BrandShield Expands Online Brand Protection to Mobile Apps and PPC Ads

SOURCE: BrandShield

NEW YORK – June 5, 2014 – BrandShield, a pioneer in the online brand protection space, today announced it has enhanced the BrandShield Brand Protection System with two new modules to combat brand abuse in mobile applications and pay-per click ads (PPC ads) in search engines.

BrandShield’s comprehensive online brand protection system helps companies protect their brands in more places where brands are at risk. With Google serving up more than 5.6 billion paid search ad impressions daily and mobile app use up 115 percent in 2013, the opportunity for online scammers to abuse legitimate brands through these channels has never been greater.

“Brand parasites are savvy. Their deceitful PPC ads come and go quickly, making them difficult to spot and shutdown before they can inflict damage, divert traffic and put revenue at risk,” said Yoav Keren, CEO of BrandShield. “Mobile Apps have become an equivalent space to the Internet’s websites, enabling another form of trademark infringement, counterfeit sales, and cybercrime. Online activity that is malicious and targeted is constantly evolving and companies need a complete solution to automatically monitor and protect their brands where they are at risk online.”

Mobile apps

With dramatic growth in mobile apps come additional risks to brands. Similar to infringing websites, left unmonitored and unmitigated mobile apps are an open door to brand abuse. BrandShield’s Mobile Apps module scans all major app stores for infringing apps. It is the only automated and metrics-based solution available for monitoring mobile app infringement.

Similar to the sophisticated analysis BrandShield performs in its Websites brand monitoring module, the system monitors App stores and analyzes content, usage, reviews, developer’s data and other attributes to not only locate potential trademark infringement or misuse in apps, but also to prioritize the level of risk of each potentially infringing app.

Protecting brands in PPC ads on Search Engines

Online scammers invest in paid search just as legitimate brands but their intentions are devious – they steal traffic at the expense of brand owners. These deceitful paid search ads use branded terms and trademarks in the ad copy and lead users to other brands, sites selling counterfeit goods or disreputable sites.

BrandShield’s PPC Ads module automatically monitors paid search results 24/7 to provide organizations with a detailed report of PPC ads that abuse or misuse their brands and trademarks. The report includes ad texts, target links and screen shots by search term, country and scan time, enabling brands to quickly report the abuse to search engines. It also helps to prioritize the worst offenders for enforcement action.

BrandShield’s patented technology scans the Web, collects data and automatically ranks suspicious websites, PPC ads and mobile apps based on the risks the infringement poses to the organization, allowing the organization to immediately focus on the offenders that are most damaging.

“BrandShield is committed to consistently delivering new capabilities that help organizations proactively protect their brands online and go after the worst threats,” said Keren. “With Web, PPC Ads and Mobile Apps modules available in one easy-to-use system, our customers can structure the system to best suit their brand protection needs.”

Pricing and Availability

The BrandShield Brand Protection System is available via subscription. Annual pricing is based on the brand’s online prominence and begins at $80 USD per month, making online brand protection affordable and available to everyone. Users can register for BrandShield at: http://www.brandshield.com/signup/index.

About BrandShield

BrandShield helps companies identify, manage and protect their digital brand online. BrandShield helps organizations find all brand parasites with sophisticated algorithms that provide analytic depth, leading to meaningful prioritization and action against brand risks. Backed by Israel’s Chief Scientist, the company is committed to continuous development of a solution that meets the needs of all sizes of entities – from small companies to large enterprises. BrandShield works with the brand protection, legal team and branding professionals of organizations to improve the way they manage and protect their digital brand. www.brandshield.com