-down-tuesday-millennial-media-rocket-fuel-yume-earnings-2015-8">falling stock prices</a> and sluggish acquisition activity in the advertising-technology sector, a wave of big deals over the past few months has reignited the advertising and media industries' interest investing in and buying tech expertise - particularly among firms that specialize in extrapolating and understanding data."I think no one would disagree that ad tech is hot again," said Jay MacDonald, the CEO and cofounder of Digital Capital Advisors. "You could say that a lot of the consolidation is happening from the large telco and software companies."There's perhaps an unexpected driver of this activity: regulation. Numerous ad-tech companies are feeling the heat from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/too-many-marketers-are-not-ready-for-europeans-looming-digital-privacy-law-2018-3">Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation privacy law</a> and similar possible US regulation <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-passes-tough-privacy-law-2018-6">in states such as California</a>.In light of regulation challenges, you might think dealmaking would slow. But marketers are rethinking the ways they collect and measure data, according to Ben Gaddis, the president of the ad agency T3 - so they need access to as many powerful tools as they can to protect themselves."I think you'll see more consolidation," he said. "As long as you're using data, just make it more meaningful - we're seeing more marketers going back to first-party, CRM data."<h2>Firms that can promise transparency and safety are getting snatched up</h2>Ahead of GDPR, a handful of ad companies including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-ad-company-kargo-had-to-blow-up-its-successful-business-2018-5">Kargo,</a> Drawbridge, and <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/04/18/verve-focus-us-growth-it-plans-closure-european-offices-ahead-gdpr">Verve</a> shut down European operations. Elsewhere, according to ad-tech execs, companies waited until the past three months to begin preparing before the sweeping regulation rolled out in May."The industry was ill prepared for something of that magnitude - the last three months were crazy," Index Exchange's CEO and president, Andrew Casale, said.Along with GDPR, ad-tech companies have also reworked their transparency efforts to combat fraud, which has long been a thorn for investors."There's this almost smoke screen over ad tech because it is so complicated," said Tim Cadogan, the chairman and CEO of OpenX."In the last 18 months, a lot of progress has been made in clearing out the smoke - you have a whole new set of standards that are making it a lot easier to know who to work with and who not to work with," he said, referring to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-bogus-ads-programmatic-exchanges-2017-7">the publishing industry's Ads.txt initiative</a> that aims to wipe out fraud from sites.<h2>The duopoly is affecting all areas of advertising</h2>Legacy companies like telecoms and ad agencies are under pressure to stay competitive with more data-based services. So it's no surprise that the two industries are prime for acquiring ad-tech companies."The entire business, just like publishing, is getting squeezed in the dominance of Google and Facebook," said JC Uva, the managing director at MediaLink. "These big walled gardens are squeezing the open web market."Most notably, there's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/att-buys-appnexus-what-it-means-2018-6">AT&amp;T's acquisition of AppNexus</a> to build an ad-tech stack meant to match complex ad targeting with premium TV and video content.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image">AT&amp;TBrian Lesser, the CEO of AT&amp;T advertising and analytics.</div></div></div>The Singapore-based telecom Singtel is also beefing up its portfolio of digital advertising companies. The Singtel-owned Amobee recently won a bid to <a href="https://www.amobee.com/company/newsroom/amobee-wins-auction-process-to-acquire-videology-assets">acquire the video ad-tech firm Videology's assets</a>. Singtel's advertising group also includes its previous ad-tech acquisitions Turn and Gradient X."Overall what you're seeing is frankly a maturing industry," said Philip Smolin, a former Turn executive who is now Amobee's chief strategy officer. "The prior 10 years was early stages, and you had a lot of innovation that was occurring in things that were new - the value for marketers increasingly is around the connection between all of these media channels."And in terms of the companies getting scooped up, it's worth noting that many have proved more financially sound than previous ad-tech firms, which helps spur investor interest. "You can now justify some of these valuations based on the fact on that they're profitable," he said.<h2>Agencies and marketing clouds are the hunt for new sources of data and revenue</h2>Ad agencies also want a bigger piece of the space, as shown by Interpublic Group's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-business-model-for-giant-ad-agencies-is-under-fire-but-ipg-says-its-23-billion-bet-on-acxiom-gives-it-a-massive-advantage-over-other-firms-2018-7">purchase of Acxiom Marketing Solutions for $2.3 billion</a> this month to create customized ad targeting and first-party data sets.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">MedialinkJC Uva, the managing director at MediaLink.