Leading brands and publishers have joined with GroupM China to launch a Brand Safety Initiative in a bid to improve trust and provide more accountability around digital advertising in China.

The initiative brings together leading advertisers, including L’Oréal, Nestlé, Mars, Wrigley, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, Huawei, Shell HELIX, GSK and Colgate; key publishers including Tencent, iQiyi, Youku and Mango TV; independent tech measurement companies such as RTBAsia, Miaozhen Systems and AdMaster; as well as accreditation and standards body China Media Assessment Council (CMAC).

GroupM claims the project is the first multi-party effort across China’s digital advertising industry.

The initiative will target invalid traffic as a key priority for China and will move to establish industry consensus on measurement accreditation and standards. The CMAC will then be tasked with ensuring that independent tech measurement companies have the capability to identify inflated traffic counts.

The initiative will also focus on issues including viewability, fraud, and online contextual brand safety.

Patrick Xu, CEO of GroupM China and WPP China said, “Comparing to other difficulties like viewability or online contextual brand safety, invalid traffic is a matter of credibility and the core of the issue.”

Chen Yong, Secretary General of Interactive Internet Advertising Committee of China (IIACC) said, “This initiative is a united stance on making a meaningful and material change in the digital advertising industry. China has unique challenges, mostly around the ability to measure the media and setting up common standards. We look forward to realising a thriving Chinese digital advertising market, utilising GroupM’s global experience and the joint efforts from all partners along the value chain. ”

Stephane Rinderknech, CEO of L’Oréal China said, “China is having an incredible digital evolution. Creating a healthy digital advertising environment means providing an environment with mutual understanding and trust for advertisers, publishers and consumeChina, GroupM, Brand Safety, Ad Fraud, TenCent, L'Oreal, Nestle, Colgate, GSK, Mercedes-benz, Land Rover, Mars, Jaguar, Wrigleys, Huawei, Shell, Youku Tudou, RTB, Digital Advertising, Media, Digital, Agencyrs as well as related authorities. This will also enable a flow of accredited and verified advertising information to the public.”

The initiative is part of GroupM’s global strategy to strengthen brand safety and follows similar moves in other markets. Earlier this year, GroupM partnered with social video analytics company OpenSlate to enhance brand safety on YouTube media buys, following the Google brand safety furore.