“One small step” for TAG is a giant leap in fighting fraud.

This has been a huge week for TAG, and I wanted to share some of our exciting developments with you.

On Monday, we announced our TAG “Certified Against Fraud” Program, the cornerstone of our anti-fraud efforts. Through that program, participants in the digital advertising ecosystem can certify that they have set the highest standards against fraud and highlight that compliance through a TAG “Certified Against Fraud” Seal.

More than thirty of the industry’s leading companies joined in that announcement by agreeing to participate in the TAG “Certified Against Fraud” Program, including all four of the largest ad agencies holding companies in the world (Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP), as well as Amobee, AppNexus, Collective, comScore, DoubleVerify, Dstillery, engage:BDR, Exponential, Forensiq, Google, GroupM, Horizon Media, Index Exchange, Integral Ad Science, MediaMath, Moat, ndp, News Corp, OpenX, PubMatic, RhythmOne, Rocket Fuel, Rubicon Project, Sociomantic Labs, sovrn, SpotX, TubeMogul, White Ops, Yahoo, and Zemanta.

The launch of the program received broad favorable media coverage and support from across the industry, including Advertising Age, AdExchanger, MediaPost, Marketing Land, Marketing Dive, Business Insider, FierceCMO, AdNews, Naked Security, and IDG News.

The timing of our anti-fraud launch also coincided perfectly with AdExchanger’s sold out CleanAds I/O conference yesterday in New York, of which TAG was a sponsor. Numerous speakers pointed to TAG’s anti-fraud program and other efforts as important examples of the industry taking the necessary steps to address the intertwined issues of fraud, malware, piracy, and lack of transparency. (We were also delighted to see many of you at a TAG cocktail reception following the conference and have the opportunity to thank you in person for your hard work on these issues.)

Finally, on TAG’s fourth pillar of transparency, tomorrow we plan to announce the companies that have achieved compliance with TAG’s Inventory Quality Guidelines (IQG) over the last year. IQG compliance increases transparency across the industry by offering companies a common framework to disclose and describe the quality of their inventory.

Congratulations and our deepest appreciation to all of the companies that have committed to taking part in the TAG “Certified Against Fraud” Program, as well as those who will be announced as “IQG Certified” tomorrow. Your efforts are building a safer and more trustworthy digital advertising supply chain, and we will continue to highlight your leadership in the media and among your peers.

p.s. If you have not yet applied for the TAG “Certified Against Fraud” Program, we would encourage you to review the guidelines and application process on the TAG website and contact us with any questions.

Mike