In-game ad firm Anzu has teamed up with security firm HUMAN Security to bring anti-fraud protection to Anzu’s platform.
HUMAN Security protects against sophisticated bot attacks and fraud. It detects various kinds of fraudulent traffic within Anzu’s programmatic advertising across mobile devices and PCs.
In-game advertising isn’t new, but the Tel Aviv-based Anzu claims it can make it more intelligent by seamlessly integrating digital ads directly into the gameplay, without disrupting the user experience. Anzu.io also measures the ad’s effectiveness with real-time analytics. But it needs to be sure that it isn’t being duped.
A lot is at stake here. Losses due to ad fraud are expected to continue to cost the industry billions of dollars each year, and sophisticated bots pose an increasing threat to the gaming world, the company said. Fraudsters try to deceive an automated ad program into thinking that a real person is looking at an ad, rather than a bot, to claim a wider reach and generate more advertising fees. Armies of bots pretending to be real people looking at ads can trigger huge fraudulent payments that never result in any game downloads. Anzu wants brands and other advertisers to rest easier knowing that it isn’t so easy to pull a fast one on the company.
By leveraging HUMAN’s prebid and post-bid solutions, dubbed MediaGuard, Anzu ensures that ad campaigns running across its inventory have low fraud levels. The hope is to create a safer space where both advertisers and publishers can feel confident working together to effectively reach gamers around the world.
At this stage, invalid traffic (IVT) is less likely within in-game advertising environments than other ad channels, and this new partnership will help safeguard the space to keep it that way. The initial data protected by HUMAN showed that out of 23.5 million events, Anzu’s IVT averaged out at 0.16% on mobile and 0.47% on PC, the companies said after testing the protection.
Recently, Anzu earned three industry certifications: the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) Brand Safety Certified Seal, the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal, and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK Gold Standard Certification 2.0. Together in partnership with HUMAN, these certifications demonstrate Anzu’s ongoing commitment to promoting a safe, secure, and fraud-free ecosystem that benefits the entire advertising chain, the company said.
HUMAN was the first solution to be fully accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for coverage against sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) for desktop, mobile web, mobile in-app, and connected TV (CTV). This includes accreditation for pre- and post-bid detection and mitigation of SIVT, which is notoriously challenging to detect as fraudsters attempt to mimic genuine user behavior.
The partnership with Anzu ensures that customers and partners will be protected from emerging forms of in-game SIVT — background ad activity, hidden ads, misrepresentation/spoofing, measurement manipulation, and more — while guaranteeing always-on filtering and measurement across the platform.
HUMAN verifies the humanity of more than 10 trillion digital interactions per week, offering enterprises a platform with unmatched visibility into fraudulent activity across the internet. Anzu has about 60 employees now.
The article was published on September 14, 2021 on VentureBeat.