Brand safety

Brand safety is a set of measures that aim to protect the image and reputation of brands from the negative or damaging influence of questionable or inappropriate content when advertising online.

In response to ads being placed next to undesirable content, companies have cut advertising budgets,[1] and pulled ads from online advertising and social media platforms.[2][3][4]

Types of unsafe environments

The global digital advertising industry considers the "Dirty Dozen" categories to avoid.[5] The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) added a 13th category: fake news.[6]

  1. Military conflict
  2. Obscenity
  3. Drugs
  4. Tobacco
  5. Adult
  6. Arms
  7. Crime
  8. Death/injury
  9. Online piracy
  10. Hate speech
  11. Terrorism
  12. Spam/harmful sites
  13. Fake news

In addition, companies will often define specific unsafe categories based on the brand itself.[citation needed] Airlines, for example, might not want their ads to appear next to breaking news about a plane crash.[original research?]

Some online advertising tools allow advertisers to avoid their ads appearing alongside unwanted contexts.[citation needed] This feature is typically referred to as Brand Safety.[citation needed] For example, within the Google Marketing Platform, additional protection can be set up using Campaign Manager 360. If the automated auction still chooses an advertiser's ad as relevant for placement alongside certain contexts, instead of the actual creative, a default image set by the advertiser will be displayed.[citation needed]

Brand safety measures

To ensure brand safety, advertisers can buy ad space directly from trusted publishers, allowing them to directly address brand safety concerns.[7] Advertisers and publishers may also employ third-party vendors of brand safety services that can be integrated into the advertising system.[8] Other common preventive measures are black-lists of unsafe sites to avoid, or a white-lists of safe sites for advertising. The ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) initiative from the IAB is designed to allow online media buyers to check the validity of the sellers from whom they buy.[9]

Ad agencies, such as The Interpublic Group of Companies and Comscore, have used media watchdog companies like Ad Fontes Media and NewsGuard to make sure that their clients' ads are placed with "credible" news sources.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "P&G Slashes Digital Ads by $140M Over Brand Safety. Sales Rise Anyway". adage.com. 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  2. ^ Kulp, Patrick (February 20, 2020). "Disney, Nestle and Fortnite Publisher Pull YouTube Ads Following Child Predator Controversy". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  3. ^ Mezzofiore, Paul P. Murphy, Kaya Yurieff and Gianluca (2018-04-19). "Exclusive: YouTube ran ads from hundreds of brands on extremist channels". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2019-05-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Picchi, Aimee (September 5, 2024). "Elon Musk's X at risk of advertiser exodus as trust dwindles, survey shows". CBS News. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  5. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. ^ "Brand Safety: IAB SA White Paper on Brand Safety in Today's Digital Context" (PDF). Interactive Advertising Bureau. 24 October 2018. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  7. ^ Damien Crittenden; Aimee Gerry; Tom Jones-Barlow; et al. "Brand Safety Handbook" (PDF). Singapore: IAB. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 1, 2019.
  8. ^ Goh, Gabey (2017-07-03). "8 tips for better brand safety". IAB Southeast Asia & India. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  9. ^ "Everything You Need To Know About The IAB Ads.txt Initiative | Adtelligent". 2018-01-26. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  10. ^ Megan Graham, "Media Veteran Lou Paskalis Joins Group to Encourage Brands to Advertise on News", Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2023