Brand Safety vs Sustainability

July 6, 2020 – Jordan Haney

Brand Safety vs. Brand Sustainability

I am a bit late, but ‘Brand Safety’ is a relatively new term for me and it has grown more lately because of the Covid-19 pandemic and how brands are trying to avoid ad and content distribution with sensitive contexts. IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has a great definition of this saying “Brand safety is about protecting a brand’s reputation when they advertise, by not placing their ads next to inappropriate content.”

Adding my own extensions to my understanding of brand safety, it’s essential to not confuse this in your strategy and decision-making as a brand.

Brand Safety vs. Brand Sustainability

In executing tactics, brand safety says it is important to be aware and put in practices to avoid associating your brand with inappropriate or distasteful content. These practices include implementing blocklists of keywords and publishers to block your ads from being placed in context with inappropriate material. This practice however, can only be adopted so far. In strategy, brands should not avoid topics of interest because they may be sensitive or controversial.

Rightfully so, practicing brand safety is a form of hiding, or ‘online-distancing’ from current events and news that use certain keywords you’d like to avoid. If this is taken to an extreme, it may hide yourself from issues in the short-term, however normalizing actions like these within marketing can be damaging in the act of branding.

Let’s keep brand safety and brand sustainability in different lanes with different intentions.

It’s understandable to avoid topics of interest, sometimes controversial, to be safe, however avoiding trending content in almost any case harms your brand from sustaining the test of time. These types of actions credit brands with silence and irrelevance. Times like these are not only an opportunity to raise impressions and engagement, but it’s an invaluable opportunity to share your support, values, and actions of change with your voice. This is brand sustainability.

The key to brand sustainability during our current economic, social, and political landscape is simple. Knowing your core customer is always key when communicating anything, but listening to the public as well as your customers, being sympathetic, and proactively communicating to build trust and connection with your brand will bring success in the long-run. Here’s some tips that I have to follow this.

Associate yourself, but associate yourself with the right message.

It’s great to speak on current issues we face like Covid-19 and injustices in our community, but make sure to say the right things the right way. Acknowledge the problem, but don’t add fuel to the fire with statements that aren’t true or misleading to audiences.

Leadership speaks volumes. Don’t be silent and don’t be complacent.

Be proactive. Not only by joining a conversation or movement by communicating your message, but act on them. Businesses have power to give power and resources to those who feel without a voice. There are infinite solutions to different problems we face, and the creativity of brands should be used for good as well as profit. Actions speak louder than words.

All of your content (statements, imagery, videos, CGC, etc.) should already be valuable, thought-provoking, and well-integrated. A genuine brand behind the right causes shouldn’t have much to be afraid of. Some opportunities are a lot bigger and impactful than others, but especially in current times, being proactive with this content and moving towards the conversation, not away, will help keep your brand safe and sustain over time with the trust, transparency, and empathy you’ve built while connecting with others.

Sources for more research:

https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/advertisers-keyword-blocking-protest/

https://insider.integralads.com/brand-safety-new-hot-topic/

https://www.iab.com/video/measuring-brand-safety-during-a-crisis/

https://blog.bannerflow.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-brand-safety/

https://digiday.com/marketing/brand-suitability-replacing-brand-safety/

https://info.cheq.ai/hubfs/Research/Brand_Safety_Blocklist_Report.pdf

I am a bit late, but ‘Brand Safety’ is a relatively new term for me and it’s grown more lately because of the Covid-19 pandemic and how brands are trying to avoid ad and content distribution with sensitive contexts. IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has a great definition of this saying “Brand safety is about protecting a brand’s reputation when they advertise, by not placing their ads next to inappropriate content.”