Responsible advertising

Who are the players in responsible digital advertising and what relationships do they have?
Good In Tech

Marion Seigneurin, Masters student at SciencesPo

Respect for privacy, ethical algorithms, environmental impact and non-intrusive formats are all aspects that define responsible digital advertising practice. This cartography, without being exhaustive, allows you to visualize the players in the digital advertising ecosystem taking part in responsible digital advertising initiatives. The members of initiatives and inter-professional associations around responsible digital advertising thus appear on this map.
 
It appears that the players in this ecosystem are organized around centers that are interprofessional associations and the various responsible initiatives (charters and labels or innovation). Some players present in numerous initiatives and associations, in particular certain digital platforms, also stand out from the rest of the ecosystem by their dominant position in the digital advertising market and, in fact, by their structuring impact on the subject.

Figure 1: Ecosystem of responsible advertising players

Interprofessional associations with varied influence

Of the five inter-professional associations with the most members (Degree Centrality), the most important are the Union des Marques (formerly Union des Annonceurs) and the National Syndicate of Direct Communication (SNCD).

figures 2 & 3: Ranking of the various interprofessional associations according to their number of members.

These associations bring together many companies and take part in, or even set up, various initiatives as shown in the filtered views below. They are thus key players in the French responsible digital advertising ecosystem.

Figures 4: Network of the national union of direct communication (SNCD).

figures 5: Union des Marques network.

Widespread initiatives

The initiatives put in place are generally the result of collaborations between inter-professional associations, research institutes or schools, self-regulatory organizations and companies in the sector.
The initiatives with the most participants here are the Brand New Day, which mainly brings together companies in the sector, the communication sector, which essentially mobilizes interprofessional associations, and the Estates General of Communication, whose participants are more diversified, between companies and interprofessional associations.

Figures 6 & 7: Ranking of the different charter initiatives and labels according to their number of participants.

Figure 8: Network of participants in the “Brand New Day” initiatives

Figure 9: Network of participants in the “Communication sector” initiatives

Figure 10: Network of participants in the “States General of Communication” initiative

Central players among digital platforms

In blue on the graph, there are many companies within the responsible digital advertising ecosystem. However, most of them are linked to only one interprofessional association. Thus, only 63 companies, out of the 923 present on the graph, take part in several associations and/or initiatives (2 links or more).

Figure 11: The fastest growing companies in the advertising industry (two or more links)

In addition to these companies, there are four platforms, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. Google has a greater number of connections than Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon and appears to be central to the responsible digital advertising ecosystem, its node on the graph being as important as that of interprofessional associations such as the Syndicate of Internet Regulators or the Trademark Union as well as that of self-regulatory organizations such as the ARPP. This observation is a witness to the influence of the Google company on the online advertising sector, indeed, the company taking part in many interprofessional associations, its impact on the market is structuring.
It is important to specify that if Google appears here as being in a dominant position, this does not give it a more responsible approach to advertising than that of other companies in the sector: the size of the Google node is justified solely by its presence as a member of many interprofessional associations active on the subject of responsible advertising, the mapping does not allow us to say whether Google's influence on the subject is responsible or not.

Figures 12 & 13: Analysis of digital platforms

Methodology

This mapping takes as its starting point the French interprofessional and self-regulatory associations, responsible digital advertising players, present in literature and digital news.
In order to analyze the dynamics of the responsible digital advertising ecosystem, we then chose to explore the networks of members of these different associations. The secondary data used to update the connections between the different actors of the mapping are therefore the entities present in the “members” page of each of the interprofessional associations and self-regulatory bodies. The initiatives (“Charters & Labels” and “Innovations”) have also made it possible to expand the network of members. The network of partners is mobilized when the members are not referenced or when there are no members (regulatory institutions, self-regulatory bodies, initiatives).
The size of the nodes is relative to the number of initiatives in which each node participates (out-degree), this setting allowed us to highlight the most influential entities of the ecosystem, because taking part in two numerous associations or organizations, many initiatives, or both.

The links that connect the nodes are of four different types:
- “is part of” (the members)
- “participates in” (the stakeholders of the initiatives)
- “is a partner of” (the partners)
- “collaborate with”.
The “collaborate with” link being present only between different regulatory bodies.

The final cartography is composed of 1083 nodes linked together by 1387 links.
The actors are divided into 8 categories:
- Companies (923)
- Platforms (4)
- Professional associations (81)
- Initiatives (Labels, charters and innovations) (47)
- Research and schools (13)
- Regulatory institutions (8)
- Self-regulatory bodies (7)

This mapping takes as its starting point the French interprofessional and self-regulatory associations, responsible digital advertising players, present in literature and digital news.
In order to analyze the dynamics of the responsible digital advertising ecosystem, we then chose to explore the networks of members of these different associations. The secondary data used to update the connections between the different actors of the mapping are therefore the entities present in the “members” page of each of the interprofessional associations and self-regulatory bodies. The initiatives (“Charters & Labels” and “Innovations”) have also made it possible to expand the network of members. The network of partners is mobilized when the members are not referenced or when there are no members (regulatory institutions, self-regulatory bodies, initiatives).
The size of the nodes is relative to the network of each node (out-degree), this setting allowed us to highlight the most active entities of the ecosystem, because taking part in two numerous associations or organizations, in numerous initiatives , or both.

The links that connect the nodes are of four different types:
- “is part of” (the members)
- “participates in” (the stakeholders of the initiatives)
- “is a partner of” (the partners)
- “collaborate with”.
The “collaborate with” link being present only between different regulatory bodies.

The final cartography is composed of 1083 nodes linked together by 1387 links.
The actors are divided into 8 categories:
- Companies (924)
- Platforms (4)
- Professional associations (81)
- “Label and charter” initiatives (41)
- “Innovation” initiatives (6)
- Research and schools (13)
- Regulatory institutions (8)
- Self-regulatory bodies (7)

figures 14 & 15: Legends