Brand Safety or Brand Risk Management? The Challenge Is Bigger Than Ads.

amp8220Brand risk managementamp8221 assesses and mitigates the valuation threat that branded assets face a result of our increasingly activist consumer environmentamp160 In our polarized information climate where consumersamp8217 calls for brands to take stands on issues of social concern are growing ever louder the merely incremental and mostly technical solutions proposed by the amp8220brand safetyamp8221 framework are too small to matter and will likely fail to address the challenges companies and brands face todayAdvertising and Media A Symbiotic RelationshipAdvertising depends on a cooperating handinglove relationship between the information an ad contains and the perceived reputation of the vehicle delivering the ad amp160Both parties advertiser and publisher benefit from a virtuous cycle built on mutual integrityamp160 A publisher earns revenue from hosted ads and this enables the publisher to offer often free content to draw in ever more readers or viewersamp160 An advertiser can reach audiences in an environment that has earned trust and in the digital ecosystem can also collect user data enabling more relevant targeted improved advertising messages in the futureBut publishers running poor quality ads for irrelevant products in inappropriate places will see reputation declines over time amp160The oftencited example of ads for childrenamp8217s products appearing alongside adult content hurts everybodyamp160 And as publisher reputations decline so too does their ability to command higher ad rates which leads to further quality declinesamp160 This downward cycle ultimately threatens to damage the integrity of brand assets as they become associated with poor quality and less reliable informationThis symbiotic relationship is at the core of amp8220brand safetyamp8221 an important concern thatamp8217s resurfaced during a time of increased socioeconomic polarization which in turn is resulting partly from a high degree of information skepticismamp8220Brand Safetyamp8221 Enters the SceneThe Advertiser Protection Bureau and Brand Safety Institute have recently formed to help combat the various issues and concerns that have arisen with the proliferation of digital advertising amp160The list of concerns is longSubstandard ad quality amp160Ads that do not launch properly are unreadable or poorly executedInadequate vetting of partner platforms and websitesamp160 Many publishers are not what they seem and their audiences do not match well with a brandamp8217s consumer profilePoor ad placement on sitesplatforms amp160Web readers have trained themselves to avoid and ignore digital adsamp160 Some websites are designed to intentionally encourage misplaced clicks and unintended consumer interactionsPublished content doesnamp8217t match well with ad contentamp160 Ads touting breakfast cereal probably donamp8217t belong on extremist websitesFraud clicks influencersamp160 Not all amp8220clicksamp8221 are made on purpose not all influencers have amp8220actualamp8221 followersamp160 Often bots are deployed both to drive up clicks and followersFake accounts and bots amp160Not all social media accounts are authentic some are simply fake and others are automated designed to mimic human user behaviorInadequate custodianship over consumer dataamp160 The privacy and custodial management safeguards of consumer user data is only now coming to the fore as a major issueamp160 Publishers and data aggregators have ignored this issue for yearsToo often the solutions proposed to address these many issues are reduced to enhancements focused on technology and algorithmsamp160 amp160Consistent with this view a primary goal is maximum scale for little cost amp8220all publicity is good publicityamp8221amp160 amp160However this technology framework fails to address what drives the high degree of information skepticism that afflicts our age putting brand investments at high riskDigital Media and Information PollutionWith the vast scale and reach of digital and social media the quantity of information has become so immense that readers and publishers have become increasingly dependent on the use of technology and algorithmic short cuts to manage supplyamp160 However machine managed content served up to satisfy the readersamp8217 interest has deepened and hardened their biases into siloed opinions impenetrable by formerly shared truths and with this our civic discourse has been degradedamp160With the corruption in civic discourse the veracity of information is being replaced by opinion and where mere opinion prevails so too does the possibility for fraudamp160 Further social media has opened the possibility for consumers and other actors to troll and attack brandsamp160 Itamp8217s past time for companies and brands to take increased responsibility for their digital associationsDue to the scale of information pollution in digital media algorithmic solutions are a necessity amp160While they may be helpful avoiding ad placements in identified undesirable contexts by themselves they are insufficiently addressing the far broader concerns of comprehensive amp8220brand safetyamp8221amp160 Algorithms donamp8217t exercise judgment in their operations they simply apply a predetermined rule to those situations identified in advanceamp160 Even with machinelearning enhancements programmatic advertising will remain inured to the responsibility companies are increasingly called upon to assume for their branded identitiesamp160Broadening the Perspective to amp8220Brand Risk Managementamp8221The overreliance on algorithms and technology while necessary evades the responsibility that digital platforms need to assume if they are to be an environment conducive to brand stewardshipWhen Facebook announces its mae culpas they do so on television or in newspapers not via social mediaamp160 In the context of lost integrity thatamp8217s not surprisingamp160 However when even Facebook is using traditional media as the primary vehicle for their selfimprovement campaigns an obvious question arises Why would an advertiser choose to place an ad in digital media at allamp160When the corporate leaders of these digital platforms respond that they simply cannot sufficiently police their platforms when they double down on mere technological solutions improved algorithms always more better data they are avoiding responsibility for their own brandsamp8217 health by displaying the same shortsighted judgment as the algorithms they deployInstead amp8220brand safetyamp8221 is emerging as one of the mandates of a broader and expanding amp8220brand risk managementamp8221 needamp160 Given the pressure companies are increasingly facing from activist consumers employees and investors to address various issues of serious social concern brands should look beyond the mere technological solution of safer programmatic advertisingamp160Brands should take the pressure they are getting from societal stakeholders and use it to better assess their broader brandrisk profiles amp160They should demand a digital ecosystem that is better policed with respect to the information pollution that seems endemic and which is a key driver of the socioeconomic activism that can damage their valuable brand assetsamp160Click the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160amp160

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Brand Safety or Brand Risk Management? The Challenge Is Bigger Than Ads.

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James Harn

Patrick Marrinan

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Brand Safety or Brand Risk Management? The Challenge Is Bigger Than Ads.

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James Harn

Patrick Marrinan

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