A Blockchain Ad Network is Turning Fraudulent Ad Clicks into Social Impact NOIZ Follow Mar 22, 2018 · 6 min read

Corporations and even small businesses are upholding a social responsibility to improve the communities they exist in. For some, this is on a global level, for others, it can be local, but in each case, a percentage of the company’s annual profits are going towards social impact projects.

Corporations wishing to meet the United Nations’ standards of the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and to keep the public informed on progress need to show data of an actual social impact being made. One such way to do so is through data collection from digital platforms, and digital advertising is one of the best methods to reach target audiences. However, with digital advertising under scrutiny and big brands demanding data transparency, blockchain systems are aiming to save the digital ad industry.

NOIZ is one of these blockchain projects. It is an AI-enabled, decentralized cognitive advertising network that allows advertisers to more accurately and honestly collect user data while also providing users the opportunity to quickly and easily donate to social impact organizations. NOIZ provides completely transparent data so brands can now determine a true return on investment (ROI); users feel more comfortable engaging with brands through incentives; publishers can generate more accurate data reports, take part in social impact campaigns, and still profit from ad space fees. NOIZ is a win-win solution for all parties involved.

The rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social impact programs

Howard Schultz, founder and executive chairman of Starbucks Corporation has said: “Companies should not have a singular view of profitability. There needs to be a balance between commerce and social responsibility. The companies that are authentic about it will wind up as the companies that make more money.”

In the last decade, many businesses have revamped their CSR campaigns and/or developed social impact strategies.

As advancements in technology continue to reveal overwhelming amounts of evidence surrounding environmental damage and ethical business practices, governments, consumers, employees and investors are all looking for corporations and private businesses to build a sustainable and inclusive world.

Companies are seeing profits increase as a result of implementing CSR campaigns. Patagonia is one such company. They’ve built a following of consumers who continuously purchase Patagonia products as a result of the company’s efforts towards the preservation and restoration of the natural environment.

One significant aspect that has helped Patagonia in their social responsibility efforts is the digital world. With ease-of-access to information through the internet and the rise of social media, social responsibility concerns are brought to light quickly and drastically. Brands can thrive in this light, as Patagonia does, but to do so, they need to ensure the public is thoroughly informed; brands also should go after projects that are truly impactful and have the ability to snowball on a massive level.

In addition to the public demanding updates on social projects, so too are the governments in compliance with the Paris Accord. These governing bodies have requested that corporations put a percentage of their annual profits towards social responsibility programs. India has even made it a requirement that corporations with an annual revenue of 105 million EUR or higher must spend a minimum of 2% on CSR projects.

According to The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2017, countries such as the US, UK, France, Japan, and India have a CSR reporting rate above 90%.

For CSR and social responsibility projects to succeed, though, they need very strong marketing campaigns that provide complete community awareness and maintain a positive outlook. With the impact of the digital world, as mentioned above, digital advertising plays a key role; but as many corporations have reconsidered their digital ad spend in 2017 due to a lack of transparent data, there is now high demand for a new method of digital advertising among big brands.

Digital ad fraud, the act of online bots skewing marketing data, took the advertising industry by storm in 2017

Programmed bots, not real people, are inflating the numbers of views, clicks and even impressions that determine the costs and effectiveness of digital advertising. Big brands demanded transparency in 2017 from ad networks like Google and Facebook. P&G Chief Marketing Officer Marc Pritchard spearheaded this demand in January of 2017.

To make things worse for the digital ad industry, a study conducted by Adloox and commissioned by WPP and The&Partnership estimated that advertisers wasted 16.4 billion USD in 2017 as a result of ad fraud traffic. Additionally, a Juniper Research report has predicted that ad fraud will consume 19 billion USD in 2018 and 22 billion USD in 2020.

With Marc Pritchard announcing a decrease of 200 million USD in P&G’s 2017 digital ad spend, and many other Fortune 500 companies making similar cuts, the amount of money getting spent on digital advertising took a turn in 2017, and ad agencies, like WPP paid the price.

While many online ad platforms work to solve the data transparency and ad delivery issues, blockchain is stepping up to settle this brouhaha.

Enter in the NOIZ solution

NOIZ is tackling the issue of ad fraud by creating an ad exchange platform that utilizes AI and blockchain technology to authenticate user data.

Similar to the current digital advertising model, where ad exchange platforms act as intermediaries between advertisers and publishers, the secure NOIZ platform will produce and distribute digital ads across publisher sites on behalf of advertisers. So how does NOIZ differ from the current method of digital advertising?

In addition to having decentralized, secure data through blockchain technology, every NOIZ ad is equipped with Artificial Intelligence software that is linked to a natural learning process (NLP) API. This means that when users come across a brand’s ad, which is using the NOIZ platform, the users will see a dialogue box enabling them to interact with the ad, directly providing their data to the advertiser in exchange for a NOIZ token.

Users can also determine what personal information, such as age, gender and location, they make available to advertisers and publishers.

The token flow of the NOIZ ad exchange allows users to redeem their tokens for coupons offered by advertisers and publishers, keep their tokens to play the market, exchange their tokens, or donate their tokens to a charitable organization. In the case of redeeming a token, the token does not go to the advertiser or publisher, but rather to a charitable foundation.

Publishers are able to pay tokens to users in exchange for user information as well, making it so the publisher can generate authenticated data reports for media kits. Publishers can also exchange their tokens, hold them to play the market, or donate them to a charitable foundation.

In each case, NOIZ tokens are able to be donated to social impact projects, and if an ad is specific to a CSR campaign, the user intent will be specific to social responsibility projects. Collected user interactions are like survey data, helping social impact organizations learn what is most important to their communities.

Conclusion

Companies should be able to effectively promote their CSR campaigns and make it easy for the public to get involved.

The NOIZ ad exchange platform will not only make it so digital advertising data is transparent, available to both advertisers and publishers, but it will also provide users greater incentive to engage with ads in a way that they control the information sent back to advertisers and publishers.

The increased and validated engagement on ads combined with the connection of NOIZ to charitable foundations makes this a truly unique ad exchange platform.

Now is the time to make some NOIZ for social impact.

Learn more about the NOIZ project by clicking here and stay up to date on all things NOIZ by joining the NOIZ telegram channel.