WAIT, WHAT?!
I laughed.
When Facebook first commented on the small number of Americans who saw the Russian prompted ads at 10 million, I laughed.
I laughed again last week when Facebook upped the number of Americans who saw the ads to 126 million.
Today, Facebook testified on Capitol Hill that the number is now 150 million.
Still laughing.
Facebook, Google and Twitter are compromised. And there is a reason....a lack of seasoned media professionals.
When Facebook first announced10 Million Americans saw the ads and the dollars they took to run them i held back.
Wait, What?!
The numbers simply did not add up and any traditional media pro could have figured that out.
When Facebook upped the number to 126 million and reasoned that it was a small insignificant number I paused and laughed some more. So .... Facebook is telling its advertisers that the millions reached was not a big deal and are taking money from clients to sell insignifigant performance.
Who's crazy here?
It's just the tip of the iceberg and numbers will rise yet again. It will not end well.

Note to Facebook. Google and Twitter .... get off your high horse and hire some seasoned traditional media pros who know the business of reach and math. You simply do not have the chops nor the required foundations to go it alone.

Are We Blindly Moving Forward?

In just the last few days reports of hacking and ad fraud appeared as footnotes in the trade media.

CMOs have much to be concerned about.

ITPRO announced that a YAHOO malvertising attack left 900 million users at risk of ransomware.  Yes, that was 900 MILLION.  On the same day, Trustwave Holdings discovered hackers who were using RTB platforms to spread a Trojan virus through programmatic ads that do not need to be clicked on to activate the virus.  In other words, simply visiting a site can infect a computer.

As most programmatic platforms do not have robust technology to distinguish between hackers and advertisers, Trustwave believes it is fairly easy to pose as a legitimate business and buy up infectious ads.

It is no wonder that the Association of National Advertisers and the International Advertising Association are raising the specter of transparency concerns.  As a result, they are commissioning studies and surveys in an attempt to stem the flow of fraud across all media disciplines.

ComScore recently tracked NHT (Non-Human Traffic) across a number of campaigns and recognized that 14% of the campaigns generated 5-20% of NHT, accounting for 45% of the total NHT impressions. Another company at the forefront of fraud analysis is Forensiq, "relentlessly fighting online ad fraud".

I would venture that most CMOs have no standards in place with sellers, technology platforms feeding programmatic and traditional trades, their agencies and data providers.

 

Recently, a Jeep SUV was hacked through its entertainment system and controlled from a remote (10 mile) distance and forced to drive off the road.  Chrysler and Harmon are now facing class-action suits.  Could Yahoo face similar negligence suits for failing to protect its users from the malvertising hack?  

It’s getting ugly and it’s just the beginning.