On Thursday, Nov. 2, Kompas Gramedia launched VCBL: Kompas Gramedia Digital Networks during the Digital Jamming 2017 event at Hotel Century Park Senayan, Jakarta. VCBL (read ‘visible’) is an advertising product designed to face challenges in brand safety and viewability.The peak event of the VCBL launch was delivered by KG’s sales vice president Moris Rusmanto, marked by the showing of a short video about the VCBL

            Programmatic advertising purchases have risen from year to year. It is predicted that in 2019 programmatic advertising purchases in Indonesia will have increased by 510 percent from 2016, based on data from eMarketer.com. However, automation in purchasing programmatic products is starting to be questioned, bearing in mind that several large advertisers are starting to reduce their expenses to avoid having their advertisements appear in a not-so-safe digital environment, and avoid fraudulent practices such as website traffic that is not real and advertisements that are not viewed by readers.

            Brand safety, which has been a topic of discussion among digital marketers in the last few years, has become increasingly important for brands and agencies. Increasingly fast technological advances influences the detail with which digital advertising is measured. Brands that advertise digitally must make sure that the viewability of their advertisements also fulfills standards, and that their advertisements are viewed by readers, not machines or robots, in a safe environment. This is the challenge for digital advertising space providers.

            VCBL stands for viewability, content quality, brand safety and leads. VCBL consists of Kompas.com, Kompasiana.com, TribunNews.com network, Grid.id network, GridOto.com, Kontan.co.id, BolaSport.com and Kompas TV with a variety of audience segments to reach various brand targets. The product is the result of the collaboration of various experienced and trusted KG digital media outlets, complemented by large traffic volume, and the use of up-to-date technology for measuring advertising.

            The CEO of KG Group of Media, Andy Budiman, said “Brand safety is becoming important because an advertisement that is not placed correctly will result in it becoming ineffective and can even ruin the brand’s reputation.” Andy expressed hope that the VCBL can be a solution and response to the challenge and needs of clients in digital advertising. “Kompas Gramedia stands as a media outlet with quality content and journalism and real readers, which can support the needs for brand safety and viewability,” he concluded. (*/photo: dok. Kompas.com)