AAM merges with digital auditing leader ImServices

The Alliance for Audited Media announced that ImServices Group, a leading provider of advertising technology audit services, is now part of AAM. The two organizations are merging their skills and expertise to create a leading independent service provider that will help clients address some of the key challenges facing today's interactive advertising industry, including unseen ads, illegitimate clicks, fraudulent traffic and growing advertiser demand for independent verification services.

Effective May 30, the merger brings together AAM – a trusted advertiser- and publisher-supported nonprofit industry body with deep roots in traditional and digital media – and ImServices – a highly respected group of digital audit specialists whose clients include Yahoo!, AOL, eBay, Medialets, Kantar, Pandora and Centro. ImServices also manages the Interactive Advertising Bureau's International Spiders and Bot list, relied upon by ad technology companies worldwide to help filter nonhuman and fraudulent online traffic from measurement counts.

"Together, AAM and ImServices have a real opportunity to help advertisers, publishers and technology firms solve some of the more complicated issues that surround interactive advertising," said Tom Drouillard, AAM'S CEO, president and managing director. "Each organization has complementary strengths and strong industry ties that allow us to take on critical issues like online fraud, ad viewability, mobile metrics and cross-media measurement."

In conjunction with the announcement, AAM and ImServices launched Certified View, a new audit service for companies preparing for MRC accreditation or interested in receiving IAB certification for compliance with the industry's new viewable ad impression standards. Certified View is part of a suite of sophisticated verification and consulting services that help clients address the myriad challenges confronting today's digital advertising marketplace.