The IAB Technology Laboratory is seeking public feedback on updated draft technical guidance for rich media ads that run in mobile applications. In a Wednesday news release, the R&D consortium said the revised mobile rich media ad interface definition (MRAID 3.0) -- the first update in more than four years -- provides better user experience, faster ad rendering, viewability measurement and video player ad interface definition integration. “With more accurate mobile viewability metrics, MRAID 3.0 creates better opportunities for publishers to monetize their inventory and for brands to understand the effectiveness of their campaigns,” said Anna Bager, IAB senior vice president and general manager-mobile and video. Comments are due Jan. 30 and then the MRAID working group will assess and incorporate the feedback.

Facebook said Wednesday that it's fixing more errors in its view count metrics, including the view counts for content posted on businesses' and individuals' professional profile pages. The visible view counts were showing the sum of all views, rather than counting views by unique visitors. Once the metrics are fixed in the coming weeks, the seven-day view count will drop by about 33 percent, while the 28-day summary view count will drop by 55 percent, Facebook said in a news release. The social media company said it had also undercounted views for videos watched to completion. Fixes to that metric will cause video view counts to increase by 35 percent, Facebook said. The company disclosed in September that it had overestimated video view counts for two years, drawing criticism from the Association of National Advertisers (see 1609290075).

The Trustworthy Accountability Group launched an anti-malware certification seal program for buyers, sellers and intermediaries in the digital advertising supply chain, said the ad industry initiative in a news release Tuesday. TAG, which was formed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Interactive Advertising Bureau, said it's also building and hosting an information-sharing hub to disseminate real-time intelligence about malware attacks to the industry and law enforcement. Adform, AppNexus, Google and RocketFuel are some ad companies and agencies that agreed to participate in the certification program, which entails complying with certain guidelines and best practices for scanning content for malware. The program "uses a multi-prong approach that includes consumer education, industry best practices, information sharing, and law enforcement to shut down malware distributors and protect the advertising supply chain," said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis. The threat-sharing hub will permit some companies to get data on the most recent infections, "serving as a type of immune system for the industry in helping it respond to new and emerging threats," TAG said. The anti-malware program is the fourth and last program in the initiative's mission to stop fraudulent traffic, fight malware and internet piracy and promote transparency.

The FTC will explore in a Dec. 6 event how changing consumer demographics, including how advertising and marketing are transforming to reach diverse groups, are influencing the commission's activities, said the agency in a Tuesday news release. The agency, which will convene consumer groups, demographers, law enforcement personnel, marketers and researchers, also will explore how fraud is changing and what regulators can do to fight it. It said studying such issues will help the FTC "continue to strategize, prioritize, and prepare for the years ahead." The 9 a.m. event, which will be webcast, will be held at 400 7th St. SW.

The IAB Technology Laboratory launched a compliance program to audit and validate companies' use of advertising industry standards. In a Monday news release, the independent R&D consortium, whose founding members include AppNexus, Google and Yahoo, said the compliance program accurately verifies deployment of OpenRTB (real-time bidding), VAST (video ad serving template) and VPAID (video player ad-serving interface definition) standards and will add MRAID (mobile rich media ad interface definition) in the coming months. Under the compliance process, companies will provide auditing samples, which will then be confirmed through various tools, and then their business procedures will be evaluated and graded, IAB said. Companies will submit at least three sample validations every year to stay compliant, it added.

About 86 percent of the 200 largest e-commerce websites immediately stopped sending marketing emails after customers sent unsubscribe requests, the Online Trust Alliance reported Wednesday. OTA said in a news release that it's a slight improvement over last year, but almost 6 percent, or 11 retailers, didn't honor unsubscribe requests, violating U.S. and Canadian anti-spam laws. "Making the consumer email experience as straightforward as possible, aligning email marketing practices to users’ interests and honoring customer unsubscribe requests is critical to merchants’ online brand reputation and ability to meet regulatory requirements,” said President Craig Spiezle. OTA said it signed up to receive promotional emails from retailers between April and September and analyzed the user experience.

