The online space is now so expansive and the flow of information so fast that it can be difficult to control where your adverts appear. At the same time, brand safety greatly impacts a brand's reputation and image. The environment in which it is displayed makes a difference to the perception of the company by its audience. It may therefore turn out to work against it instead of encouraging a purchase. How to avoid this?
What is brand safety?
We refer to brand safety as anything undertaken to protect and nurture a brand's reputation. Above all, the environment in which all content and advertising associated with it appears is crucial. This environment - presenting itself and its offerings - is seen in terms of identifying with that particular service.
Contrary to what you may think, displaying advertising at the wrong place and time is not difficult. Paid social media adverts are a case in point. We have no control over where they appear, only to who they are displayed to. This is where contextual targeting plays an important role. Contextual targeting is not based on a specific recipient but on the website's content, which must be consistent with the advertising message displayed.
Impact of the advertising environment on its effectiveness
The Internet reacts very quickly to all current, often controversial, events. There is then a great deal of buzz about them on the web, and sites outdo each other in providing their audiences with information about them. These are not always positive, and a large amount of related information on the Internet increases the risk that your advertisement may appear among them. This may result in your brand being associated with precisely the unpleasant events in society.
In addition, there is a risk that an advertisement for a product will appear next to an article on a disputed topic, which can create a lot of conflicting emotions in the viewer. An example would be an advertisement for boxing classes next to an article about violence.
Another problem is the identification of the brand with specific social issues. If it is displayed next to content that is, for example, racist or discriminatory, the company may be perceived as one that supports this issue.
All this affects not only the reputation of the brand but also the effectiveness of marketing activities. Not only is a negative image of the brand created, but also the advertising does not fulfil its intended function and does not achieve the objective set by the company.
Secure ad targeting
We can speak of safe advertising when it appears in the right place at the right time. It is essential that the surrounding content has a positive impact on it and relates to it thematically. It should not contradict what the service communicates and vice versa. This also has to do with its effectiveness. When reading about beautiful places in Italy, the viewer often desires to see them. An ad for a trip to Rome will therefore respond to their expectations, unlike an ad for face cream.
It is, therefore, important to use targeting tools that allow advertising to be carried out in such a way as to comply with brand safety policies. RTBHouse, for example, offers solutions that use site category filters (exclusion of content that does not comply with the company's policy), message filters (blocking messages with content containing specific keywords) and forbidden lists (blocking sites whose environment compromises brand safety).
The availability of content on the internet is vast; there are different environments within it that are not necessarily well perceived by all users. To ensure brand safety, it is necessary to control your presence on other sites to take advantage of the ability to tailor your adverts to the environment in which they are displayed.
