IAB brand safety policy

Overview

This policy describes the methods and processes involved in SYZYGY’s pledge to keep our clients’ brand safe in online environments. We use one of, or a combination of blacklists and whitelists – both either global or should the client require a specific schedule, this can be implemented easily as well.

Principles

SYZYGY will under all circumstances apply content exclusions to all of our campaigns which are of the same or a similar vein to the below categories amongst others that may be relevant to protecting a client’s brand safety:

1. Adult content
2. Drug abuse
3. Pornography
4. Violence
5. Sexual assault

The exclusion of these contextual categories can be done in multiple ways. SYZYGY will apply the content exclusions on each of our DSPs for all campaigns however we will also be able to apply blacklists and whitelists which also exclude domains of these types. The SYZYGY brand safety policy is aligned with and supports the TAG Brand Safety Certified Guidelines.

Methods and processes

As mentioned above SYZYGY have global exclusions in place at the start of every campaign however we have a number of other processes that we can carry out if required. These include specific appropriate/inappropriate schedules, 3^rd party ad verification via IAS, DV, or Comscore, MOAT. Using the 3^rd party ad verification is delivered on an ad-hoc basis and will be configured via a collaborative effort between us and the client at the beginning of a campaign. Both Post-bid and Pre-bid are possible with our partner DoubleVerify.

For our direct deals, our publishers apply their own blacklists to campaigns and SYZYGY are also able to implement specific schedules with direct deals. We also reserve the right to request an alteration to the schedules already implemented by publishers should a client need it.

Our processes for updating our global blacklist is as follows:

• Needs to be updated every month
• Blacklists are constructed from audits of all our campaigns every month adding anything that does not contain ads.txt or have a content score of severe (and manually managed if ‘high’)
• Blacklists are applied to every campaign and are common to all DSPs that we do and will use so that there are no discrepancies between domains reached by DSP A and DSP B.
• URLs of a lower severity ranking than ‘severe’ (High-Low) are manually vetted and it is decided whether to add them to the blacklist or not.

Ad verification process

• SYZYGY pledge that all programmatic buying will be covered by either 3^rd party ad verification or in accordance with a primary agreement with terms specific to the client.
• We receive tags from the creative agency/client which are then sent to one of the approved 3^rd party ad verification partners to be wrapped with their script which we will then traffic to the ad server and DSP.
• It is a collaborative effort between us and the client as to which categories will be blocked/monitored. We will not go live without active confirmation from the client that the 3^rd party ad verification is set up.
• We regularly perform inventory checks via content rating reports downloaded from the ad server so as to cover all campaigns

Takedown Policy

During any programmatic activity, if any form of display advertising is served on inappropriate content, as deemed by the client, SYZYGY will endeavor to take down within 24 hours of communication via email to agency account lead as specified in the Master Service Agreement and/or Statement of Work.

Any instance where delivery of programmatic buying is served on inappropriate content and breaks any agreed obligations will be reimbursed by SYZYGY to the client, set at a maximum of the agency commission fee for the specific campaign. In the same situation, if a 3^rd party vendor is found responsible they will be liable for reimbursement.

1. If buying on the open exchange on behalf of the client, our programmatic traders will manually spot check and audit on a daily basis inappropriate inventory using an approved Ad Verification platform. If inventory (websites) are found deemed unfit they will be applied to the SYZYGY global blacklist.
2. When buying inventory directly from a publisher the team at SYZYGY will request daily site lists to be audited by our programmatic trading team and where there’s website inventory deemed poor quality based on SYZYGY standards, these will be blacklisted.
3. Any networks SYZYGY buys inventory from having to declare all websites in order for SYZYGY to audit poor quality websites which will be added to the global blacklist.

SYZYGY supports the IAB initiative ads.txt (also known as Authorized Digital Sellers). Where an ads.txt file is present, SYZYGY requires that only publisher inventory from authorized sellers is purchased. In the absence of an ads.txt file, SYZYGY will not exclude the publisher from targeting but will continue to recommend that all publishers adopt ads.txt at the earliest opportunity.

• SYZYGY requires all vendors and publishers to adopt ads.txt or to be in the process of adoption as we will have no less than 90% of our traffic running through ads.txt verified vendors
• The ads.txts of our top 10 sites can be found here: C:\Users\RPercival\Dropbox (SYZYGY)\Media Team\IAB Gold Standard\IAB\Top domains + ads.txt
• Our process of updating our ads.txt lists will be bi-weekly (TBC) and we will perform a full audit of all display accounts and systematically add sites that become ads.txt compliant into a whitelist (given no other flags).
• We also will add in any sites that we find are not ads.txt compliant to the blacklist to ensure we minimise the risk of buying through fraudulent sources.

During any purchase of programmatic activity, if any form of display advertising (including video and native) is served on inappropriate content, as deemed by the client, SYZYGY will endeavour to takedown within 24 hours of communication.

Any instance where delivery of programmatic buying is served on inappropriate content and breaks any agreed obligations will be reimbursed by SYZYGY to the client. In the same situation, if a 3^rd party vendor is found responsible they will be liable for reimbursement.

• If buying on the open exchange on behalf of the client, our programmatic traders will manually spot check and audit on a daily basis inappropriate inventory using an approved Ad Verification platform. If inventory (websites) are found deemed unfit they will be applied to the SYZYGY global blacklist.
• When buying inventory directly from a publisher the team at SYZYGY will request daily site lists to be audited by our programmatic trading team and where there’s website inventory deemed poor quality based on SYZYGY standards, these will be blacklisted.
• Any networks SYZYGY buys inventory from having to declare all websites in order for SYZYGY to audit poor quality websites that will be added to the global blacklist.