</div></div></div>The holding companies Omnicom, Dentsu, and Publicis have similar offerings, but it's hard to compete with WPP when it comes to acquisitions. Before his ouster as CEO, Martin Sorrell <a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/this-timeline-shows-how-wpp-acquired-its-way-to-fame-and-notoriety-over-3-decades/">aggressively acquired data-minded shops</a>.IPG's moves are notable therefore because "those guys have been really quiet - besides WPP - in the past," MacDonald said.At the same time, big consultancies and software companies like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-would-never-see-the-worlds-largest-digital-ad-agency-making-ads-for-olive-garden-according-to-its-head-2018-3">Accenture Interactive</a> and IBM are active shoppers because they "feel that they have an advantage - their client is the CMO," he added.Marketing clouds are getting aggressive, too. Over the past few years, Adobe, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-most-influential-advertising-company-2017-8">Oracle</a>, and IBM have revved up their dealmaking, snatching up the likes of TubeMogul, Moat, and The Weather Company.Most recently, Salesforce nabbed Datorama for a reported $800 million to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforces-ad-acquisitions-could-spell-bad-news-for-agencies-2018-7">give marketers access to data</a> from email, social media, and advertising, and the company also acquired the demand-side platform Krux in 2016."They each have different strengths and gaps in their offering," MacDonald said.<h2>Private venture is increasingly attractive</h2>Still, acquisitions are not the end-all for all ad-tech companies. Firms like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/integral-ad-science-tv-measurement-business-2018-6">Integral Ad Science</a> and MediaMath are landing big funding from private-equity firms to invest in technology that crunches reams of data and artificial intelligence for advertisers.MediaMath - a firm that has long been rumored to be an acquisition target - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mediamath-has-raised-225-million-from-private-equity-2018-7">recently secured $225 million</a> to invest in new areas like artificial intelligence, for example.Going the route of private equity is becoming more valuable for firms, MediaLink's Uva said, because "there is less mystery about ad-tech and mar-tech than there were a few years ago."Interestingly, Uva said some of the firms grabbing private-equity backing have business models that allow them to piggyback on the success of big platforms like Facebook and Google, again showing the duopoly's dominance in digital advertising.Verification companies like Integral Ad Science, Moat, and DoubleVerify have been acquired or received significant funding in recent years.These companies work directly with marketers and platforms to measure ads, meaning they are able to "sit outside the risk that Facebook and Google dominate," he said."All have cracked into the social side that's still growing - that's an interesting place to be because you can grow with these scaled platforms." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-features-coming-to-the-iphone-in-ios-12-this-fall-2018-7">Top 9 features coming to the iPhone in iOS 12</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

'No one would disagree that ad tech is hot again': M&A is heating up as tech giants look to arm themselves against Facebook and Google - and maybe save the digital ad industry

Reuters<ul><li>The ad industry is trying to root out fraudulent digital ads.</li><li>Google has quietly been running tests with media companies such as CBS to gauge how bad the problem is.</li><li>Industry leaders are banking on a new technical solution, ads.txt, to tackle the issue.</li></ul>The digital-advertising industry is looking to stamp out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ad-fraud-estimates-doubled-2017-3">bogus ad inventory</a>, like websites that claim to be premium brands but are actually sites the average person hardly ever visits. Google, with help from some media giants, is taking the lead. The company is pushing an industry initiative called <a href="https://iabtechlab.com/ads-txt/">ads.txt</a> that's aimed at wiping out fraud that's dubbed 'spoofing' by the industry. Spoofing encompasses the variety of ways ad buyers can be tricked into paying for space they're not getting. For example, spoofers can buy cheap ad space, from a low-quality site, on an exchange and then falsely list it as space on a premium site - like, say, CNN.com- at a higher price. The ad in question will never run on CNN.com, though. It's all enabled by the prevalence of programmatic ads, which are placed by algorithms and purchased on exchanges, rather than through direct negotiation with a publisher.Yet spoofing is even starting to affect publishers that don't even sell ads via programmatic channels. Several publishers say they've been hearing from ad buyers that their ads are for sale on various ad exchanges, even though these companies didn't work with any ad exchanges to sell advertising.<h2>The Google tests</h2>To get a sense of the scope of this problem, Google has been quietly conducting tests with a handful of major media properties, including NBCU, CBS, and The New York Times, people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.During these tests, Google and the partners shut off all of their programmatic ad inventory for brief periods, say, 10 to 15 minutes, and then scour the ad exchanges to see what's listed. Google and its partners found thousands if not millions of video and display ad spots still available on multiple ad exchanges, despite no ads actually being for sale at that time, the people said, asking not to be identified because the results haven't been publicly released. These include Google's own AdEx exchange, as well as AppNexus, Oath's BrightRoll, and PubMatic. Google also discovered fraudsters claiming to be able to sell YouTube ad inventory on various exchanges, one of the people said.Google's not alone in these findings. An ad-tech executive from a different company went looking for some spoofed ads on exchanges and said they easily found thousands of such misrepresented ads for sale, and below are the results of another search by the Marketing Science Consulting Group, a company