Brand Safety 2.0: Moving from Avoidance to Strategic Suitability
Brand safety: Solutions and evolving challenges
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines brand safety solutions as tools that help brands avoid content widely deemed inappropriate for advertising (e.g., terrorism, sexual content), regardless of the brand involved. Several solutions help address brand safety concerns-here are some of the most common ones:
- Website Allowing & Blocking - one of the most widely-used tools in brand safety strategies, offered by most providers. “Blocking” prevents ads from appearing on specific websites while “allowing” creates a curated list of approved websites where campaigns can run. However, these methods are not foolproof. The vast and constantly evolving nature of the internet makes it nearly impossible to identify and block every harmful website. Additionally, blocking entire websites can be too restrictive - large platforms may contain only a few pages of unsuitable content. While allowing offers greater control, it comes at a cost - significantly reducing the scale of a campaign.
- Keyword blocking - another well-known brand safety measure that scans website content for certain words before displaying an ad. For example, a financial services advertiser may want to prevent their ads from appearing next to news about stock market crashes or financial fraud. However, this method lacks precision. A well-known example is the word “knife” - while it may be blocked due to associations with crime or violence, it is also commonly used in cooking recipes. Such broad exclusions can lead to unnecessary limitations, reducing the reach of a campaign and blocking content that may actually be safe for a brand.
- Content category exclusion - allows advertisers to prevent their ads from appearing next to content that does not align with their brand values (e.g., adult content, violence). By excluding specific content categories, brands can ensure their ads are placed in a suitable and relevant environment. Yet, successfully applying this approach requires advanced technology or cooperation with a reliable partner to classify content accurately. Without a precise system in place, exclusions may become too broad or ineffective, which can unnecessarily limit reach or fail to fully safeguard the brand.
While most of the solutions mentioned above focus on preventing ads from appearing alongside certain types of content, some argue that this approach is not entirely effective. After all, even if a website featuring an article about the best mayonnaise may be brand-safe, it likely is not the most suitable placement for an automotive ad, right?
Additionally, with the demise of third-party cookies, brands face a new challenge-ensuring their ads reach users who are genuinely interested in purchasing the advertised product.
The shift toward brand suitability
In response to these limitations, brand suitability is receiving increasing attention. Unlike traditional brand safety measures, brand suitability solutions help advertisers not only avoid content that may be harmful to their specific brand (e.g., ensuring an airline’s ad does not appear next to an article about a plane crash) but also identify content that aligns with their brand’s message based on context, tone, or sentiment.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key brand suitability solutions:
- Contextual targeting - analyzes the content of the website and places an ad only in relevant placements. Thanks to this, brands do not have to worry about being visible around potentially dangerous content.
- Semantic targeting - goes beyond analyzing keywords to also understanding the meaning and sentiment of the content. This is crucial for maintaining brand safety. By evaluating the overall sentiment of a webpage, advertisers can strategically avoid placing ads near negative or harmful content. For example, imagine a new smartphone model facing negative media attention due to battery overheating issues. Without semantic analysis, an ad promoting the same smartphone could be displayed alongside these articles or user reviews, reinforcing negative associations and potentially damaging the brand’s reputation. Semantic targeting prevents this by ensuring ads are not only placed in safe environments, but also in contexts that positively align with their messaging.
Beyond brand safety: PrimeAudience’s approach to strategic suitability
At PrimeAudience, we believe brand suitability is about more than avoiding harmful content - it’s about strategically placing ads in the most meaningful contexts.
With the power of ContentGPT, driven by Generative AI, PrimeAudience provides advertisers with a brand suitability toolbox in three simple steps:
- Defining your audience
Create a detailed description of your target audience and input it into ContentGPT. Our tool will instantly generate a preview of a tailored list of suitable websites, providing real-time feedback to ensure clarity and control.
- Customizing
Next, refine the audience selection by adjusting your criteria and updating the suggested website list in real time. Additionally, you can leverage our AI-powered recommendations to optimize the selection process, making it more precise and efficient. This dynamic approach ensures alignment with your campaign objectives and brand values.
- Activating
Finally, once your audience is set, activate it on your preferred DSP. We support a variety of DSPs available in the market, giving you the flexibility to launch your campaign on the platform that best suits your needs.
The impact of PrimeAudience technology on brand suitability speaks for itself. In our recent case study with Toyota, we achieved a 39% lower Cost Per Lead (CPL) compared to standard contextual targeting. Thanks to our proprietary technology, ContentGPT, ads appear only in relevant placements visited by potential customers. This eliminates brand safety risks - such as a car ad appearing next to an article about a fatal traffic accident - while maximizing engagement and performance.
With PrimeAudience, you can shift from avoidance to strategic brand suitability. Our AI-driven solutions ensure that your ads not only stay away from harmful content but also appear in the most impactful, brand-aligned environments. By focusing on content visited by users with high purchase intent, you can maximize engagement and drive better performance, ultimately leading to stronger results.
