Rippll and Groundtruth have partnered to offer the UK market the first Cost per Visit model that is independently verified. Press release from GroundTruth below:

London UK – Wednesday 28th February 2018: GroundTruth, the leading global technology platform driving offline visits and sales by leveraging location as the source of intent, announced today it is bringing the groundbreaking 3rd party verified pay-for-performance model that drives offline visits, Cost Per Visit (CPV), to the UK.

Honda and Dentsu Aegis owned-agency Amplifi have signed as the first Cost Per Visit partners, where GroundTruth only charges advertisers for recorded visits into specified dealerships and showrooms. In response to the industry demand for independent evaluation, all CPV campaigns offered by GroundTruth are measured and verified by the UK’s leading independent location measurement company, Rippll.

The requirement for 3rd party verification is growing stronger amongst advertisers, with Exchangewire’s ‘Is Mobile Measuring Up?’ report revealing the number of advertisers intending to use such companies set to increase by over 89% over the next 12 months. Rippll opted to work with GroundTruth on this launch owing to the outstanding performance over short distances with their proprietary location technology, Blueprints.

GroundTruth’s launch follows the significant momentum since launching CPV in March last year, where 8 out of 10 of brands who were pitched the solution activated. The solution means that brands only pay for advertising that results in a real visit, representing a shift in accountability from buyer to partner. It was designed to allow advertisers to navigate industry pitfalls against brand safety and fraud.

Louise Furneaux, Marketing Communications Manager, Honda UK said: “Cost Per Visit changes the focus for marketers, from placement to strategy by removing the budgetary risk and concentrating on outcomes. Importantly, with GroundTruth’s CPV being independently verified, we have suitable reassurance that we only pay when actual visitation took place.”

Lucy Fletcher, Digital Account Manager, Amplifi said: ‘We are really excited to be working with Honda and Groundtruth as the first EMEA brand to test their CPV product and make our media activity even more accountable. Driving footfall has increasingly become a key KPI for Honda, and accurately tracking dealership visits is much closer to the point of sale than other measurements such as downloading a brochure.”

Theo Theodorou, General Manager EMEA, GroundTruth said: “Cost Per Visit measured by Rippll’s verification methodology allows us to bring advertisers the certainty and confidence they deserve, not only around guaranteeing offline visits but independently verifying that the visits actually happened. We are delighted to have such eminent brands as Honda and Amplifi be the first to partner with us in the UK.”

Doug Chisholm, CEO, Rippll commented: “We are delighted to support GroundTruth in this bold move to provide agencies with a more tangible and transparent buying model for Location Based Advertising.

“This will help agencies to better understand and measure what they are buying. It will also help them prioritise the location vendors they work with as many newcomers are flocking to the market, some with opaque practices that this kind of verification cuts right through.”

About GroundTruth

GroundTruth is the leading global technology platform driving in-store visits and sales by leveraging location as the primary source of intent. We believe in the power of place. Build your brand, increase sales and grow your business by building off what real people are doing in the real world, mapped using our proprietary Blueprints technology. Through its data foundation, GroundTruth sees more than 30 billion physical visits annually across 21 countries globally. Learn more: www.groundtruth.com.

With the rise of interest in digital media transparency that many credit to the very honest words of Marc Pritchard over a year ago there has been a surge in services such as verification and measurement which has pleased me personally both as an ex-media buyer and as an ad-tech entrepreneur.

As usual, most of the innovation is happening at the cutting edge of digital - i.e. mobile - including all the car/home/office/wrist technologies, all of which pour off huge amounts of valuable location data signals.

The latest mobile transparency service to become available to advertisers is the location verification service from Weve, aptly named Weve Locate, which aims to help advertisers identify accurate location data. This should be a really valuable asset for media agencies if used correctly.

This follows on nicely from the pioneering work of Jide Sobo at MEC last spring, where he used our own Location Verification Service to compare the accuracy of all the location vendors MEC works with. The choice of Rippll was mainly down to our independent positioning - we don't sell campaigns or audiences, and we have unique location data coming directly from apps which provide the most accurate location signals, and also measure how long a consumer was at the location, even when the apps are closed.

