EDAA Summit & Upcoming Conferences
A few events involving the Canadian AdChoices program are detailed below.
The European Digital Advertising Alliance held their first EDAA Summit on Tuesday March 1st at Steigenberger Wiltcher’s hotel in Brussels, Belgium. With over 100 attendees present, it was a great turnout for their inaugural event.
The DAAC was there, as were constituents of the DAA US, EU government representatives, and participants of the program. The day was filled with European program insights with many talking points reiterating the importance of the AdChoices program.
The EDAA program has 159 licensed participants. Their program is available in 33 European markets and in 27 different languages. Over 230 billion icons were delivered in the EU in 2015.
The day started out by quantifying the digital economy in Europe. A recent report highlights that €46 billion was invested in online advertising in Europe in 2014, with publishers active in Europe generating €30.7 billion in revenues from online advertising. They also note that there are 900,000 jobs directly supported by online advertising in the EU-28.
The EDAA also highlighted an icon study conducted from October to November 2015, as follow-up to their first study a year earlier. The study surveyed 13,000 people across 13 European markets and found that, on average, 44% of consumers surveyed were more favourable towards interest-based advertising with the AdChoices program. 35% felt that having IBA information available made them trust the brand that was being advertised more. Brand trust was high and growing in smaller markets where consumer outreach doesn’t have to work as hard – in areas where people are easier to reach.
Photo credit: DAA US
I participated on a panel run by Stephan Loerke (World Federation of Advertisers), with Lou Mastria (DAA) and Ionel Naftanaila (EDAA). We focused our discussion on comparing the similarities and differences between our regional programs.
There was some talk about this program staying ahead of the consumer curve, such as the internet of things. We need to look at what’s next. Creating a universal opt-out across devices was briefly mentioned as well.
One of the most interesting components of the day, for me, was the consumer panel. Four university students took the stage to talk about what they understand about the digital ecosystem and how they feel about it. The students seem to understand their information needs to be used online, and they are willing to share it, but they want to understand more. They recommended using videos to educate, as it’s easier to understand instead of reading webpages. They want to see what a company knows about them, what information is being gathered and the ability to alter it.
Thank you to the team at the EDAA for inviting me to speak – I feel there’s great camaraderie and support amongst all our programs, and I look forward to seeing what future events you hold.
For upcoming conferences on this side of the pond, you’ll be able to see the DAAC in Toronto at the CMDC conference happening April 26th and at the IAPP Privacy Symposium on May 11th-12th. Please drop by our booth and say hello!
I also look forward to participating in another panel, speaking about our global work, at the DAA Summit in Marina del Rey, California, on May 13th. Purchase your tickets here!
Happy spring!
- Julie Ford, Executive Director, DAAC
P.S. We are relieved to report that the EDAA group and their extended colleagues are all safe following the recent Brussels attacks.