OVK Contextual Standard: A Milestone for the Post-Cookie Era

In the near future, online advertising based on 3rd party cookies will no longer be possible. Alternatives, such as the "Sugarless" technology developed by BurdaForward, which works entirely without 3rd party cookies, cannot be established quickly across the market. For this, standards are needed that make contextual targeting applicable across the board.

The Online-Vermarkterkreis (OVK) has now developed a standard for this form of online advertising - a milestone for the post-cookie era.

What is Contextual Targeting?

With this targeting, i.e. the target group-specific display of advertising content, reference is not made to user data but to the content of the respective website. Advertisements for a product or brand are placed in such a way that they are relevant to the user in the overall context of the editorial content.  

This alternative is promising for successful advertising business in the future - BurdaForward has discovered this in the development of its own "Sugarless" technology. Here, content is scanned on the basis of semantic text analysis, meaning connections are established and linked to advertising messages. Through the machine learning system, advertising content can be played out in a very target group-specific and user-friendly way - without consent and, above all, in compliance with data protection laws.

 

Comprehensive solution ensures standardisation, scaling and quality

All marketers who are members of the OVK have unanimously agreed on a comprehensive standard for contextual targeting. Within the framework of the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft e.V. (BVDW), this was defined by the marketers' group in a "Workstream Contextual Standard" founded specifically for this purpose. With the help of this standardisation, it is now possible to book and also track contextual targeting in a scalable manner across different marketing houses or brands. The technical documentation and the defined quality criteria now make it much easier to work with the large media agencies, as uniform standards are used.  

"We recognised the importance of contextual targeting early on as part of our Sugarless strategy and pushed it forward with our own technology. Therefore, we are very pleased that we have agreed on a common standard in the OVK, which is supported on a broad front in the market," says Stephan von Dahlen, Head of Sales at BurdaForward. 

As the leading publisher of the workstream, BurdaForward was allowed to push the issue within the committee. For the Burda subsidiary, under whose umbrella brands such as FOCUS online, CHIP, BUNTE.de and TV Spielfilm are gathered, the development is part of its #Goodvertising strategy. In order to make online advertising more user-friendly, this step is groundbreaking and sets another cornerstone for even better advertising. 

 

Further information can be found in the official announcement of the BVDW.

Information on the implementation of the Contextual Standard by BurdaForward can be found here.