On the Trusted Web, consumer and advertiser trust is key

Consumers and advertisers desire a trustworthy online environment where information and privacy are not in question. With its Trusted Web, DPG Media meets both groups, says Merel Gianotten, director product, programmatic advertising and partnerships DPG Media. 

The Trusted Web is a central theme in DPG Media's digital strategy. Where does that come from?

Trust in the "open internet" has taken a significant number of dents in recent years. In their search for quality information, Internet users are increasingly confronted with fake news and other dubious content.

What's more, they are increasingly aware that their personal data is often outlawed in the process. There is therefore a growing need for information that is not open to discussion. This also applies to advertisers.

They too are struggling with the lack of transparency on the open web. They have too little control over the environment in which their ads are placed and the costs they pay for them. With the Trusted Web, we want to restore the trust of both important groups in the Internet.

How does the Trusted Web provide the trust that is lacking elsewhere on the Internet?

The Trusted Web offers consumers highly diverse and high-quality content in a privacy-friendly environment. Advertisers have access to a very large reach where they can deploy a wide selection of attractive and effective advertising products to target sharply defined audiences. A crucial basic requirement for trust is transparency.

With DPG Ads, our new advertising platform, we aim for a fully transparent supply chain. Research by PwC on behalf of the British Advertisers' Association shows that almost half of the budget advertisers put into the supply chain of the open web is spent on widely varying costs. DPG Ads converts total media investment into actual ads.

In doing so, does the advertiser not sacrifice ease of use and reach?

DPG Ads is divided into three sections (DIRECT, DESIGN, DATA). Together with the existing procurement channels, they offer quick and easy access to all the possibilities of our premium inventory. We reach 84% of the Dutch population every month. Thanks to our growing Publishing Partner Network, with premium publishers like RTL and Talpa, that reach continues to grow.

Thanks to DPG Direct, advertisers can easily book campaigns themselves, with maximum flexibility and control over campaigns. SME advertisers are already making great use of this, and soon national advertisers will also be able to use it. DPG Design is the creative studio with which the advertiser can easily produce or upload attractive creatives.

DPG Direct and Design offer more ease of use and creativity. What is the third component?

This month we are launching the third part of DPG Ads: Datalab, with a first group of advertisers using the platform. Thanks to our strong portfolio of highly versatile media brands, we are able to get to know our readers' preferences and needs well. Thanks to their media use and interaction, we can, for example, very accurately predict whether a consumer is interested in certain products or services.

The valuable first party data segments that we build up in this way are made accessible to advertisers via Datalab. In addition, advertisers can also on-board their own data and match it with our segments, allowing them to target even more sharply and creatively. The new Insights dashboard also offers more extensive insight into their intended and achieved target group. What kind of profiles and segments interact with a campaign, for example? With those kinds of insights, advertisers can better target campaigns to known and new audiences.

This also requires the explicit approval of the visitor. What does the Trusted Web have to offer?

The Dutch consumer also needs transparency. Partly due to the aforementioned growth of fake news, they are experiencing increasing value in having access to high-quality information brought together by specialized professionals.
This trend can be seen in numerous international studies and is confirmed in the 'Digital Media Trust' study. We commissioned Panel Inzicht to conduct this survey ourselves in February among one thousand Dutch people aged 16 to 65. This recent study shows that this representative group estimates the reliability of DPG Media news sites up to three times higher than social media like Facebook and Instagram. The same research also shows that younger news consumers in particular consider it important that ads appear alongside quality content.

But is the privacy of those consumers also optimally protected on the Trusted Web?

Of course, that's a crucial part of the Trusted Web. More and more consumers are concerned about the non-transparent way in which large U.S. platforms, in particular, gobble up their data. Without it being clear what happens to it, or what exactly they get in return.
Our Trusted Web offers transparency in return. That means, for example, that their data always remains secure within our network, and that they can determine exactly what their data will or will not be used for. It means that the audiences offered through Datalab always consist of consumers who explicitly choose to receive personalized marketing messages. Here too, the Trusted Web offers clear added value for consumers and advertisers.