TechBytes with Gian LaVecchia, SVP Brand Partnerships at DoubleVerify

Could you tell us about your role and the team/technology you handle at DoubleVerify?

At DoubleVerify, I’m currently the SVP, Brand Partnerships and Advertiser Sales for the Americas, including both operational and strategic leadership responsibilities across North and South America. DoubleVerify has experienced phenomenal growth over the last several years and has consistently demonstrated a pattern of true product excellence and superb customer service. I was brought in to the organization to help further fuel that momentum by bringing a fresh industry perspective and renewed strategic rigor to the revenue organization to help drive and accelerate sustained revenue growth.

At this time, I oversee the Brand and Agency teams across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure we’re providing large and dynamic global brands with the most comprehensive suite of brand safety and performance solutions available in the marketplace.

What key digital AdTech projects have you been associated with in your previous roles? How did you arrive at DV?

I’ve been fortunate to be an early digital adopter – having spent greater than 20 years pioneering digital strategies for some of the world’s largest global brands – including KRAFT, SUBWAY, and HEINEKEN. From there, I expanded into a new roles at Microsoft that allowed me to further tap into my passion for media, technology, content and digital culture – creating strategic blueprints for how to most effectively activate, measure and optimize Digital Marketing efforts. This diversified background led to revenue leadership roles at disruptive start-ups including my time at Verve – a pioneering mobile location data and technology platform – and at Teads where I was the Head of Agency Development and Partnerships, responsible for the entire North American region.

Prior to joining DV, I wasn’t actively seeking a new position. This role piqued my interest on multiple levels as it provided an opportunity to not only work at a hypergrowth, data and technology leader, but also to expand my revenue scope, with responsibilities extending across North and South America – the latter of which was new to me. Although South America’s Digital Advertising market is nascent, it is evolving quickly and our market proposition is already being embraced. As I evaluated the opportunity, it was important for me to understand the vitality of the space. It quickly became evident that DV is not only a critical player in today’s digital marketplace but its solutions are a foundational building block for success for modern brand advertisers. Finally, I welcomed the opportunity to mentor and lead an exceptionally talented team, helping them to grow at DV and more broadly in their own careers. In short, it’s my goal to make a significant impact on an already thriving business.

How do you see the Digital AdTech measurement ecosystem evolving with new Brand Safety and Transparency standards?

As the measurement ecosystem continues to evolve, there will only be greater pressure to provide deeper levels of accountability and standardization. As we witness the next great content delivery canvas emerge with OTT/CTV, there will clearly need to be tighter governance and enhanced measurability to validate the significant investments brands are already allocating to this channel. DV is well-prepared for current growth and is uniquely positioned to scale moving forward. We’ve been protecting clients from fraud in CTV since 2018. Further, we’re actively developing solutions that will enable us to gain transparency into the OTT/CTV environment using our existing measurement protocols. This will allow us to extend brand safety and viewability solutions to this environment. In the long run, we’re also committed to helping standardize OTT/CTV measurement by participating in industry initiatives and development around the OM SDK.

Beyond OTT/CTV, you’ve got new disruptors entering into the space as well – like Reddit and TikTok; DV is paying close attention to those channels, keeping a pulse on how content consumption habits evolve. As dollars flow into those newer channels, DV will accelerate innovation and investment in product development to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by these new environments.

What kind of metrics do you showcase to your partners and customers as your matured positioning in the AdTech world?

In the era of digital disruption, fake news and fraud, authenticity is now more valuable than ever and can be exceptionally challenging to verify. It’s critical to have confidence in the quality of the data that fuels media buying decisions. In the early days of brand safety and verification, viewability became the currency for digital media performance. In general, this shift makes sense – if an ad is viewable, it has a higher value for a brand. However, just because an impression is viewable, doesn’t mean that it’s high quality. In fact, optimizing on viewability alone can often result in underperformance. It’s not enough to measure viewability, fraud protection or brand safety in a silo. Advertisers should consider whether an impression meets all quality criteria.

To address this, DoubleVerify created the Authentic Impression^Ⓡ, which validates the quality of each digital media impression across all key KPIs. The DV Authentic Impression is a proprietary, MRC-accredited metric that assures both media quality and media effectiveness. To be counted as Authentic, an impression must be fully viewed, by a human, in a brand safe environment, within the correct geography.

How do you compare American AdTech market with other parts of the world, especially in the APAC region that has seen significant growth in AdTech adoption recently?

Currently, North America is the most advanced. That said, we’ve dramatically expanded our global footprint so I anticipate broader advancements and quick progress to emerge from both EMEA and APAC as the demand for accountability grows.

What are your predictions on the future of Programmatic and its competition with TV Advertising metrics?

Obviously, we’ve witnessed a massive behavioral and operational shift in how the marketplace transacts digital media – and programmatic will only experience continued scale and growth. Our business has accelerated based on our ability to quickly adapt, evolve and innovate in the programmatic space – and I anticipate this momentum will not lose steam. In terms of TV, metric standardization is inevitable and will be critical to the long-term vitality of the platform.

How can publishers and advertisers safeguard their interests from dramatic shake-ups in the industry as result of data privacy and security standards?

Always. Stay. Focused.

Brands that ignored the initial tremors that emerged with GDPR are going to feel it more significantly when the California legislation comes into effect in the near future. As global political and cultural dynamics continue to evolve, we find ourselves in a state of constant change and disruption. In this era of dysfunction, if you’re not nimble, then you’ll quickly be left behind.