By Michael Bürgi | October 8, 2024
SUMMARY: For day 2 of Omnicom Advertising Week news series focusing on solving systemic issues in digital investment, Omnicom Media Group spoke with Digiday about the latest branch of its Council on Accountability and Standards in Advertising (CASA) focusing on AI buying agents. With this initiative, OMG is working with major platforms to ensure that advertiser interests are built into their AI ad product algorithms. The first-of-its-kind standardization initiative kicked off last month as a questionnaire was sent to sellers to establish a baseline assessment of current compliance with standards that CASA has established for AI buying agents, followed by efforts to accelerate and advance adoption and adherence.
“It’s not just decisioning on the price that should be paid or a bid that should be placed on one individual ad impression, [the platforms are] taking autonomy to a new level and broadening the scope,” said Joanna O’Connell, OMG’ chief intelligence officer and head of CASA, who noted that AI-led automation can impact audience, placement, environment, or even creative decisions. “It’s not that we don’t trust [those decisions] necessarily, on principle, it’s that we don’t know. So in the absence of information, it’s harder for us to make intelligent decisions.”
“Different from some other technological advances in advertising, different companies have taken different philosophical approaches to building these agents,” said Ben Hovaness, chief media officer at OMD. “The design philosophy underpinning Google’s offerings is not exactly the same as that underpinning Meta’s, and that’s something that we want to shed some light on. For example, [one] evaluation criterion is the alignment of the agent — that’s something as simple as the company that operates the agent committed in writing that the agent doesn’t consider that company’s own yield and revenue targets when acting on a buyer’s behalf.”
“As advancements in technology automate functionality, it’s critical to ensure that marketers and agencies maintain the ability to manage a brand’s data via appropriate controls,” said Marla Kaplowitz, president and CEO of the 4A’s. “This latest CASA initiative addresses the importance of platform transparency with AI-based tools related to campaign management.”