The China Advertising Association (CAA) collaborates with the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) to fight digital advertising fraud in China. With the help of CAA, TAG will release its international digital advertising standards into the Chinese market. 

CAA and TAG aim to provide the tools to fight against digital ad fraud and reach the TAG standards. On meeting these standards, companies will be recognised by TAG as “Certified Against Fraud”, which would ensure their customer base of the safety and reliability of their brand. With TAG’s Threat Sharing Exchange, these companies can also receive the “Brand Safety” certification from TAG. 

The standard is compliant with the China National Standards GBT34092.2 – 2017 – Interactive Advertising – Delivery Monitor Requirements (China National InValid Traffic Standard), and by 2022, SIVT (Sophisticated InValid Traffic) is expected to be included. Companies, however, can still choose to use the MRC (Media Rating Council) GIVT guidelines. 

This is not the first time CAA and TAG have teamed up; their mission last year in April 2020 to combat digital ad fraud and promote transparency in the digital advertising industry was successful enough to lead to the present partnership. ‍

Zhang Guo Hua (Chairman of CAA) said, "Building on our collaboration with TAG, CAA is delighted to launch these standards in China to help tackle criminal activity and promote brand safety in digital advertising. We believe this is an important development and – underpinned with independent validation - will make a real difference to the quality of digital advertising in China. CAA encourages its member companies to take this step."‍

TAG is known internationally for its significant contribution to reducing ad fraud in critical markets in the APAC, US and Europe regions. TAG certified distribution channels were found to have over 90% lower fraud rates. ‍

Mike Zaneis (President and CEO of TAG) said, “TAG’s work with CAA in bringing these standards to China adjusts measures to local conditions whilst – at the same time – leveraging an approach that is consistent for businesses operating both in China and beyond. It is CAA’s pragmatic leadership that has made this a reality and TAG will continue to help to meet the challenges.”‍

This collaboration is undoubtedly going to prove to be a bane to the Chinese digital advertising industry. Hopefully, it will encourage other countries to follow along the same line in the future.