Category Archives: fraud

You’re Probably Laundering Oligarch Bucks

Posted on Monday, 16 December 2019 9:42 am by markpilip

It seems the ad fraud perpetrated by the adtech industry on advertisers (by design) might help some other folks out. Like Russian oligarchs with their stolen loot. It is way easier to setup advertising networks to launder one’s stolen dollars … Continue reading →

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Buy direct

Posted on Sunday, 10 February 2019 1:14 pm by markpilip

There’s only one correct way to buy ads, and that’s direct from the publisher. If you buy any other way you’ll pay too much in adtech tax or get scammed buying something that’s not what you think it is. Probably … Continue reading →

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2.8 billion years of evolution, down the drain

Posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2018 8:40 am by markpilip

Someday, as expressed in this article by Shelly Palmer, AI and technology will be so good it will be impossible to tell truth from fakes. In other words, we won’t be able to trust our eyes and ears any more. … Continue reading →

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Your Facebook Rebate

Posted on Monday, 16 July 2018 10:27 am by markpilip

Q2 2018 is in the books. Plenty of time for advertisers and their agencies to true up Q1 and really start work on the second half of the year. As a reminder, in Q1 Facebook removed: 583MM fake accounts. 21MM … Continue reading →

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Attacking You With Retargeting

Posted on Wednesday, 21 March 2018 9:06 am by markpilip

WebKit recently updated WebKit to address “An attacker seeking to track site visitors can take advantage of the user’s HSTS cache to store one bit of information on that user’s device.” in an interesting and understandable technical blog post by … Continue reading →

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Another day, another case of IoT security lapses. When buying digital media, you should always ask “how many humans are viewing my ads, and how can you prove it to me?” This article from Threatpost describes the extreme lack of … Continue reading →

Posted on Tuesday, 13 March 2018 1:57 pm by markpilip | Comments Off on Who’s Viewing Your Ads? Maybe Your IoT Security Camera.

Media Whitewash

Posted on Wednesday, 21 February 2018 8:29 am by markpilip

The ever thought-provoking Don Marti wrote something in “This is why we can’t have nice brands” on February 17th that reminded me of a standard direct mail practice: “Twitter has a solution that keeps its ads saleable: just don’t show … Continue reading →

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Unilever Drains the Digital Swamp?

Posted on Monday, 12 February 2018 8:40 am by markpilip

Unilever’s Keith Weed will speak at the IAB today. He’ll talk about his frustration with the lack of the “3 Vs” (viewability, verification, value) in social media platforms. But he’s really looking to have his Marc Pritchard moment by threatening … Continue reading →

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The Root of Digital Advertising B.S.

Posted on Thursday, 25 January 2018 9:41 am by markpilip

For years, Bob Hoffman has been writing about the delusion held by advertisers that people want to interact with us or our ads. I was an early adopter of that now-disproven fantasy. I bought in back in ’89-’90 when I … Continue reading →

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Digital Marketing Tips From El Al

Posted on Wednesday, 24 January 2018 8:57 am by markpilip

El Al airlines has never been bombed and only hijacked once. This in spite of being a constant target for well-funded and persistent criminals. An enviable track record. How do they do it? Isaac Yeffet, El Al’s former head of … Continue reading →

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