Ethical online advertising: Choosing the right tools for online brand safety

No brand owner wants their ad turning up next to unsavoury online content. With the automated daily delivery of trillions of ad impressions across the open web, brands and agencies rely on systems and tools to ensure their ad is being placed in the most appropriate contexts. Unfortunately, in the last 25 years of programmatic advertising, the tools that we rely on to protect brands have not always kept up with our desire and ability to safely spread our brand message far and wide. Tools such as keyword blocklists were once the de facto method for managing correct placement. Recently, however, media coverage on the blocking of COVID-19, progressive content and even small-scale scandals have shown how inefficient these antiquated tools can be. Blocklists use single terms to define suitability, which in turn generates broad-brushstroke stereotyping, impacting scale and accuracy of ad placement. As well as missed opportunities and poor ad placement decisioning, this type of binary approach to safety disproportionately impacts progressive content. By featuring them and the tools that act on them, brands can limit consumer exposure to valued content by defunding the publishers giving voice to these potentially progressive topics. Thankfully, there are now better ways to manage brand safety online. Contextual brand suitability tools disregard single terms and instead ascertain relevance on the basis of an understanding and appreciation of more nuanced contexts. There are several steps any brand or agency can take to begin to evolve their brand safety strategy. These steps are an important part of the journey to increase online safety while also ensuring we are not our own blocker to safer, smarter and progressive approaches to online ad placement decisions.