Radoslav Nedelchev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IAB Bulgaria, presented in an interview before the newspaper 24 Chasa what the organization had achieved for the 10 years since its establishment, what it strives to achieve in the future and shared some of his experience related to the future of online advertising formats.

– Mr. Nedelchev, IAB Bulgaria celebrates 10 years since its establishment in Bulgaria. What has the Internet Publishers Association accomplished during this time?

– The most important thing in a word – a good reputation! During the 10 years that the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has existed in Bulgaria, albeit slowly, and timidly at times, we have managed to establish ourselves as the largest association of media, agencies, clients and technology companies responsible for the digital business in Bulgaria.

We have created a community that is committed to comply with the global standards for digital advertising in our country, and we have also created the foundation for establishing digital marketing as a leading advertising channel. But the most important thing is that in this community we managed to unite representatives of every single element on which the development of the digital market in Bulgaria depends – business, media, agencies, technology companies. We have created a network of events, trainings and market research to develop the market, innovate and support the entire business ecosystem.

The direction we are heading is only one – data.

Our business needs clear metrics and data for advertising investment, and the consumer who, by default does not search for advertising, wants to receive from the brands messages and experiences that are tailored to his needs. And this requires data.

We conducted the first survey on advertising investments – IAB AdEx Report in 2012. In the same year we presented the first survey on media consumption in Europe MediaScope Europe and the first TOP 100 ranking of Bulgarian advertisers on the Internet. Since then, every year we upgrade and work towards more accurate and complete data that we provide to the business so that it can operate effectively in the digital environment.

– You were recently elected Chairman of IAB Bulgaria. What new things will happen to the association under your management?

– My job as Chairman of the IAB began as early as mid-2019, when I was elected by my colleagues to end the term as part of the then Board of Directors. I am very proud that for five months we have been able to open the doors of the association even more broadly, to lend a hand to other branch organizations, and to draw a strategic framework for market development for years to come. Our priorities for 2020 are based on this strategic vision.

Developing our knowledge and training sharing platforms to create future digital leaders in the industry, creating adequate metrics for digital media, and accessing more and more effective market data are the key priorities that will drive our members throughout 2020.

– What are the global IAB standards for online advertising?

– Compliance with ethical standards in the digital environment in our country is extremely important.

I am happy that together with my colleagues we were able to adopt a new code of ethics that opened the floor for even broader and deeper discussions as to where we need to reach in order to build a secure ecosystem for work. Beyond the purely physical functioning of the code of ethics and the IAB’s obligation to oversee its implementation, we monitor the enforcement and compliance of any new digital advertising standard.

Just a few examples – the new standards provide for

making advertising formats “lighter”

and thus each webpage will load faster and also each advertising format must be designed to look the same on the different types of devices on which it is displayed.

Each of us receives an average of 4,000 advertisements per day. Only one third of them receive our full attention. In order to overcome this challenge and make its investment meaningful and effective, the business must adhere to a standard of behavior that will allow it to survive in the so-called attention economics.

Just a few weeks ago, the other two professional organizations – the Bulgarian Advertisers Association (BAA) and the Bulgarian Association of Communication Agencies (BACA), made a joint statement with IAB Bulgaria that we are committed to working together to improve and develop the digital environment in Bulgaria. The three organizations agreed to recognize the IAB’s standards for online advertising and to recommend that their members should adopt and comply with European Viewability Measurement Principles – principles designed to help reduce data discrepancies provided by various tools for measuring the visibility of the advertising message. This is a huge success for all of us.

– How can the market be protected from bad practices like bot traffic, fake clicks, fake news, etc.?

– This can be achieved with the creation of standards that will be respected at the local level, rather than remaining part of the world regulations; with worldwide trainings like the ones IAB does throughout the year; with widespread public awareness of bad practices and, last but not least, with regular monitoring of the market; thus our industry will not just be protected – it will start to self-regulate against bad practices and will not allow their implementation right from the start.

– False clicks, as well as the manipulation of metrics from some sites – by pouring and buying traffic, are not always obvious enough to advertisers, but at the same time they are a big problem for quality sites, because the game with manipulations is simply not fair. How do advertisers understand the real traffic to the sites?

– There are specialized technologies for verifying traffic, the so-called Verification Partners (DoubleVerify, IAS, MOAT, etc.), which provide detailed information on all traffic related parameters. They measure and can differentiate between real and fake clicks and give advertisers data about inventory quality and the level of cleanliness of their site. In Bulgaria, the levels of these parameters are low and the application of ethical standards and practices in the market in our country will further reduce the risk of such bad practices. This really means that the Bulgarian digital market has all the data to become a quality environment for serving digital advertising.

IAB Bulgaria, BAA and BACA have also announced their active efforts to improve the quality of data and monitor the traffic on the Bulgarian Internet sites (traffic, visitor demographics, advertising dynamics – advertising monitoring) and we have committed ourselves to initiate a public discussion in 2020 for the implementation of good international practices in our market as well.

– Will the online advertising market grow in our country? In countries such as the US and the UK, it has already exceeded the advertising budget on television.

– We are still far from the time when digital media will become the leading investment platform for advertisers in Bulgaria, but this is completely understandable for now. Increasing the local portfolio with new and high-quality platforms with high levels of digital inventory would be the factor that will change the advertising mix and turn the trends in favor of online advertising.

However, at this point, it is precisely the digital media that are the main engine of growth for media investment both globally and in our country. According to IAB AdEx Report data for 2018, net investments in internet advertising in Bulgaria amounted to BGN 98.5 million. I dare say that for 2019 we will report double-digit growth, which will exceed the psychological limit of 100 million.

– If all advertisments are viewed simultaneously on the page of a site, it will become completely incomprehensible. This is why ad blockers are invented, the system that blocks some of the ads. However, the advertisers can’t be happy with this. How is this contradiction resolved?

– In reality, the percentage of people using ad blockers is not high, and every site should adhere to the advertising hygiene, since the main content it offers should be leading. For any media, this should not be a matter of survival, but of product development. Historically, similar sites with bad practices have lost visitors. I have already mentioned the attention economy. Attention is indeed a finite resource. When people have the ability to skip ads, they most often do so. And when they can’t skip the ad, they often look away.

The boom in online content, new ad formats and technologies that are just a click, touch or voyage away from the consumer, give both the motivation and the ability for people to keep advertising away from their lives. But at the same time, people look for targeted advertising when they are interested in something specific. What can be better than having such an ad served to the consumer at the exact moment they need it. That is why we need data which will work for everyone – both for brands and media and consumers.

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