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Anthony Rushton (born 3 November 1971) is a British tech entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief executive officer of
Telemetry Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', 'far off', an ...
, an online video advertising security and optimisation firm.


Early life

Rushton was born and raised in
Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...
, Lancashire, England.Roland Gribben
"Video advertising firm looks for lift-off,"
''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'', 9 August 2011.
Following his graduation from the
University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...
, where he earned a bachelor of arts in sociology and economic history, he briefly went into engineeringMaisha Frost
"Keeping track of internet ads,"
''
The Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'', 15 June 2011.
before moving to London and working as a media planner and buyer in the late 1990s.Elizabeth Colman
"How I made it: Anthony Rushton, founder of Telemetry,"
''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'', 22 August 2010.


Career


JailDog

In 2001, Rushton quit his advertising job to go into business with his software developer friends Russell Irwin and Beau Chesluk, who had helped create the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
video game '' GoldenEye 007'' while working for game designer Rare.Rupert Neate
"GoldenEye game creators’ new venture set for a gilded future,"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 18 June 2011.
Rushton and his partners each put up £10,000 of their own money to help get the business off the ground. To raise additional funds, they began creating branded online video games under the name JailDog (also known as The JD Project), with Rushton serving as commercial director. JailDog earned notice in 2003 after winning the pitch to create the broadband version of the TV game show ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (WWTBAM) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Televis ...
''


WeDigTV

In 2007, Rushton, Irwin and Chesluk launched the online TV station WeDigTV, which broadcast interactive programs that allowed viewers to alter the course of the show,"WeDigTV to launch interactive ad-only online TV channel,"
''
Marketing Week ''Marketing Week'' is a website focused on the marketing industry, based in London, that grew out of what was a weekly, and latterly monthly, print magazine. History and profile ''Marketing Week'' was launched in March 1978. Its co-founders were ...
'', 8 November 2007.
winning a 2008 International Interactive Emmy Award for being the world's first such network."The 2008 International Interactive Emmy Award Winners,"
The International Emmy Awards. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
Rushton served as director. In 2007, the site reported 2.5 million unique monthly users, featuring content such as ''Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?'' and ''
Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch '' Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this format is the final round (a ...
'', with an interactive ad break every five to seven minutes. WeDigTV was a precursor to Telemetry, as the three partners pursued the growing market of online video advertising.


Telemetry

Rushton is co-founder and CEO of Telemetry, a London-based independent digital media forensics company, founded with Irwin and Chesluk in 2009. The company has offices in London and New York. Telemetry works with advertisers and agencies, providing impartial, detailed analytics in real time, tracking the efficiency and exposure gained by online digital advertising campaigns to ensure accountability: that the ads are properly delivered, are being viewed by the intended audience, alongside the proper content, and that reach and impressions are not being inflated.Brandon Gutman
"What You Need To Know About Buying Digital Video Advertising (At Least For Today),"
''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'', 28 June 2012.
They have advised caution when it comes to much of the technology used for programmatic buying, which can, for instance, fail to report when ads intended for pre-roll have been placed into oft-muted banner video ads instead. In conceiving the service, Rushton drew on his prior experience as a media planner, where he observed that advertisers had to rely on partisan analytics from the vendor or traditional ad server statistics, which had not been designed to track online ad campaigns. In 2014, Telemetry investigated
Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...
's online video ad purchases, finding that in excess of $1 million was spent on fake Web views. The company in turn demanded make-good ads.Suzanne Vranica
"A ‘Crisis’ in Online Ads: One-Third of Traffic Is Bogus,"
''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', 23 March 2014.
Also that year, Telemetry uncovered an ad fraud operation that had been skimming around $10 million in video ad revenue per month, affecting over 75 advertisers, including
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
,
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
and
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
. Rushton called it the most significant instance of ad fraud Telemetry has seen. Telemetry has publicly called out companies perpetrating such fraud by name. ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' reported in 2014 that approximately 36% of all Web traffic is considered fake, with the corresponding amount of ad views being seen by "bots" rather than people, cheating advertisers who pay based on the number of Web views. In August 2014, Rushton was interviewed by
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
about online advertising fraud moving away from bot fraud, in which a series of fake computers simulate a sentient being watching ads, to a type of fraud involving a genuine audience watching low-quality impressions, which are converted into premium inventory, with the fraudulent impressions sold to large advertisers. Rushton stated that he feels it is the responsibility of the vendors to ensure that the impressions they are trading are genuine impressions. Customers include
Reckitt Benckiser Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, currently branded as Reckitt, formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, United Kingdom. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition prod ...
,
Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC ( ) is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
,
Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...
, Verizon Wireless, L'Oreal and
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...
. In 2012, Telemetry showed revenues of £24 million with adjusted profits of £5 million, and was valued at £175 million.
Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...
predicted Telemetry would be worth £486 million by 2014. In January 2017, Telemetry ceased its ad verification services, citing adverse market conditions.Ronan Shields
$486 Million anti-ad fraud firm Telemetry has shut down,"
''The Drum'', January 11, 2017.


Honors and awards

* International Interactive Emmy Award, for WeDigTV, 2008 * ''
Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...
'' Media Maven, 2014Alex Kantrowitz
"Meet Ad Age's 2014 Media Mavens,"
''Advertising Age'', 29 September 2014.


References


External links


Telemetry website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rushton, Anthony Living people 1971 births Alumni of the University of York Businesspeople from Lancashire English businesspeople People from Accrington