The importance of protecting a brand's reputation in the complex web of online advertising has never been more important. An experienced brand-side marketer with a career at Diageo, GSK and Mondelez, Jerry Dakin leverages his current role as an ambassador for the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to help brands navigate today's digital advertising landscape. Dig into the challenges and opportunities you face. and Adfidience Advisor. Dakin sheds light on the complex balance between brand safety and the pursuit of innovative ad tech solutions, offering a glimpse into the future of conscious media investing.
What major obstacles do organizations encounter when protecting their digital advertising reputation?
Gone are the days when you could open a magazine or turn on the TV and see exactly where an ad was placed. Modern marketing campaigns run across thousands of different sites in uniquely personalized and targeted ways.
There's a lot of great content and a rich media environment out there, but there are also people out of greed or more sinister reasons who try to steal advertising dollars. Some of these sites are simply low quality or inefficient, while others may be engaged in hate speech, misinformation, or directly funding illegal organizations.
Most major advertisers took serious action nearly a decade ago by adopting brand safety policies and introducing impression level verification trackers. While this was a huge step forward, there is a danger of being a bit naive in thinking that this in itself completely solves brand safety risks.
First of all, these approaches are only good when implemented in practice, and not all global media leaders have dug into exactly what campaign settings they need, much less ensure they are always properly configured. There is no ongoing audit of what is being done.
Verification tags can be the last layer of defense, but for most walled gardens and large ad tech partners, campaign setup is where the real brand safety battle must be fought. Without strong governance, you could end up relying on dozens or even hundreds of individual media buyers to ensure that principles are always followed perfectly and human error is never made. Many of them may be working across multiple different clients with different restrictions and expectations.
Additionally, there is a huge opportunity for the industry to evolve from simply “fixing the fundamentals” to progressive and proactive investment in high-quality media and a better ecosystem for the future. I call this approach “conscious media.” This includes investing directly in high-quality media, diverse publications, and with environmental sustainability in mind. Simply, by doing so, you tend to get the highest quality and most effective media inventory along the way.
How have social media platforms and user-generated content impacted the way companies develop advertising strategies to protect their reputations?
People's experiences with social platforms reflect their own personal interests and connections. These ultimately reflect many of the most wonderful, emotional and creative moments of our lives, but of course they also reflect many of the harmful, adult, hateful comments out there. I am.
When you choose to advertise on a social platform, it effectively means that you are funding it as a whole. That doesn't mean advertisers are responsible for everything that happens on such platforms, but at a fundamental level, they are responsible for the theoretical and practical policies that platforms take to keep their spaces safe. You have to agree to the action.
While it's natural for brands to have different acceptable levels of brand safety depending on their industry and principles, there's certainly no reason why every brand needs to advertise on every platform. Advertisers, through initiatives like WFA's GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media), are pushing social media to increase accountability on their platforms, continually raising standards and addressing emerging threats in the sector. I think it's fulfilling its role.
Social platforms themselves always have more secure settings, neighbor controls, and other ways to minimize certain risks. I am always very wary of products that extend advertising to broader off-platform networks with very different risk profiles.
While there are some verification partners that offer some level of brand safety, reporting on social platforms tends to rely heavily on self-reported platform data.
What are the key elements of a mindful advertising strategy that ensures brand integrity while achieving marketing goals?
Whenever we see brands pay more attention to the quality and context of their advertising, we've seen them drive better marketing results.
Commitment to a more conscious media approach begins with a foundation and revision of fundamental considerations around brand safety and responsibility. There is no silver bullet, but it does require strong direction, oversight, governance and, ultimately, a clear message to partners that this is important.
From there, you can build a more advanced agenda by paying attention to the true context of your ad spend, not just the basic metrics. Is it possible to accidentally buy “dirty attention” or fund disinformation on advertising websites? To get “diamond attention” in the most premium and category-related areas? How can we encourage purchases?
A truly conscious media approach requires not only how advertising promotes your brand, but ultimately how you invest to build and support a positive media ecosystem for the future. I will also pay attention to what is going on. Forward-thinking companies are examining their carbon footprint, investing in inclusive content, and how they reward sites that provide the best consumer and advertising experiences.
What role can advanced technology and data analytics play in improving the steps taken to protect a brand's online presence and advertising choices?
We need to be careful about relying too much on algorithms and technology. Ultimately, humans must make critical decisions to ensure safety and implement them in campaigns. You need to strategically align what’s important to your brand.
A truly brand-protecting approach often starts with saying “no” to some products that spread media far and wide, even if they appear to provide cheap reach in the process. . Most advertisers can benefit from moving to intentional inclusion lists rather than aggressive exclusion lists, but this needs to be balanced with efforts to include high-quality minority publications. there is.
That said, it's clear that technology is playing a big role, and many vendors are developing better tools and services in this space, partly due to pressure from GARM and advertisers. It's a positive thing. In fact, my passion for this technology is why I spend my time advising his Adfidence.
Once you can connect your accounts and consistently deliver brand safety, you can easily monitor other areas such as naming conventions and broader media best practices. How many millions of dollars are wasted on campaigns? No proper frequency capping or core flighting principles are in place. You can quickly solve this problem by making campaign settings easy and transparent.
What emerging trends and technologies do you think will have a significant impact on conscious media investing in the coming years?
It's easy to be complacent that brand safety is a problem that has largely been solved over the past decade, but in reality, it's a serious, fast-moving challenge that requires evolving solutions.
While there is still an incentive for clickbait websites to share shocking content to garner views, advertisers can easily get into trouble as well. With elections, political turmoil, and culture wars taking place around the world, you don't need a crystal ball to see that 2024 will provide plenty of opportunities for bad actors to stir things up. This is a major external trend that advertisers need to confront before it's too late.
Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. All it takes is for advertisers to ask more questions, apply more pressure, and use simple tools and governance to start lifting up the entire industry. As stated in the WFA's Media Charter, this is not only a combination of immediate action and interest from advertisers, but also a call for ad tech companies to offer more services in this space.
As Chair of WFA's Diversity Taskforce, it's great to see the media being taken seriously. Most global member companies not only consider brand safety, but also intentionally build a comprehensive media approach. This includes not only finding minority-owned and operated media, but also encouraging all media to actively tell diverse stories.
To truly create a brand-safe media ecosystem, major social and technology platforms will need to further enhance their use of AI. Because we know for sure that those who seek to misinform and profit cheaply are doing their best to do the same.
