Oracle Data Cloud Receives MRC Property-Level Ad Verification Accreditation for Contextual Intelligence Services

Oracle Data Cloud announced that the Media Rating Council (MRC) has accredited Oracle’s Contextual Intelligence for Property-Level Ad Verification under the MRC and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification.

Developed via technology from its Grapeshot acquisition, Contextual Intelligence’s accredited database offers property-level categorization and can be used by marketers and agencies to avoid unsafe and brand inappropriate content, based not simply on keywords but also on the context in which they appear. To earn its MRC accreditation, Oracle Data Cloud completed a comprehensive audit and review of its technologies, systems and processes to ensure they met the Ad Verification Guideline’s requirements, as well as MRC’s rigorous standards.

“Contextual Intelligence gives marketers peace of mind by using advanced technology to help prevent their ads from appearing on properties with dangerous or inappropriate content,” said Kurt Kratchman, Group Vice President for Product Development, Oracle Data Cloud. “This MRC accreditation demonstrates the significant steps taken by the Oracle Data Cloud team to provide marketers and advertisers with the insight they need around their ad campaigns to help ensure their brands are protected and their resources are well invested.” 

In 2012, the IAB and MRC produced their Ad Verification Guidelines, which identified a common set of methods and practices for conducting digital ad verification services for: Site Context, Geo-Targeting, Ad Placement, Competitive Separation and Fraud Detection. With the rise in the sophistication of market needs for standards around content detection and brand safety, particularly around new formats like video, mobile and user-generated content, the MRC published a Supplemental Guideline in September 2018 to create specific requirements for accreditation for more discrete content-level brand safety procedures that may be employed within the existing Site Context ad verification service line. Oracle Data Cloud’s accreditation is based on the earlier Property-level Ad Verification requirements, and not the 2018 content-level brand safety updates.

“We congratulate Oracle Data Cloud for achieving the distinction of MRC accreditation of its Contextual Intelligence service, formerly Grapeshot, for its property level targeting and avoidance capabilities,” said George W. Ivie, Executive Director and CEO of the MRC.  “Marketers now have available another accredited tool through which they can gain added assurances their ad investments appear on properties that are aligned with their intentions.”

Contextual Intelligence improves marketing outcomes by helping ensure ads only appear on properties with brand safe and contextually appropriate content. Using adaptive machine learning algorithms, the technology assesses relative keyword importance on pages, so advertisers can avoid negative content and keywords, as well as placing their ads in more brand relevant contexts, all without using cookies or audience profiles. The MRC accreditation for Property-Level Ad verification provides advertisers and marketers requiring this verification with a tool to support and enhance their brand safety initiatives.

The Media Rating Council is a non-profit industry association established in 1963 comprised of leading television, radio, print and digital media companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations, whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective. Measurement services desiring MRC accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research as well as other applicable industry measurement guidelines; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures. In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace. Currently approximately 110 research products are audited by the MRC. Additional information about MRC can be found at www.mediaratingcouncil.org.

Oracle Data Cloud helps marketers use data to capture consumer attention and drive results. Used by 199 of AdAge’s 200 largest advertisers, our Audience, Context and Measurement solutions extend across the top media platforms and a global footprint of more than 100 countries. We give marketers the data and tools needed for every stage of the marketing journey, from audience planning to pre-bid brand safety, contextual relevance, viewability confirmation, fraud protection, and ROI measurement. Oracle Data Cloud combines the leading technologies and talent from Oracle’s acquisitions of AddThis, BlueKai, Crosswise, Datalogix, Grapeshot, and Moat.

The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

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