The 2017 brand-safety debacle on one of the biggest video sharing platforms had rocked the advertising world and set the conversations around brand-safety and transparency rolling. More than two-thirds of the brands surveyed by eMarketer said that they or the partners that they work with have faced brand-safety issues. Brand-unsafe content causes damage to the brand-image, wastes ad dollars, and the ad impressions, which could have generated revenue if shown to a legit visitor. Ashish shah (founder & ceo, vertoz), talks about how brands can create brand-safe environments through programmatic advertising, in Ad Age India’s #SimplyProgrammatic series.
Most marketers consider content that falls under the category of explicit or adult content, hate speeches, disasters/tragedies, fake news, derogatory content, divisive politics, or content promoting narcotics, violence, weapons, terrorism and extremism, gambling, intoxicants, and so on, as brand-unsafe. In addition to these obviously controversial categories, every brand may have additional categories or content, which is not suitable for the brand. This varies with views, and perspectives of each brand. Thus, brand-safety has no fixed or one-size-fits-all definition. And, that makes it a tough nut to crack.
The problem of brand-safety is wrongly attributed to programmatic advertising by many. But, programmatic advertising actually provides a solution to the problem. In fact, programmatic offers options like contextual targeting, which enable advertisers to actually know in real-time the context and spots where their ads are being placed. Further, in order to provide brand-safe environments, programmatic platforms on-board brand-safety partners, which bolsters the brand-safety mechanisms.
Advertisers can also use other basic, simple, but important methods like “blacklists” and “whitelists” for creating a brand-safe environment. They can also opt for Private Marketplace (PMP) deals that facilitate advertisers to work only with the publishers they trust.
For more ways to ensure brand-safety in programmatic advertising, click here.
