By renewing their DTSG seal AOL UK  has demonstrated their continuing commitment to transparency and helping the industry work towards greater online brand safety.

For more information on ABC UK’s Verification Service please go to: www.abc.org.uk/dtsg.

Hamish Nicklin, AOL UK Managing Director comments:
"Brand Safety is a hot topic in the industry and one we take very seriously at AOL.  It remains vital to our and our clients’ businesses and being verified against the DTSG Principles gives them another reason to be confident working with us.”

Jerry Wright, ABC Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to have verified AOL UK as compliant with  JICWEBS Digital Trading Standards Group Good Practice Principles. ABC’s verification service gives our industry confidence about compliance with JICWEBS industry-agreed standards and raises the bar in the important area of brand safety, a key milestone in the evolution of digital display advertising.”

Ends

About AOL UK

AOL is a media technology company with a mission to simplify the internet for consumers and creators by unleashing the world's best builders of culture and code. As one of the largest online properties with approximately 500 million monthly global consumers of its premium brands and combined Microsoft inventory, AOL is at the centre of disruption of how content is being produced, distributed, consumed and monetised by connecting publishers with advertisers on its global, programmatic content and advertising platforms. AOL's opportunity lies in shaping the future of the digitally connected world for decades to come. AOL is a subsidiary of Verizon.

About ABC

ABC inspires confidence in the market across the media world by delivering a valued ‘stamp of trust’.

ABC underpins the way billions of pounds worth of advertising budgets are traded across the converging media landscape in the UK and beyond.  It has two roles:

To bring the industry together to agree standards that define media measurement and determine best practice. To offer independent audit and compliance services, delivering certification which verifies that data and processes meet the industry-agreed Reporting Standards.

ABC is governed by the industry, for the industry. ABC’s board consists of advertisers, media agencies, media owners and trade bodies.  They represent the differing interests of the media industry and meet regularly to agree new standards and make strategic decisions as to how ABC is run. With Board consensus, ABC has the ability to provide certification for any platform. As advertising platforms develop, ABC continually innovates and evolves to ensure its portfolio of products and services delivers to the media industry’s needs.

ABC UK was established in 1931 and is a founder member of the International Federation of ABC (IFABC), of which ABC UK CEO, Jerry Wright, is secretary.  Richard Foan, Group Executive Director of Communication & Innovation, ABC UK, also chairs the IFABC Web Standards Group, which works to deliver global standards and establish digital good practice across the world.

About JICWEBS

JICWEBS www.jicwebs.org is the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards. This industry‐owned organisation meets 4 times a year to ensure independent development and ownership of standards for underpinning online ad trading. This provides credibility, comparability and transparency, which is particularly important for advertisers who then have a universally recognised set of principles to work with. ABC audits digital media and systems to these industry‐agreed standards and verifies that the principles have been applied.

Representatives on JICWEBS encompass all areas of the digital industry including advertisers, agencies, media owners and technology providers from the following trade bodies: IPA, IPA digital, ISBA, AOP, IAB, NS, NPA.

Many of the JICWEBS standard definitions have been adopted by all IFABC (International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations, www.ifabc.org) members. The IFABC World Wide Web Standards Group reviews these global metrics every year to make sure they remain relevant to the people spending money on online advertising

For more information please visit www.jicwebs.org

About the Digital Trading Standards Group (DTSG)

The DTSG comprises representatives from the following sectors of the digital display trading ecosystem: advertisers, agencies, agency trading desks (ATDs), demand side platforms (DSPs), advertising networks, sales houses, advertising exchanges, supply side platforms (SSPs) and publishers.