Online security firm TRUSTe rolled out the Digital Advertising Alliance‘s “Advertising Option” icon to online-video and rich-media ads on August 26.
The company is planning to add the icon to standard display and rich-media ads served on mobile devices in the fourth quarter, said Bob Bahramipour, VP of business development at TRUSTe.
TRUSTe partnered with Adap.tv and BrightRoll to tag the privacy icon to behaviorally targeted video and rich-media ads served by the video ad networks. Bahramipour said 20% of online video ads are served through Adap.tv’s platform.
When a consumer clicks on it, the TRUSTed Ads for Video icon notifies consumers if a video ad was served based on their online behavior and enables them to opt out of behaviorally targeted ads. It also pauses until the consumer closes the privacy notification window. The video continues running while the window is open for in-banner video ads.
TRUSTe extended the icon to behaviorally targeted video ads because the firm saw an opportunity to intrinsically link it with the relatively new medium, said Bahramipour.
“If you look across the media landscape, the video format is by far the fastest growing non-[search engine marketing] format,” he said.
TRUSTe serves more than 10 billion impressions per month of online behavioral ads featuring the DAA’s privacy icon, said Bahramipour. However, only 5% of consumers recognize the icon, according to a study released by TRUSTe in July.