Following that verification study, Placecast launched a similar verification service in the US last summer, using telco data from Sprint, and now we have Weve launching a telco-based solution in the UK.

Large data sets The thing I really like about telcos joining this movement is that they have very large data sets up and down the country, and so can offer this service beyond the usual big cities like London and Manchester where the MEC study was focused.

Also,telcos should be able to further verify demographic data in an anonymised fashion, which I predict will become the next big trend in digital as media agencies begin to ask all media owners (including Facebook and Google) to offer third-party data verification that they are getting what they say they are when planning data-driven campaigns.

There is one point however that I think needs some clarification, and that is the idea that telco location data is somehow more accurate that app location data; this is simply false. We have all seen how a mobile app like Google Maps starts positioning your location on a map with a large blue circle which is the triangulation of the nearest cell towers, which is what telcos offer, and is typically accurate to hundreds of meters (about 200m in the screenshot of my handset here in Old Street, London). Apps have access to the GPS chip and wi-fi triangulation, which typically offer accuracy of 1-30 metres (about 20m in the screenshot of my handset here in Old Street). This is precisely why MEC chose to use app data to verify other forms of data (including cell tower), and not the other way round.

But this is a good thing, as agencies now have choice and competition. They can choose to use telco solutions to verify if data is coming from the right city, and then use app data (also known as SDK data where a Software Development Kit from a vendor sits inside an app), to verify if the data is coming from the right store or venue.

They can choose to use telco data to verify if data comes from one large part of a city or another and then use app data to check if the user was in a particular store for long enough to belong to a given Audience Segment. Also, it follows that the scale of data telcos have means they may well may be able to offer more cost-effective solutions than app data vendors in situations where accuracy isn’t as important as reach.

The knock-on effect of these innovative new transparency services is that agencies have started asking questions of vendors that remove more wastage and hence improve performance. The fact that it took major advertising groups to call time on the opaqueness is perhaps a little surprising, given that increasing transparency and removing bad data/inventory naturally boosts performance.

However, you have to bear in mind that such transparency has the awkward side-effect of reducing reach, which can be hard for an agency to explain to an advertiser used to the intoxicating numbers that Facebook and Google have hooked them on, so its a bit of a Catch 22 until advertisers accept that more transparency means less reach and smaller, more focused digital campaigns.

It may well be these exact verification services that help agencies shine more light on the industry and hence explain properly to advertisers that no, there are not 30m unique users standing 10m away from your stores right now with a location-based app waiting to see your ads... however, just a small amount of well-planned location-based ads will very likely boost your test drives and repeat supermarket visits very cost effectively, so let’s make sure we educate advertisers properly about the power of location and what it can and can't do.

As the year draws to a close and many of our clients are closing up shop for the festive period, Rippll CEO Doug Chisholm reflects back on what has been a transformational year.

Rippll has worn many different hats since it’s inception in 2008, from serving the first location based ads in Europe to developing innovative push messaging services for app owners. At the risk of it sounding cliché I firmly and honestly believe 2017 has been the most exciting year yet.

2017 has seen Rippll cement it’s unique place within the advertising and marketing space. Our media agnostic position in the market places us perfectly to be able to offer independent 3rd party measurement which adds integrity and transparency to the advertising eco system. I am proud of the position that we have taken, being uncompromisingly dedicated to quality and accuracy. Advertising is often derided as an industry of smoke and mirrors, it’s a pleasure to have developed a methodology we are proud to share.

We’ve measured the success of campaigns for some amazing brands and their agencies. In April we helped MEC audit their current location partners and were able to point out the varying level of quality of services in the market. It’s been very exciting to see the industry becoming more and more aware of the realities of location data, it’s limitations and it’s uses.

