Brand safety catches up to localised needs as DoubleVerify commits to languages

“This is an important move for DoubleVerify in South East Asia and beyond as advertisers want to reach consumers with their brand messages across the region. Many consumers like to engage with content in their native language, and our new language targeting solution enables us to create multiple language keyword lists for digital advertisers. Keyword lists can be used to ensure that ads were served on sites or apps in their campaign’s language, or to flag incidents where their ads were shown in a language that was not aligned with campaign parameters,” he says.

Khoo adds that while some large markets like India and China already have varied languages, it’s also in recognition of the fast-growing digital markets.

“The technology enables us to meet the brand suitability needs of advertisers in some of the biggest media markets across APAC, who are running campaigns in languages such as Mandarin, Korean, and Hindi. There are also new emerging digital advertising markets such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, where we can now provide robust offerings to brands and agencies,” he says.

The need for this is driven by consumers, of which a study found that outside the United States, 60% of media bought from websites were not in English.

“We are seeing more refined and sophisticated technology coming to the digital media market, and advertisers want improved performance and a better return on their advertising investment. Brands today want transparency and accountability with their digital media. That trend is likely to accelerate and our strategy is to lead the change,” explains Khoo.

For the Asia Pacific market, this is particularly important because, with such a fragmented task at hand, brands often need technology to drive scale as well as efficiency or quality.

“In our discussions with advertisers and agencies, we realise that the challenge in the Asia Pacific region is managing multiple languages in the often fragmented media markets. Brands are now looking to technology to manage brand safety in the fast-moving digital world,” he says.

“Separate, but related, contextual advertising is clearly going to become more important for advertisers as they reduce their reliance on browser-based cookie targeting. Data and tools will need to draw on the content and context of ad placement to understand not only its suitability but also its likelihood to drive performance."

He adds: "Advertisers will increasingly want to know that they are investing in quality media inventory. That starts with identifying and eliminating fraud and extends to ensuring ads appear in a context that is relevant, and that aligns with a brand’s values.”

Understanding the context an ad appears in is a huge trend for the industry, of which some are calling ‘brand suitability’ instead of brand safety, or sensitivity.