• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 25, 2020

DoubleVerify will use its media authentication technology to extend the reach and impact of critical COVID-19 messages being developed by the Ad Council. The idea is to inform and connect people with life-saving messages. 

On Wednesday, the company announced a partnership with the Ad Council in collaboration with the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and Verizon Media, among others, have also partnered with Ad Council to offer a combination of donated media, technology, content, and services.

Last week, DoubleVerify issued guidelines to advertisers on the steps they can take to adapt their brand strategies and ensure that their advertising runs on trusted news publishers' sites and publications. The initiative supports the company's mission to promote a sustainable ad ecosystem that supports advertisers and publishers. 

"Typically, we will remain a neutral party, but this time we felt it was important to support trusted news publications," said DoubleVerify COO Matt McLaughlin. "This time we decided to come out and provide a series of recommendations about how they can continue to monetize their news content during the pandemic."

McLaughlin said if there is a crisis such as a school shooting, DoubleVerify will provide informational analysis such as a series of keywords related to the shooting in case clients want to to avoid having their ads serving up on the same page. 

"During the election cycle when brands wanted to avoid having their ads appear next to inflammatory political content, we created a category and educated clients about what it represented, but didn't explicitly recommend them to use it as we have done in this case," he said.   

DoubleVerify’s technology analyzes the characteristics of an ad impression in real-time to ensure compliance with a brand’s standards.

When those standards are not met, the company said it will show new creative in support of the Ad Council’s coronavirus response efforts, driving the clicks to resources such as up-to-date information on the crisis.