Malaysian digital publishers team up to combat ad fraud.

In an effort to combat the risk of damaging brands reputation in programmatic online advertising in Malaysia, five major online publishers (Media Prima Group, Star Media Group, Utusan Malaysia, MCIL and The Edge) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to form a consortium to create an advertising exchange that enhances brand safety, established regulations to protect the interests of the advertisers, provides better transparency and improves viewability.

Present at the formation of the Malaysia Premium Publishers Marketplace (MPPM) were Datuk Abdul Jalil Hamid (Chief Executive Officer, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) & Chairman of MNPA), Datuk Calvin Kan (Group Chief Operating Officer, Star Media Group Berhad), Keu Tien Siong (Chief Executive Officer, MCIL Multimedia Sdn Bhd), Liew Sam Ngan (Chief Executive Officer, The China Press Berhad), En Mohd Yazid Ahmad (Executive Director, Utusan Media Sales Sdn Bhd) and Sharon Teh (Chief Commercial Officer, The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd).

“Advertising is the main revenue stream for the media companies.

“It is time for our media companies to find a better solution to simplify and improve the ad buying process, while addressing the market needs in terms of providing transparency, viewability and brand safety”, said Datuk Abdul Jalil Hamid, who is also the Chairman of Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association.

He shared, “There is no doubt that the global digital advertising market has been predominantly overshadowed by the giant digital conglomerates such as Facebook and Google but one thing is for sure, the establishment of MPPM will ensure better viewability, transparency and brand safety to the marketers as we have better control of our content.”

MPPM comprises 11 online premium publishers; New Straits Times, The Star Online, The Edge, Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia, Harian Metro, Kosmo, Sin Chew Daily, China Press, Nanyang Daily and Guang Ming Daily.
To ensure the transparency and ethical operating standard of MPPM, a third party company will manage these ad inventories in order to simplify and ensure the delivery of quality online ad inventory to advertisers.

Dato Jalil added, “MPPM offers more premium ad inventories which will not be made available on the open exchange.

“With the talented media professionals working behind MPPM, we aim to provide more creative ad formats that can further reach a wide range of audience.”

The MPPM MoU is the first of many steps being initiated to demonstrate local premium online publishers’ commitment in embracing the digital standards that is being set by the Joint Digital Committee (JIC Digital).

JIC Digital is an industry committee that makes recommendations to promote greater transparency of online ad trading in Malaysia.