Brussels, 13 June 2013: – The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) has launched the first phase of its pan-European consumer awareness campaign today in the UK – with the aim of providing information about online behavioural advertising (OBA), or interest based advertising, to empower internet users across Europe.
This “Unzipped” campaign, funded and coordinated by EDAA with the support of IAB Europe and its local members, will help to raise consumer awareness of the OBA icon, as well as increasing consumer understanding and choice when it comes to OBA.
The campaign ads feature a zip that opens to reveal the blue, EDAA licensed, OBA icon. By clicking on the ads, consumers are taken to www.youronlinechoices.eu where, in clear, user-friendly language, they can find out about their online ad choices, how online advertising is used to support the sites and services they use and how they can safeguard their privacy.
The education campaign is part of the wider European self-regulatory programme on OBA: a cross-industry standard for OBA which promotes transparency, choice and control for consumers and is enforced by national advertising self-regulatory organisations.
The campaign, which has been designed by Mediacom Beyond Advertising, is based on a concept developed by a team of students at KH Leuven, Belgium, who were finalists in a student competition run by EACA (European Association of Communications Agencies).
Speaking about the launch of the campaign, Oliver Gray, Director-General of the EDAA said, “We’re excited about the roll out of the pan-European campaign starting in the UK today. It will provide a direct and visually appealing way for consumers to engage via the icon with what the European Self-Regulation Programme is all about: greater transparency, choice and control.”
Dominic Lyle, the Director-General of EACA who, together with Jon Chase of Velvet Rock Communications, helped to co-ordinate the campaign for the EDAA, remarked “The launch is the result of a great deal of effort from all sectors of the European online advertising ecosystem, involving representative associations at both EU and national level, as well as the direct involvement of companies providing substantial amounts of inventory to ensure the campaign reaches a significant audience across Europe”.
The campaign is launched in the UK today and will follow shortly in both Germany and Ireland. This will be extended to all other EU & EEA markets from September 2013.
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT
For more information, please contact: info@edaa.eu
T: +32 (0)2 513 7806
ABOUT EDAA
The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels and is responsible for enacting key aspects of the self-regulatory initiative for Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) across Europe. EDAA principally acts as the central licensing body for the OBA Icon and provides technical means for consumers to exercise transparency and control over OBA through the youronlinechoices.eu online consumer choice platform. EDAA is governed by EU-level organisations which make up the value chain of OBA within Europe and acts to ensure European consistency in approach.
More information can be found at www.edaa.eu.
ABOUT OBA
Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA), often referred to as interest-based advertising, is the practice of delivering relevant advertising to internet users based upon their inferred interests from previous browsing behaviour over time and across multiple web domains.
OBA EDUCATION ACROSS EUROPE
Primarily, the education campaign will drive awareness of the OBA icon, licensed by the EDAA and placed on online ads, to ensure consumers associate it with meaningful transparency, choice and control over online behavioural advertising.
The OBA icon is a means for consumers to identify where OBA is being practiced in a clear and contextual manner. The icon links consumers to a pan-European consumer choice platform at www.youronlinechoices.eu, which aims to inform and provide choice and control. The website has been revamped alongside the launch of the campaign.
Through the Programme, consumers will better understand online advertising, as well as the means that are available to them if they wish to file complaints. Credible consumer complaint handling mechanisms in each national market will be handled by well-established and recognised national advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs).
The “Unzipped” campaign has been designed by Mediacom Beyond Advertising and was based around a concept initially developed by a team of students from KH Leuven in Belgium (finalists in the 2012 Ad Venture student competition run by the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA)).
ABOUT THE EUROPEAN PRINCIPLES FOR ONLINE BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING (OBA)
The Self Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioural Advertising have been developed through a cross-industry effort at European level, with EASA’s (European Advertising Standards Alliance) Best Practice Recommendation on OBA building on the IAB Europe (Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe) OBA Framework.
An essential role regarding compliance with these Principles is played by the national Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) and IABs. Companies should be aware of the national SROs where they operate. More information, including contact details of SROs can be found on EASA’s website: www.easa-alliance.org.
