How Advertisers are Addressing Brand Safety Concerns

How Advertisers are Addressing Brand Safety Concerns

Earlier this year, a number of well-publicized reports revealed that some ads from prominent brands had been shown on YouTube videos adjacent to extremist materials.

Worried about brand safety, many advertisers took immediate action.

More than 250 such advertisers including L’Oreal, Dish Network, Starbucks, Pepsi, Audi and General Motors pulled ads from YouTube, and some even suspended all ads on other Google platforms. In fact, according to MediaRadar, YouTube lost 5 percent of its top advertisers in April 2017 compared to the month before.¹

With brand safety now a serious concern, here are the measures advertising are taking.

Third-party verification
“Third-party measurement has rapidly become a requirement of large digital brand advertisers across all of their digital media spend and platforms,” Wayne Gattinella, CEO of DoubleVerify said.²

And for good reason.

Aside from offering a 360-degree view of ad performance, third party auditing services help advertisers get a better understanding of where their ads are displayed and which types of users have seen them.³

Learn three other strategies publishers are using to deliver profit while keeping their sites user-friendly, brand safe, and welcoming.

One example is OpenSlate, a social video analytics company, which has partnered with GroupM, one of the world’s largest media investment management groups, to monitor where ads are running.⁴

Another example is Omnicom Media Group, which built an inhouse brand safety program that reviews thousands of YouTube videos daily and scores inventory before adding it to their whitelist.⁵

“Scores will be determined by utilizing AI and will be built upon public and non-public meta data that had previously been unavailable to advertisers,” Omnicom stated.⁶

In response to the brand safety crisis, Google has invested in machine-learning to identify questionable videos and to disable ads. The tech behemoth has also created a “brand safety” channel where third parties – namely comScore and Integral Ad Science – can monitor YouTube ads.⁷

Direct Buying Methods
Since programmatic ad buying’s real-time bidding (RTB) is completely automated, brands risk appearing next to inappropriate content. Accordingly, advertisers have begun to shift their focus to private marketplaces and programmatic direct to eliminate risk.⁸

In a Private Marketplace (PMP), publishers invite buyers on its whitelist to bid on inventory. In this invitation-only marketplace, buyers know exactly where their ads will run.⁹

“Clients are moving their dollars to private marketplaces with intention of bringing transparency into the transaction, knowing from whom you are buying and what you are buying,” Julia Welch, Vice President of MediaMath said. “Buying privately increases the chances of being in a brand-safe environment and serving to human traffic.”¹⁰

Like PMP, programmatic direct allows advertisers to buy from specific publisher sites. However, the inventory is directly sold to advertisers without RTB auctions. Buyers negotiate with a sales rep to secure a fixed price with guaranteed impressions.¹¹ Advertisers end up with better inventory control and premium placements to ensure brand safety.

Direct buying also instills a strong degree of brand safety confidence.

“Marketers are recognizing in a blunt force way the difference between a platform and publisher,” said Lindsay Nelson, CMO at Vox Media. “There will be a limitation to what a Google algorithm can control, versus a publisher like us being able to say that we own our own IP, the ad experience and the premium context.”¹²

Although brand safety is, indeed, a serious concern, there are steps that advertisers can take to have additional confidence.

1. Castillo, Michelle. “YouTube ad scandals caused 5 percent of top advertisers to leave, says analytics firm.” CNBC. CNBC, 5 May. 2017. Web. 27 Sept. 2017.
2. Elkin, Tobi. “Digital media measurement companies pique investor interest.” MediaPost. MediaPost, 23 August. 2017. Web. 2 Oct. 2017.
3. IBID
4. Johnson, Lauren. “This social video analytics company has quadrupled its auditing business since YouTube’s brand-safety scare.” Adweek. Adweek, 7 Sept. 2017. Web. 27 Sept. 2017.
5. Sloane, Garett. “Omnicom will sort through YouTube videos to make sure they’re appropriate for brands.” AdAge. AdAge, 31 Mar. 2017. Web. 2 Oct. 2017.
6. IBID
7. Bergen, Mark. “Google changes ad policy again to try to end YouTube crisis.” NDTV Gadgets360.com. NDTV Gadget360.com, 4 April. 2017. Web. 2 Oct. 2017.
8. Heine, Christopher. “With brand safety in focus, digital advertisers are quickly shifting toward direct programmatic.” Adweek. Adweek, 19 April. 2017. Web. 28 Sept. 2017.
9. Maynes, Rebecca. “What are RTB, programmatic direct and private marketplaces?” Mediative. Mediative, 11 June. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2017.
10. Heine, Christopher. “With brand safety in focus, digital advertisers are quickly shifting toward direct programmatic.” Adweek. Adweek, 19 April. 2017. Web. 28 Sept. 2017.
11. Maynes, Rebecca. “What are RTB, programmatic direct and private marketplaces?” Mediative. Mediative, 11 June. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2017.
12. Sluis, Sarah. “Premium pubs tout their alternatives amid brand safety concerns – but will advertisers arrive?” AdExchanger. AdExchanger, 29 Mar. 2017. Web. 2 Oct. 2017.