U.S. digital advertising revenue hit a high of $32.7 billion in the first half of 2016, a 19 percent jump from the same period last year, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau in a Tuesday news release on its latest PwC-prepared internet ad revenue report. For 2Q, ad revenue rose 18 percent to $16.9 billion. Mobile ad revenue was nearly half of the total revenue for the first six months this year -- or about $15.5 billion, up 89 percent from the same period. Within mobile, IAB said smartphone and tablet videos reached $1.6 billion for the period, a 178 percent hike. "Total social media revenues, including mobile and desktop, surged to $7 billion in HY 2016, a 57% rise compared to $4.4 billion in HY 2015," said IAB. "Consumers’ appetite to enjoy media -- in particular video and social media -- on smartphones and tablets provides marketers with the opportunity to connect and interact with their customers while they are on the go, in a very personal environment," said IAB Chief Marketing Officer David Doty.

P.C. Richard was clearing out Samsung 2015 TVs Monday, advertising the 50-inch UN50J5200 for $399.97 with free shipping. Deals site Brad’s said it was the lowest price it found for the TV by $77 and the lowest price it had seen yet for the smart 60Hz 1080p HDTV. The leader price at Amazon Monday for the UN50J5200 was $449.

DMA is renaming itself the Data & Marketing Association, it said on the eve of its 100th anniversary. DMA -- which had stood for Direct Marketing Association -- said it used member feedback and market analysis, plus input from the DMA board, leadership team and OgilvyOne Worldwide to decide on the new name and branding. DMA CEO Tom Benton said: “These steps reaffirm that DMA represents the entire marketing ecosystem of brand marketers, agencies, media companies, data companies and tech companies and is uniquely positioned to protect marketers’ ability to responsibly access, exchange and refine data to improve lives and to grow the U.S. Economy.” DMA also announced the election of new officers and board members: Chairman Michael McLaren, Merkle; Vice Chairwoman Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, Acxiom; Secretary Steve Wagner, Experian; Treasurer Steve Froehlich, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; and new board members Kevin Akeroyd, Cision; Luci Rainey, Comcast; and Cory Treffiletti, Oracle Data Cloud.

The FTC was asked to investigate and take action against Google, Disney's Maker Studios, Comcast's DreamWorks-owned AwesomenessTV and two other digital studio companies engaged in "influencer" marketing directed at children, which several advocacy groups said is an unfair and deceptive practice. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy, Georgetown University's Institute for Public Representation (IPR) and Public Citizen, in a complaint filed Friday, are urging the commission to also provide clear guidance. With influencer marketing, the complaint said, companies promote brands and products through "people whose implicit or tacit endorsement of a product is designed to influence viewers and followers to want that product." Traditional and digital marketing tactics -- including bots, branded content, data driven programmatic targeting, native advertising, product placement, social media and vlogging -- are used, it said. Such ads take advantage of children, who don't understand or process that companies are using social media and YouTube celebrities to sell products, the groups said in a news release. IPR Director Laura Moy said such ads "cause children to want unhealthy and costly products." The complaint said Google "actively encourages, solicits, and promotes" such advertising on YouTube through popular channels like EvanTubeHD (see 1609120037), Baby Ariel, Meghan McCarthy, the Eh Bee Family and Bratayley. The complaint said multichannel networks like Disney's and DreamWorks' studios, Collab Creators and Wild Brain create and distribute such videos. A Google spokeswoman said in an email that "creators should be transparent with their audiences if their content includes paid promotion of any kind. As our long-standing policy makes clear, anyone uploading videos to YouTube has a legal obligation to disclose to YouTube and their viewers if a video contains paid promotion. Any videos that have disclosed paid product placement or endorsements are restricted from the YouTube Kids app." Neither the FTC nor the other companies commented.