The open web is a difficult place to navigate, and brand safety has fast become the number one focus for marketers moving forward in this politically and economically volatile environment.
4D (a division of Silverbullet) and Factmata recently partnered to produce a research whitepaper: Is brand safety enough? The report explores how marketing now requires nuanced brand suitability that is beyond the traditional scope of existing brand safety providers.
In fact, the study found unsuitable content flagged by Factmata, but not traditional brand safety solutions, is estimated to be £19.6 million ($26.8 million) of UK programmatic spending, meaning 5% of budget is landing in unsafe or unsuitable environments. This investment could be utilised elsewhere.
The whitepaper also highlights when considering brand safety and suitability, marketers need to take a blended approach and align themselves with advanced and trusted products that move far beyond the scope of traditional brand safety and targeting methods.
Dhruv Ghulati, CEO Factmata says, “It’s no easy feat, leading brand safety tools are playing a fantastic role in the effort to protect brands, but cannot do it alone. Brands need to explore additional layers of protection to gain 100% confidence in where their ads are being placed.”
A blended approach
Contextual targeting is not new. However, many older tools have not kept up to speed with the nuances in how harmful online content is framed, worded, and produced. Dated algorithms rely on keywords, which alone do not protect a brand entirely as they ignore images and objects. As keyword measurement alone proves to show pitfalls, a blended approach to safety/suitability is key.
Brands need to adopt a variety of tools to safeguard them against future threats. These tools must define the perfect context for their ads
to appear against, and to apply that context across all addressable channels, including display, video and mobile, programmatic audio, addressable TV, and in-app.
To address contextual video, marketers need a computer vision-based solution that can identify objects, logos and nudity among various signals, allowing the platform to seamlessly offer sophisticated targeting and brand protection on this premium inventory.
Tips for brand safety
As organisations step into the new marketing age, where third-party cookies fade away and contextual intelligence will surge, Factmata and Silverbullet recommend some brand safety tips every marketer should know when beefing out their safety policy.
- Firstly,
modern marketers who want to thrive in the new marketing age need to be aware of nuance and true context to identify the right moment and the right environment in order to align with the right message.
- Secondly, brands looking for safe and suitable solutions will want to align themselves with advanced and trusted products that move far beyond the scope of traditional brand safety and targeting methods
- Lastly, an independent, open architecture approach in the chosen contextual outcomes engine is vital to ingest first-party data from whichever platform a company has in place, from DMPs and CDPs to DSPs and ad servers, to be able to create bespoke contexts and apply them to future campaigns.
The message is clear. Old ways of working are no longer enough on their own.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Umberto Torrielli, Co-founder and CSO, Silverbullet and 4D
Umberto co-founded SBDS in 2016 alongside Ian James & Simon Theakston. Having led varied technical and strategic teams throughout his career and most recently at Bluekai / Oracle, Umberto brings a unique technical view of the customer data and technology landscape.