The percentage of branded advertising on IP infringing websites has increased for the seventh consecutive quarter.

White Bullet’s Q2 2018 report found branded ad campaigns made up 76% of all advertising on IP infringing websites.

This figure stood at 52% in Q4 2016 and has increased every quarter since.

Major branded ad campaigns – advertising from premium household names – also increased in Q2, making up 20% of all branded ad campaigns.

Interestingly, this increase in major branded advertising comes in the same quarter as the signing of the EU Commission’s Memorandum of Understanding on Advertising and IPRs (EU MOU).

Signatories to the EU MOU – many of which are brand associations with members found in WhiteBullet's Q2 ad data – agree to minimise the placement of advertising on websites and mobile apps that infringe third party IP.

Premium brands risk further governmental scrutiny and damages brand reputation unless proactive brand safety tools that can specifically address the dynamism of the piracy domain ecosystem are adopted.

The gambling sector continues to be the largest sector found on IP infringing websites, with 63% of all branded ad campaigns coming from gambling brands. In Q1 2018, this figure stood at 60%.

This increase can be attributed to a rise in gambling campaigns during the World Cup, indicating that gambling operators must ensure they implement IP-specific brand safety tools on all campaigns, even during times of high demand.

White Bullet’s Q2 data also found that 26% of the ad companies serving ads to IP infringing websites are engaged in compliance initiatives such as the TAG Anti-Piracy Group and the EU MOU.

It seems the brand safety tools adopted by major ad companies are not being implemented on all campaigns or these tools lack the dynamism and intelligence to deal with the specific issue of advertising on pirate websites.

Much like premium brands, ad companies must adopt dynamic and IP-specific brand safety tools which can effectively deal with the quickly evolving piracy ecosystem in order to achieve IP compliance.

White Bullet’s IPI Risk Profiling solutions provide real-time intelligence on IP infringing domains, giving ad companies the ability to filter out high risk publishers before bidding.

Contact White Bullet today to ensure you are IP compliant.

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