that specializes in researching ad fraud. Business Insider reached out to all the exchanges mentioned and included their comments below, if they responded.Marketing Science Consulting GroupThere is lots of bogus ad inventory available on ad exchanges.The ad exchanges responded to details of the results by pointing to their efforts to stamp out the kind of fraud Google found."We're unaware of major publishers running such tests and finding problematic selling on our marketplace," a representative for AppNexus said. "We do work proactively to avoid this type of problem. We are strong proponents of ads.txt, which we view as reinforcement of our longstanding policies and practices. We've created strong domain detection technology.""Oath has invested in proprietary technology on our buying platforms, including BrightRoll and ONE by AOL, that aims to enforce supply transparency and prevent domain spoofing across the majority of supply partners," said a representative for Oath, which is owned by Verizon. "In fact, our technology blocks hundreds of millions of spoofed bid requests on a daily basis. Combined with our longtime partnership with the IAB, industry-leading third-party fraud measurement across our platforms and human review safeguards, we're fully committed to a safe, transparent supply chain for our advertiser partners.""At PubMatic we work directly with our publisher clients to help them manage their digital inventory, and, as such, we are not aware of the issues," said PubMatic's chief marketing officer Jeff Hirsch.<h2>The fake-Rolex problem</h2>Marketers are expected to shell out $83 billion on digital ads in the US in 2017, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-digital-ad-market-to-grow-16-this-year-led-by-facebook-and-google-1489489202">according to eMarketer</a>. And the more that advertisers spend, the bigger the opportunity for fraudsters. By some estimates, sophisticated ad-fraud perpetrators <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/thepartnership-msix-and-adloox-ad-fraud-2017-2017-3?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:%20typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider%20%28Silicon%20Alley%20Insider%29&amp;utm_term=BII%20List%20DMedia%20ALL">could cost the ad business over $16 billion globally this year</a>.There are lots of ways that ad fraud can happen. Often hackers from outside the US sell ads on fake websites using computer programs called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bot-fraud-is-predicted-to-cost-the-advertising-industry-7-billion-this-year-2016-1">"bots" that can mimic human behavior</a> - making it look as though real people are visiting websites or clicking on ads.Then, there's <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-allstate-and-dstillery-avoid-fraudulent-ads-on-exchanges-1444644002">spoofing, which has been around for years</a>. Companies like ESPN have frequently encountered people claiming to have their right to sell their ads when they don't. But as more big marketers push for better transparency in their digital-ad buying, following a string of recent reports of ads ending up in dicey corners of the web, there's more awareness of how common spoofing is."There's quite a bit of mislabeling of traffic," said Mike Baker, CEO of the ad-tech firm DataXu. "It's become somewhat pervasive over the last few years. It could account for 20 to 30% of the traffic on some secondary and tertiary [ad exchanges]."<h2>eMarketerDigital ad spending is growing, as is fraud.</h2><h2>Ads.txt solution</h2>Google has also hosted CEOs of several top ad-buying tech companies - "demand-side platforms" that act as major buyers on ad exchanges - including MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki, DataXu's Baker, and Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green. The meetings were said to be constructive as the industry looks to embrace ads.txt as a solution. Ads.txt was borne out of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Tech Lab with support from the trade group TAG (Trust Accountability Group). It's a technical solution designed to protect web publishers from any unauthorized companies selling their ads via programmatic ad exchanges. Here's how it works. By inserting a text file on their sites, web publishers can make it clear who is allowed to sell their ad space and who isn't. Assuming enough publishers implement the ads.txt solution - and enough ad buyers make an effort to purchase ads only from authorized sellers - this could go a long way toward weeding out spoofing."There's always been spoofing in the market, and with video it is [more prevalent]," said Alanna Gombert, managing director and general manager of the IAB Tech Lab. "Now there is more scrutiny in the market. It wasn't top of mind before. Now, everyone understands it; it's mainstream. And fraudsters are looking for known names that are on 'white lists' for advertisers. So this has opened up a conversation where ad buyers are telling sellers, 'I'm seeing you here,' and they are digging down and saying 'Oh crap.'"