Tencent and DG Mediamind: Third-Party Ad Serving Gets a Boost in China

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Tencent has approved DG Mediamind as a tracking partner, which will enable global advertisers to have more control over their ad campaigns on one of China's largest Internet portals through third-party ad serving.

Under the partnership, the ad management firm will be able to deliver more sophisticated rich media ads on Tencent's QQ.com and instant messaging mini-portal.

"Global brands have been hesitant to advertise online in China due to a lack of transparency and the difficulties in campaign execution," said Neil Nguyen, CEO and president of DG in a statement.

Tencent's endorsement of rich media firm DG Mediamind underscores that ad serving has gained a steady foothold in the country.

"We are hoping more and more major publishers will follow suit," Indy Liu, senior publisher account manager for ad operations from DG Mediamind, the exec responsible for securing the partnership, tells ClickZ.

In China, publishers control the ad delivery.

Because the Chinese authorities hold sites accountable for improper creative or illegal copy on served ads, sites want to be in control and thus reject third-party tags, Karen Ho, head of MEC Interaction China pointed out in a column on Internet advertising in the country.

However, some Chinese publishers do make exceptions for reputable brands and those with big budgets to allow ad-serving tags for their campaigns.

QQ and DG Mediamind are in discussions to include video ad serving in the next phase of their partnership, Liu adds.

The rich media ad management firm has also customized its ad servers to be physically located in Mainland China to demonstrate its commitment to local publishers by giving them the flexibility to control how the ads are being published in compliance with their tech standards.