With non-stop innovations in artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning, among other relevant technologies, why is brand safetyOpens a new window  a growing issue for digital marketers?
At the risk of ranting, it drives me crazy that this is such a pressing problem in our industry — and one that dogs so many brands.
The last six months alone have seen a raft of headlines on the subject.
In February, for instance, one YouTuber revealed the repeated difficulties faced by many advertisers on YouTubeOpens a new window as their ads appear affiliated with videos promoting pedophilia or politically extremist-produced content such as white supremacy, Nazi ideologies and terrorism.
Similarly, in December 2018, both Google and Facebook were bustedOpens a new window for claiming ignorance that their ad networks permitted apps facilitating the sharing of child exploitation imagery by offering links to dedicated, illegal, child-porn-sharing WhatsApp groups. The search and social media 800-pound-gorillas were enabling them to monetize their operations by hosting ads from Amazon, Microsoft, Sprite, WesternUnion, Sprint and Motorola, to name a few.
The YouTube fiasco plagued myriad big-name brands. Many of them — including JPMorgan Chase, AT&T, McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Lyft and Diageo — not only suspended their ad spend on the platform, but also initiated full strategy shifts as a result.
JPMorgan, for example, cut down from advertising on 400,000 sites a month to just 5,000 following the discovery that its ads were being placed alongside extremist-affiliated content.
No easy solution
Admittedly, I can argue that brand safety shouldn’t be such a big deal and that marketers must do more to ensure their brands don’t suffer these types of scares. But I concede that given the organization of digital advertising, that’s easier said than done.
Consider these numbers: 60% of US industry professionals agree that brand safety is a serious concern, while 75% of brands report to have been exposed to at least one brand-unsafe incidentOpens a new window  in the span of one year.
In YouTube’s case, Google executives have even admitted that the company may never be able to guarantee “100% safety†for brands on the Alphabet-owned video-sharing platform.
Clearly solutions are difficult, yet that hasn’t stopped many from trying. Nor should they.
Increasing pressure on these ad networks to do a better job policing themselves is inspiring the development of automated and AI-powered tools that can evaluate the risk of potential ad hosts — websites, for instance — by assessing the content on thousands of web pages.
Meanwhile, organizations such as the Brand Safety InstituteOpens a new window  are launching dedicated services to help businesses identify best practices as well as certification programs and various relevant trainings and resources for Brand Safety Officers. Even Facebook has developed its own brand safety certificationOpens a new window designed to assist with safe ad placement.
Although these industry responses are evidence of progress, that progress is slow and arduous.
Advertising platform Sizmek ran a survey last year of 500 brand-side marketers in the US and Europe, finding that while 85% of respondents agreed that improving brand safety in digital campaigns is a top priority, 64% struggle to identify and implement an effective strategy.
Problems with programmatic
Ultimately, the source of difficulties for so many marketers? The automated programmatic advertising systems most major ad networks now run for the purchase and sale of digital ads.
As Katherine Hays writes in EntrepreneurOpens a new window , programmatic advertising is a far cry from its predecessors of print ads, TV commercials and radio commercials.
This evolution has taken brands from using “entirely brand-owned, monodirectional communication tools†to systems that “include interactive consumer engagement tools and digital ads, whose distribution is outsourced to third parties.â€
Hays elucidates the dangers of this new dynamic between advertisers and third parties with impressive clarity: “On the one hand, digital automation has made blanketing every corner of the internet as easy as clicking a few buttons, lowering the cost and broadenomg the scope of brand outreach. On the other hand, it has taken control out of the hands of companies, leaving their brands vulnerable.â€
Consider the amount of new content uploaded on platforms like Facebook and YouTube each day — some 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute — and the magnitude of the problem becomes still clearer. Couple that with the fact that current AI isn’t yet sufficiently developed to mitigate effectively the volume of harmful content.
And that’s why US advertising experts say brand safety is one of the biggest programmatic issuesOpens a new window .
Why brand safety matters
Of the key issues facing the digital advertising industry — ad fraudOpens a new window , ad viewing problems and brand safety — I’d argue brand safety should matter most to brands.
Unlike the first pair, brand safety is the only challenge that affects brand value and reputation in the public eye. As Nick Welch points out, while consumers hold brands accountable if they support toxic or inappropriate content in any way, they “will clearly never know or care if an ad was fraudulently driven or was out of view.â€
Welch further explains, “Perception of a brand by the consumer, positively or negatively, is influenced by the content it sits alongside…It is why advertisers must consider the damaging impact that inadequate safeguards to mitigate against the reduced control programmatic threatens over ad placements will have on long term revenues and a brand’s values and positioning.â€
Indeed, it’s time for marketers to prioritize taking brand safety to the next level.
Check out another piece in this series: The Brand Safety Conundrum and What to Do About ItOpens a new window and see how to tackle the issues surrounding brand safety.