We have onboarded over 600 mobile loyalty apps this year, this tie our SDK data to human verified visits. Adding Human verified data means that we can build our machine learning on a set of data that verified as being correct by actual human beings not magic AI. Owning our own data also means that we are in control of enforcing rigorous GDPR level compliance standards. We can guarantee that this data is opted into and that there is a process for the deletion of user data upon request.

I can’t wait to see what 2018 holds. We’ve managed to get Rippll in the best place possible with our GDPR compliance and we are happy to share what we’ve learnt so far. In order to protect app user data we’ve also launched Bitqueen. This is a new product designed to manage user opt ins and deletion requests. Having an in house compliance product (that we are happy to share upon request!) is a great piece of reactive innovation that has already proved incredibly popular with our app owner partners.

It’s not an understatement to say it’s been an incredible year. We will continue to innovate, research and look forward. we’ve grown the team this year and moved into new offices and will be looking to add more people to our Commercial team so if you are looking for a new challenge in 2018 then please reach out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Doug Chisholm

2018 is going to be a big year in marketing. Data is the core of the advertising industry. Leveraging data for greater insights is something that Rippll have Championed for 7 years. Legislation that changes the way data is held and used will inevitably have huge consequences for the industry.

Agencies will be faced with a choice. Some will adapt their methodologies, approaches and face challenges with creativity. Others will not. These are the 4 mistakes that agencies MUST avoid.

1. Complacency

The Status Quo will certainly not be good enough. Data controllers will all have to review all processes, sources and storage. Agencies need to be asking their suppliers now (not in May) whether they are compliant with upcoming legislation. Those who are best prepared now will have the least disruption next year. Agencies should be asking to see full methodologies, privacy policies and evidence that a data subject "opted in". Ignorance is not going to be sufficient defence.

2. Getting in to bed with the wrong data suppliers

Do you know where your data has been? If agencies are using data that is gathered through bid-stream without the consent of the data subject – or if the data subject has since opted out from ad targeting - then it is not only bad practise to serve that user with a targeted ad but it could also be illegal! The first question you should ask when presented with data is always "what is the source?".

3. Underestimating the rights of the data subject

The rights of data subjects are clearly explained in the upcoming legislation. These rights are explicitly spelled out to individuals – there will be a rise in the collective understanding of how data is used. Agencies need to be aware of this. If someone opts out from their data being used for targeting - there needs to be a system in place for removing this information.

4. Not protecting your data

Improving internal security is a must. Cyber-crime is a real threat to the privacy of individuals. If you hold any personal data then it is your responsibility to make sure you have taken all necessary precautions to protect that information.

The penalties for missing the mark with GDPR can be huge. Companies that are not compliant will take a blow not only to their pockets but also their reputation. 2018 is the year that transparency, integrity and compliance will be the keywords in board meetings throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Make sure that your agency isn't left in the dark.

Read the ExchangeWire article here.

Rippll provide an independent and impartial perspective where it’s needed most. The key to providing an honest perspective is having the correct quality of data to measure against. What separates us from the competition is the quality of data and the intelligence that we then apply to the data.

It is because of this commitment to quality data that MEC tasked Rippll with auditing the various location data providers operating in the market. We were happy to find that there are other companies in the industry who also prioritise good quality data. Groundtruth’s commitment to quality data was the reason that they passed the MEC audit that we carried out.

However there are still players in the market who are still reliant on poor quality data. These companies are able to operate using this data because they are not being independently measured. Groundtruth's study has shown that under a quarter of mobile media planners are currently using third party measurement partners. The industry has been plagued by the “marking of it's own homework”.

Next year the industry will face it’s biggest challenge yet, complacency with the status quo is no longer an option in a post GDPR market. Using bad quality location data will not only be ineffective and dishonest but potentially also illegal. It’s time for the industry to shape up, take a step back and evaluate their partners.

Without independent measurement there is no true accountability. Rippll are currently the only truly independent player in the market. We don’t run any media and we don’t sell our data. By being as transparent as possible we have crafted a unique perspective that is necessary and timely.

Read Mobile Marketing Magazine article here