<h2>Brands get woke</h2>A number of major developments have combined to dial up the scrutiny on the online-advertising business, causing marketers to scrutinize where their ads run to how they pay for them and who gets a piece of every dollar they spend on the web. First, about a year ago, the Associations on National advertisers released a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ana-report-alleges-widespread-ad-agency-kickback-schemes-2016-6">damning report detailing a glaring lack of transparency in the ad-buying world</a>.Over the past six months, Facebook has revealed a string of measurement screw-ups, while Google has faced multiple advertisers pulling out of YouTube after ads were <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/att-pulls-ads-from-google-and-youtube-2017-3">found alongside hate videos</a>.Getty/Phil ColeProcter and Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard.And since the start of this year, Procter and Gamble's chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, has been on a crusade, delivering a series of speeches in which he clamored for the ad industry to demand more clarity from digital media and the need to clean up the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/31/procter-gamble-chief-marketer-slams-crappy-media-supply-chain.html">"crappy media supply chain," as CNBC reported</a>.All of this has brought the issue of ad fraud to the forefront. "Brands are woke," joked one ad-tech executive. "There's suddenly a lot of attention on supply-chain hygiene," he said. And hopefully ads.txt is the soap.Some see the initiative as part of a larger set of antifraud tactics. Others are more bullish. "This will wipe spoofing out," said Andrew Casale, CEO of the ad-tech firm Index Exchange.<h2>Who's responsible?</h2>When it comes to supply-chain hygiene, there's plenty of blame laid on the ad-tech companies - especially since so many programmatic exchanges have made big public pledges to keep out bad sellers. But as one ad-tech insider said, big media companies often don't even know who is and isn't allowed to sell their ads on the web.'They should take responsibility," he said. For example, one publisher said it was working with just three exchanges, but they were really running ads on 17.So it's up to media companies to make the most out of ads.txt."Initially, this is putting the first implementation requirements on publishers," said Art Muldoon, co-CEO of the programmatic ad buying firm Amnet. "It's a burden and an opportunity."Media sellers "are being directly harmed," said Mike Zaneis, president and CEO for TAG, the Trust Accountability Group, an organization that was put together to tackle the ad-fraud problem."When there is twice as much inventory being sold out there than actually exists, that leads to deals you never get, bad prices, and the watering down of your brand," Zaneis said. "That has a direct financial impact."Get the latest Google stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/GOOG-Quote"> here.</a> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-ad-agency-business-business-insider-at-cannes-2017-6">Is the era of the ad agency almost over? Here's what 4 of the industry's top leaders told us in Cannes</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Google's been running a secret test to detect bogus ads - and its findings should make the industry nervous

<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:324px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Bill Demas / Turn / LinkedIn" title_caption="Bill Demas" class="zoomin" href="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/516f16e469bedde14100001a-960/2192b18.jpg"></a></div>Bill Demas / Turn / LinkedInBill Demas</div>Isn't it about time Turn, the big web <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> buyer, went public?
The signs suggest that may be a possibility:
<ul>
<li>The company claims it is the No.1 "demand-side platform" among real-time bidding web ad buyers.</li>
<li>A source tells us its <a href="http://www.inc.com/best-industries-2012/jj-mccorvey/turn-ceo-bill-demas-innovating-with-big-data.html">annualized revenues are on course for $300 million</a>.</li>
<li>It has reportedly taken <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/turn">$57.5 million in venture funding</a> — those people want to see a return on their investment at some point.</li>
<li>And in April, Turn hired a new CFO, Joe Nemeth from Adobe. Nemeth's pedigree is in big transactions.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://adage.com/article/digital/ad-tech-ipo-turn-hires-cfo/240766/">Ad Age noted</a>:
Mr. Nemeth brings a wealth of M&amp;A and finance experience to Turn, which could signal a few things. For one, it may mean Turn is ready to go on an acquisition spree and wanted someone on board who has had a hand in many, including Adobe's giant $1.8 billion purchase of Omniture. Yet the more likely subtext is that the company is hiring a finance pro to get the necessary processes in place ahead of a not-so-distant IPO – perhaps in the next 12 to 18 months.
<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Casale Media" title_caption="This chart shows estimated market share of the top DSPs -&#xa0;of which Turn is likely No.1." class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/516f195aecad046b5600002c-960/screen%20shot%202013-04-17%20at%205.23.27%20pm.png"></a></div>Casale MediaThis chart shows estimated market share of the top DSPs -&#xa0;of which Turn is likely No.1.</div>So we asked CEO Bill Demas if Turn was ramping up for an IPO in the foreseeable future. He said: "I wouldn't rule anything out. We're always open to any potential option."
When asked about Nemeth, however, he elaborated: "He was the former No.2 executive at Adobe on the financial team. He has a lot of experience with Wall Street, he has a lot of experience acquiring companies, and he will give us a lot of help with our stats on a go-forward basis around liquidity."
Turn sits at that newly sexy intersection of Big Data and RTB web advertising — which would make it tempting to retail and public investors. It operates both a "demand-side platform" (which buys web ads triggered by tracking cookies) and a "data management platform" (whch crunches the numbers).
"Every decision we make is about long-term investment, and about saysfying clients, and being innovative," he added. "I don't have a crystal ball."
Read into that what you will.
Turn is in fine health, Demas says. It has about 250 employees in 17 offices on four continents. It was profitable on an EBITDA basis in 2011 and 2012, Demas says. Turn's clients include five of the six largest ad agencies in the world, along with Autotrader AT&amp;T and Experian.

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