The latest mobile ad trend that must be ushered out ASAP? Pop-up ads; the malicious interstitial once relegated to the more questionable portions of the mobile Web and now finding a prominent place in the arsenal of bad ads plaguing mobile devices. Google Chrome's ad-blocker will be cracking down on these poor formats soon enough. But in the meantime, the lesser ads are continuing to break through.Included here is your weekly digital and mobile advertising news round-up. See anything we might have missed. Drop us a line.Pop-Up Mobile Ads Surge as Sites Scramble to Stop Them [WIRED]Many of the platforms, fortunately, are aware of these problems and already explicitly ban this type of ad behavior. For example, the Google ad network prohibits, "pop-ups or interstitials that interfere with the user's ability to see the content requested [and] sites that disable or interfere with the browser's back button." But in practice, malicious redirects still sneak through.How publishers are applying ads.txt beyond its original purpose [Digiday]But with ads.txt, if a SSP claims to work with a publisher like HuffPost, this claim can be fact-checked in seconds by visiting huffpost.com/ads.txt to see if the SSP is listed there. Since ads.txt categorizes vendors as either “direct” or “reseller,” publishers can also get a better sense of which vendors rely on arbitrage.The ‘Publisher-As-Platform’ Era [AdExchanger]This is a difficult shift for many publishers, which, after seeing CPMs fall on the open exchange, turned to more closed models, such as private marketplaces. To succeed in a platform model, publishers must acknowledge that they can’t win everywhere. They must isolate what they do well and go deep into that area. In short, they must place their bets.For those that do, the rewards may be outsized. The publisher-as-platform model doesn’t just make publisher assets more valuable, it makes advertiser campaigns more effective.Why Transparency and Sustainability in Programmatic Matter Now, More Than Ever [HuffPost]The forces of increased transparency and consolidation are working together to bring about the end of the kinds of remnant-era practices that started over a decade ago. Their impact will ultimately give rise to sustainable practices that support great programmatic performance within a safe trading zone. Once that’s in place, advertisers will get the confidence to move larger volumes and budgets through programmatic trading.Programmatic is a relatively dumb system’: IBM wants to use blockchain to clean up media [Digiday]Programmatic is the way the world works. It’s not going to change, but there’s a huge amount of inefficiencies and waste. Right now, on average, of any dollar a marketer spends, only about 50 cents shows up in front of who you are trying to advertise to. If I want to get a message in front of hundreds of thousands of people, I’m using programmatic and algorithms to deliver it. Where it actually shows up, I really don’t know. And there are so many tolls that show up along the way — there’s a brand-safety toll, a [brand] tracking toll.Global ad spend forecasts show 'a market in transformation, but not recession' [Business Insider]“As a result, mobile online video ads will be the main drivers of growth within digital ad spend across the region”. In fact, digital media spend is forecast to increase by 30% in 2018, surpassing traditional television spend for the first time. It will continue to grow at 12.6% in 2018, reaching $220.3 billion (S$291.22 billion) in ad spend, with video and social being key growth drivers.Why Print Legacies Like Time Are Betting Big on Augmented Reality [Adweek]“Advertisers are seeing immediately what the opportunities are and are very excited to engage with us in pushing what the technology can do,” Tramz said. “A lot of the response we’ve gotten is, ‘What can we be first at with you? What can we really make an impact with?’ It makes people excited, and shifts the perception of our company as being forward-thinking, curious, and willing to explore new technologies. And there are some really fantastic possibilities both on the marketing and editorial side that can come together.”News UK sees vertical video ads taking off [Digiday]V-Studio launched with seven different interactive vertical formats for clients. Recently, the Times used the vertical format that incorporates live data feeds in a campaign for Michael Kors. The ad used viewers’ location data to show them their nearest Michael Kors store, after 33 percent of Times mobile users opted to share their locations for the campaign. Different creative is served based on audience preferences. The campaign click-through rate was 75 percent above the average for News UK’s nonvertical video placement, according to Lewis, although he wouldn’t share absolute numbers. SKIM THIS'It's not a cause for alarm': Why advertisers aren't fretting over Facebook's huge News Feed change [Business Insider]How Brands Can Use Innovative Ad Formats to Break Through the Clutter [MobileMarketer]'Phablets' account for over half of mobile devices in use [MobileMarketing]5 digital marketing trends that will shape your 2018 [The Drum]Where Is the Line Between Creepy and Creative in Advertising? [Adweek]Transform Customer Engagement with Location intelligence (VB Live) [VentureBeat]Publishers are treating Facebook Watch like YouTube [CNBC]Facebook Will Show You Fewer Posts From Brands and Publishers, and More Baby Photos [Ad Age]Twitter Sells the Content Biz on Its Video Strategy at CES [Variety]YouTube is Telling Advertisers it Has a Plan to Clean Up the Video Site [Recode]