Brand Safety Online: From Reaction to Prevention
This week saw the launch of a major initiative that can leave advertisers in no doubt that the online ad industry is dedicated to preventing, rather than reactively curing instances of ad misplacement. In the ‘UK Good Practice Principles’ put together by the Digital Trading Standards Group (DTSG), responsibility is placed on buyers, publishers and platforms. However, online advertisers also need to do their bit to embrace the spirit and realise the full benefit of the Principles, as I explain below.
The DTSG’s Principles mark an unprecedented level of collaboration between all of the leading bodies in the online ad industry. They recognise that brand safety is top of mind for online advertisers who see risks in their lack of control of the ad placement process. This perceived lack of control means advertisers have held back from fully investing in online advertising channels, despite the many benefits of online media, especially in programmatic with its ability to match ads automatically and precisely to the individuals that the advertiser values the most.
Industry collaboration to combat misplacement happened once before, with the more limited-in-scope Internet Advertising Sales House (IASH) Code of Conduct, whose audit process also sought to bring transparency and accountability to online advertising. Our CEO, my business partner James Aitken, was a founder of IASH because he understood the importance of delivering brand safe campaigns. He felt that it was the responsibility of the wider industry as well as individual companies to take action to address the issues. A belief we continue to hold today. IASH had an impact but technology moved on and the initiative lost its consensus.
Fortunately, in the interim commercial content verification (CV) solutions evolved to provide a protective layer for campaigns. These have been effective in increasing confidence among brands including luxury advertisers, who are known for having the strictest brand criteria, in using online and in particular in programmatic channels.
The DTSG’s Principles mark a fresh start, one that recognises CV technology is not enough on its own and that brand safety concerns are still present. The key feature of the new Principles is the commitment by buyer and platform signatories, who are on the front line in the battle against misplacement, to allow a regular independent audit of their policies and processes. Under those policies and processes, buyers and sellers of inventory must show they minimise misplacement with either an independently certified CV tool or appropriate/inappropriate schedules (or both). We are proud to count ourselves as founder signatories of this new initiative because we recognise that ads placed without care or fraudulently against inappropriate content represent a risk to advertisers themselves and to the industry as a whole.
However, advertisers must do their bit to encourage a brand safe environment, which means due diligence. At the minimum they need to ascertain whether their partners are signed up to the Principles. It is particularly important that they check the latest CV tools are being deployed by their partners. In addition they need to ensure that their partners involve human beings in the process, something that could perhaps have been emphasised more in the Principles. To get the most out of the automated part of enforcement that polices inventory, people need to be involved in supervision.
One final note of caution. It would be naive to think that the problem of misplaced advertising will be eliminated: the small minority of ads among billions that are misplaced will be reduced further but determined fraudsters will continue to evolve their techniques to obtain ad spend. However, with everyone working in unison, the online ad industry in the UK, which has taken global leadership on the issue, can now argue convincingly that the risks are negligible and concentrate on promoting the financial and brand building benefits.
Tim Webster, is co-founder and chief strategy officer at The Exchange Lab.