21 IASH MEMBERS RE-CERTIFIED THROUGH RANDOM AUDITS

With the most stringent audit tests since the council was established, ABCe was contracted to audit key elements of each member company’s processes for all Insertion Orders in a calendar month randomly selected by ABCe during the period July to December 2008.  The next IASH audit will be January to June 2009 period, with the results reported in October.

The tougher Code of Conduct, announced in Jan 2008 (Version 8.1), reinforces IASH’s commitment to transparency and the tightening of the Code of Conduct.  The 21 members that passed the audit are: 24/7 Real Media UK, Accelerator Media, ad pepper media (UK) Ltd, AD2ONE GROUP UK, Adconion UK Ltd , Addvantage Media, Clickbrokers, Consilium Media Ltd, dgmDisplay, DotFox Networks Ltd, eSpot, eType, Glam Media Limited, GMW Media Ltd, Microsoft Media Network UK, Oridian UK Ltd, Platform-A UK, Specific Media UK, Unanimis Consulting Ltd, ValueClick Media UK and Yahoo! Network.

Members are currently working to Version 8.2 of the Code of Conduct unveiled in July 2008, this will be audited in July of this year.  The Code now covers just two categories of inventory: IASH Inventory which is classified into nine types, and warrantied inventory which is not vetted but requires the supplier to guarantee that adverts will not appear against barred content.  In addition, the Code has also been split into two documents. The first is the IASH Constitution which deals with rules of membership, complaints process and penalties due, and the second is the IASH Code which must be upheld by all Members and includes the key components which comprise the ABCe audit.

Other ongoing initiatives to promote IASH and tighten its Code include regular meetings with the IPA, an official IASH Steering Group and a sub-committee dedicated to improving communication with advertisers, agencies, members and the wider industry.

Richard Sharp, chairman of IASH, said:  “I am delighted that all members have passed the latest round of audits.  It demonstrates how seriously all members are taking the protection of their advertisers’ brands.  Our partners, ABCe have come back with some suggestions around working with advertising exchanges and how we should clarify warrantied inventory.  We will be looking to include these in future audits.  There are many exciting developments that we are working on and we look forward to bringing these to conclusion over the coming months.”

Richard Foan, managing director of ABCe, said: “As the IASH members know, the stringency of our audit processes continues to grow, in line with industry demands. It is clear to me that IASH members are determined to deliver to their clients through the IASH/ABCe stamp of trust.”

A full list of current IASH members is available at http://www.iash.org.uk/membership/206116/current_members.html