TAG Awards 2019 Seal Recertifications to Companies Achieving Rigorous Standards to Protect Digital Ad Industry

By STS News Desk On Mar 7, 2019

Tag Awards 2019 Seal Recertifications to Companies Achieving Rigorous Standards to Protect Digital Ad Industry

Number of Recertified Companies Nearly Triples from 37 to 102 Over Prior Year, Total Recertified Seals More Than Double from 62 to 139

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative to fight criminal activity in the digital advertising supply chain, recognized more than a hundred companies for achieving 2019 seal recertification for TAG’s Certified Against Fraud, Certified Against Piracy, Certified Against Malware, and Inventory Quality Guideline (IQG) Programs.

Multi-year adoption of TAG’s seal programs continued to skyrocket with 102 companies receiving recertification of 139 existing seals, year-over-year increases of 176% in recertified companies and 124% in recertified seals from the 37 companies recertifying 62 seals in 2018. Of the recertified seals, nearly one in three (30 percent) were awarded via an independent validation process, rather than self-certification.

“Good habits are built over time, and these seal recertifications highlight the digital ad industry’s success at institutionalizing the best practices needed to fight criminal activity and improve transparency,” said Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG. “Around the world, TAG seals are becoming the baseline requirement for decision-makers to ensure their business partners are taking the right steps to fight fraud, malware, piracy, and lack-of-transparency. We commend all of the companies achieving recertification for 2019, as well as the new companies receiving their initial seals in 2018, for their extraordinary efforts to protect our supply chain and build a safer and more transparent digital advertising industry.”

TAG’s 2019 Seal Recipients receiving recertification included:

A+E Networks
AdColony
Adform
AerServ
Ahalogy
ABC
American Media, LLC
Amobee
Annalect
AppNexus
BabyCenter
Beachfront Media
BidSwitch
BounceX
BDG Media
Carat
CBC Radio-Canada
CBS Interactive
Centro
Comscore
Conversant Media
Corus Entertainment
Cydersoft
dataxu
Dealer.com
DoubleVerify
ESPN
Evite
Exponential
Eyeview
Facebook
Fatherly
Forensiq
Freeform
Google
GroundTruth
GroupM
GumGum
Healthline
Horizon Media
Hulu
impreMedia
Index Exchange
InMobi
Innity
Integral Ad Science
IPG Mediabrands
ITN Networks
JUICE Mobile
Jun Group
Kargo
Leaf Group
LKQD
LoopMe
Magna Global
Match Media Group
Meredith
MiQ
Nativo
NBCUniversal
Newsweek
NGL Media
Oath
Omnicom Group
OpenX
Oracle Data Cloud’s Moat
PCH Media
Pelmorex Media
Primis
Prodata Media
Publicis Groupe
PubMatic
Pulpo
Quotient
Ranker
RhythmOne
Rogers Communications
Rubicon Project
Sizmek
Sociomantic
Sovrn
SpotX
Teads
Telaria
The Media Trust
The Weather Company
Tremor Video DSP
Turner
Undertone
Unruly
UPROXX
Valassis Digital
Veri-Site
Verve
Vevo
Viant
Vibrant Media
Warner Bros.
White Bullet
White Ops
Wieden + Kennedy

“I am incredibly proud of the hard work that all of our member TAG Compliance Officers have put in, not just for 2019 recertification, but throughout 2018 as well,” said Todd Miller, Director of Compliance at TAG. “It is very gratifying to see the growth in membership and seals awarded, as well the increased adoption of independent validation and TAG’s establishment of truly global standards.”

TAG Certifications may cover individual countries, geographic regions, or globally. Of the 139 seals recertified in 2019, 59 percent covered global operations, and 76 percent of the companies who recertified through independent validation did so covering their global operations.

More information regarding recertified companies is available by searching company name or each company’s unique TAG-ID via the TAG Registry. Additional information includes the specific seals awarded to each company, valid terms for each seal, and whether the seals were based on self-attestation or independent validation.