AdTech Month in Review: June 2019

Here's a curated digest of three noteworthy AdTech stories from June 2019 — the key takeaways without the noise.

Demystifying App-ads.txt — IAB Tech Lab

In a June 20 blog post, the IAB Tech Lab tackled some of the more persistent misconceptions around the app-ads.txt initiative.

Key points:

• Ads.txt is an IAB-led initiative designed to help media buyers purchase inventory exclusively from authorized sellers, reducing ad fraud vectors such as domain spoofing.
• App-ads.txt extends that same approach to mobile and OTT applications.
• The process for obtaining an app-ads.txt file differs somewhat from the standard ads.txt flow.
• AdTech platforms need to match an app ID with the developer URL, then retrieve and interpret the corresponding app-ads.txt file.
• There are several ways to obtain this mapping data: embedding it directly in the app store (Google supports this; Apple does not), using direct store APIs, or through data licensing arrangements.

Salesforce and Adobe Dominate the DMP Space, as Oracle Continues to Slip — AdExchanger

Key points:

• A survey by Advertiser Perceptions found that Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle BlueKai are the most widely used DMPs among marketers with annual digital ad budgets above $1 million.
• Survey respondents described the Salesforce DMP as innovative, flexible, and easy to use.
• Adobe's DMP has gained ground over the past year, largely because many marketers already rely on other Adobe products — making platform consolidation a natural driver of adoption.
• MediaMath, The Trade Desk, and Google's DV360 are the leading choices for marketers seeking a bundled DSP-DMP solution.
• There is notable confusion in the market around what a CDP actually is — some respondents said they preferred Salesforce's CDP even before Salesforce had released a beta version of the product, suggesting the terminology itself is being applied loosely.
• GDPR compliance ranked as a low priority for marketers when evaluating DMPs, possibly because most assume that major platforms will handle regulatory compliance on their behalf.

'Only Enforcement Will Bring Change': Ad Tech Responds to Regulator's GDPR Warning — Digiday

Key points:

• The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued a warning to the AdTech industry, stating that mass data sharing and the use of sensitive data categories in real-time bidding (RTB) transactions violate the GDPR.
• The ICO confirmed that "legitimate interest" cannot serve as a legal basis for RTB, and that special-category data — including ethnic origins, health information, and political orientation — requires explicit consent.
• The ICO indicated it would work with the IAB and Google to help bring their GDPR compliance frameworks in line with regulatory requirements.
• The warning has renewed debate within the industry over whether RTB, in its current form, can survive sustained pressure from data protection authorities, privacy advocacy groups, and regulators like the ICO.