Ahead of ‘Ethical Adtech: Does adtech have a heart?’, a panel event by The Drum, in association with iotec, championing change in adtech, and the unveiling of its white paper and manifesto on how the industry can begin to solve Transparency issues, we have highlighted key insights from the white paper below.

Costs should not be mysterious

Ian Armstrong, general manager, global advertising at Jaguar Land Rover, believes there should be no room for doubt when it comes to financial transactions.

He says: “Where there’s mystery, there’s margin. All those people are making money, but clients are the only ones putting money in.”

Pete Markey, director of marketing at TSB agrees and says this area is more mysterious than it needs to be. “Costs are not immediately obvious, you don’t know where all the money’s going, and there’s not a single source you can go to, to understand who’s responsible.”

Efficiency is meaningless if the KPI’s don’t match the desired outcomes

The danger with KPI’s and attribution models focused on efficiency, Sam Taylor, head of commercial marketing at Direct Line Group explains, is that you target fewer people for a higher spend. He describes it as harvesting the crop but not sowing for the future. Efficiency alone, he argues, doesn’t drive business growth.

TSB’s Markey agrees. He believes that marketers should always be looking to the outcomes delivered.

“Effectiveness (against the desired outcomes) should always override efficiency, because it might be better to spend more to get better quality,” he says. “The question should always be ‘what’s the return to the business?’”

Marketers are too naïve about programmatic

In the end, the resolution of transparency issues will only happen if there is a coordinated effort by every player in the digital supply chain. TSB’s Markey believes too many marketers are naïve in their approach to programmatic, saying more education is needed.

“The worst is if you just dabble. To succeed you’ve got to understand it and be set up for it, both from an agency perspective and as a client.”

Lisa Walker, head of media, digital, social, Vodafone believes a key driver of change will be marketers’ desire to have full ownership of the data from their campaigns, making transparency inevitable throughout the advertising supply chain.

To hear the speakers talk about these issues in depth, join the event on 15 February, at an exclusive venue in London. Joining the panel will be Ian Armstrong, general manager, global advertising at Jaguar Land Rover; Peter Markey, marketing director of TSB and Phil Smith, director general of ISBA.

Brands will discuss how they are addressing issues around brand safety, viewability and reporting discrepancies and their experiences around championing transparency when working with partners.

Please note that there are limited seats and you will need to have confirmation of registration to allow entry. You can register here.