Russia: NGOs and internet companies sign memorandum on social advertising

29.09.2020

NGOs will work with search engine operators and major internet service providers to create and promote their social advertisements on-line. The memorandum was signed by representatives of the Coordinating Council of the Public Chamber (RF OP), the Internet Development Institute (IRI) and the largest internet platforms. A document was compiled on the results of the meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Public Chamber on social advertising and social communications held on 21 September at a forum on technology and people at RIF in the City.

“Why we need social advertising has become clearer than ever during the pandemic, when many social initiatives were launched by NGOs and business. These initiatives have been supported by internet platforms, and many people learned about voluntary activities and other forms of help to people during the pandemic and were able to contact them. After this we realised how important it is to join up our resources. The memorandum is a mechanism which helps major internet platforms to devote resources to providing space for social adverts” said Elena Topoleva, Chairman of the Public Chamber’s Commission for Development of the not-for-profit sector and Support for social NGOs and Chairman of the Coordinating Council for Social Advertising and Communications of the Public Chamber.

“We and companies have decided on a voluntary basis to combine our expertise and inventories, which we have yet to discuss, and establish a joint expert council which will guarantee transparency of our thoughts. We hope that international players will join us, and hope that on the basis of the memorandum we will create global initiatives in the market of social advertising via the internet. First of all, regulation of on-line advertising does not cover on-line advertising in current legislation. Secondly, standards of social advertising are up in the air. We want to start a discussion on this”, said Anton Klyuchkin, General Director of the Autonomous non-profit organization IRI. The Director for cooperation with state organisations of the internet company Yandex, Igor Alekseev, commented that companies often don’t have the resources to check on social initiatives and ensure that they are genuine. “The institution that is set up on the basis of this memorandum will, in our opinion, allow us to rectify this problem, by creating a mechanism to make the social agenda more transparent, effective, and appropriate”, he said. 

Accepted rules of the games in this market are important for the development of socially oriented services, according to Konstantin Golub, Director for cooperation with state organisations of the Mail.ru Group. “This is not the first year that we are taking on social projects. For example we have the service 

«Добро Mail.ru», and during the pandemic the new service #ЛучшеДома was launched. So the memorandum is for us a logical step forward. This is a correct and timely step.” he said.

The Executive Director for Media of Rambler&Co, Andrei Tsyper, stressed that the memorandum is an important step for the whole market, not only the big players. “I hope that all the other participants in this market will join us eventually. But we have a lot of work ahead, we have only started,” said Tsyper.

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