Advertisers are losing their faith in the Media Rating Council (MRC) and the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), industry accreditation organizations who are responsible for upholding rigorous brand safety standards.
An Adalytics report last week found MRC- and TAG-certified vendors, including DoubleVerify and IAS, were monitoring ads on image-hosting site imgbb.com, that had been flagged by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
While the initial ire focused on the adtech vendors, the accreditation bodies are now facing backlash as well.
Eight ad experts—a mix of brand marketers, agency media buyers, and watchdog leaders—told ADWEEK they felt there was little visibility into accreditation practices, poor oversight of certified companies, and lax compliance enforcement.
Four media buyers, speaking on condition of anonymity to preserve industry relationships, questioned the value of the MRC’s and TAG’s brand safety certifications. They said accreditation processes are insufficiently rigorous and felt that, in many cases, certifications are boxes to be checked for vendors.
One agency buyer said both groups need to regain the ad industry’s trust after certifying IAS and DoubleVerify, which failed to block ad placements on imgbb.com.
A spokesperson for the MRC declined to issue a statement before responding to Senators Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) Feb. 7 probe into the MRC, TAG, and others for allegedly monetizing imgbb.com.
A veil of secrecy
The accreditation process for the MRC and TAG both happen “behind closed doors,” and it’s also unclear how they ensure continued compliance of the companies they certify, said Ruben Schreurs, group CEO at media investment analysis firm Ebiquity.
Both firms require audits for companies seeking certification. But while the MRC validates both organizational practices and technologies—usually with help from professional services firm EY—TAG’s third-party auditors focus primarily on compliance with TAG policies, sources said.
But ADWEEK sources criticized the fact that neither organization publicizes their specific audit criteria.
“I’m not clear on what value either provides at all at this point. They both do these audits with a veil of secrecy,” said one buyer.
