Varick Hires Trust Metrics to Vet Exchanges

As online ad exchanges proliferate, brand advertisers worry their ads will pop up on low-quality or inappropriate sites. In the latest attempt to make online exchanges safer, Varick Media Management, a digital buying firm, has signed on with Trust Metrics, a new technology firm that purports to vet content on exchanges. How? It’s the algorithm, stupid.

Jeremy Hlavacek, vp of strategic partnership and client services at Varick—­an MDC Partners company—says Trust Metrics proved itself in tests by showing that as much as 20 percent of an exchange’s inventory actually wouldn’t meet the standards of Varick’s conservative clients like Vanguard, Net Jets, and Armani.

“We think this will help us get more clients and go deeper with existing clients,” Hlavacek said. “We want to say yes, we’re safe, but we’re also appropriate.”