POLICY GOVERNANCE
Policy Owner: Bidstack Group Plc
Published: 27th November 2018
Applicability: This Policy is applicable to all Bidstack members involved in advertising, as well as marketing & promoting the brands, adverts and copy of our clients and our company.
Contact: [email protected]

Application

This policy applies to all aspects of Bidstack’s business in relation to the provision and delivery of dynamic, native, in-game advertising opportunities (the ‘Advertising‘), and applies equally to relationships between Bidstack, its team members, all publishers, advertisers, direct and programmatic clients, and any other party Bidstack may have an association with. This Policy is particularly relevant to team members in sales, marketing and Advertising partnership roles, and extends to our clients, events and any other Advertising ventures that are undertaken by Bidstack.

Introduction

This policy provides guidance on the fundamental doctrines that Bidstack apply to all Advertising and marketing undertakings (the ‘Policy‘).

Bidstack reserves the rights to reject any Advertising, Advertising copy or brand and to suspend, remove, or terminate any Advertising, brand campaign or partnership where it reasonably determines that there has been a violation of our standards, or where the content or copy is considered inappropriate. We explicitly prohibit Advertising and/or brands that contain or advertise: pornography; tobacco; vaping and e-cigarettes; firearms and weapons; political advertising; religious advertising; or drugs, excluding alcohol, however advertisements of this sort would be subject to additional restrictions

Our principles

Bidstack complies with all relevant laws and regulations relating to Advertising and marketing. In particular, we comply with:

all Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) UK Advertising Codes (found here: https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings.html); and

all International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) regulations (found here: https://iccwbo.org/publication/icc-advertising-and-marketing-communications-code/).

Both Codes uphold the belief that advertising should be legal, decent, honest and truthful, and the ASA specifically states that “All marketing communications should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society and should reflect the spirit, not merely the letter, of the Code.“, and we agree!

Advertising Original Content

We value and support the creators of original content. Therefore, we do not accept Advertising copy or content which infringes the intellectual property rights, rights in confidential information, rights of privacy or any other rights that may exist in the future of any third party. We obtain reassurances and undertakings in our formal agreements that our clients, advertisers, publishers and any other party we may contract with obtain all necessary licences and assume all responsibility for their Advertising copy and content in this respect.

We operate on an international basis, and therefore recognise the importance of evaluating Advertising copy and content from the perspective of the target audience, as well as from the perspective of the broad society, both locally and internationally.

Brand Safety

We are committed to upholding the integrity of our brand and the brands we work with, and will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure all Advertising is suitable for the game, for the game’s PEGI rating, and for the disclosed age of the player.
We also have a live campaign function whereby we can pause or remove any Advertising copy which becomes inconsistent with the campaign, game, or demographic at any point during the campaign’s life.

Respecting Diversity & Inclusion

We value and celebrate difference and diversity. We will not ever purposely feature any Advertising copy or content which misrepresents, ridicules or aims to harm on the basis of age, colour, ethnic origin, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or on any other basis. We also prohibit any copy or content that is intended or is likely to insult or disgust, or to promote or incite hatred, violence, harassment, or political or religious intolerance in any form.

Protecting Children

We intend to protect children to the maximum extent possible in relation to any Advertising, and will not actively advertise or target children under the age of 13, and will not advertise alcohol, gambling or any other product, service or activity whereby the player of the game would be under the legal age to partake in that activity to players under the age of 18, or the relevant age if this differs in any other country. We observe and comply with all international laws, and for countries whereby the legal age is different to that of the UK’s, our age limit for Advertising and targeting will be adjusted accordingly.

Valuing Integrity

The integrity of Bidstack’s Advertising, and that of its partners, is crucial, and we therefore endeavour to ensure any Advertising is clearly identifiable as such. We prohibit any Advertising copy or content which may be unsubstantiated, inaccurate or misleading in any way. We highly value our publishers and advertisers, and our objective at all times is to make the insertion of any Advertising as seamless and as undisruptive to the game and environment as possible.

Privacy & Data Security

We do not tolerate irresponsible or unnecessary data collection and use by any of our partners or clients. We adhere with all data privacy laws in force, in particular the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulations, and encourage and expect all of our partners and associates to adhere to these laws in their activities.

Contact us

If you have any questions or comments about the responsibilities encapsulated in this Policy, or regarding the appropriate action to be taken in a specific situation, please contact our Head of Compliance and Approvals: [email protected].

Reporting a concern

We are committed to ensuring that members of Bidstack as well as our clients, partners and associated are listened to with regards to concerns about our responsibilities. If you observe or suspects something improper, unethical or inappropriate, we kindly encourage you to contact us in confidence to discuss this.

For Bidstack members, we kindly as you to first report your concerns to your senior or executive management, or a HR representative if you are unsure whether or not your observations are relevant to this Policy. All reports, from team members or from our wider community, will be treated confidentially.