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www.
nexmedia
.co.za
How safe is your
brand online?
Nex Media • HOW SAFE IS YOUR BRAND ONLINE?
A popular burger chain’s logo appears above an uncomfortable close-up of a naked woman on a porn
site, while a food retailer’s banners appeared next to fake news articles on a highly disreputable
website.
C
hances are these brands have no idea that their brand adverts are
appearing in such brand damaging environments. Which is why
one of the biggest reservations that brands have when it comes to
programmatic buying on the open market, is that marketers aren’t
aware of what sites their brands will appear on until the impressions are
served.
Joint CEO of SPARK Media and Head of the Publisher Council of the IAB,
Marc du Plessis attended the 2018 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting from
11 – 13 February in California, which focussed on how to build a 21st century
brand. The event explored how the new direct-to-consumer (DTC) economy
will drive growth in 2018, how DTC brands are building up their own supply
chain ‘stacks’ using Supply Chain as a Service (SCaaS) partners.
‘In this DTC age, the supply chain has expanded, with most brands now
working directly with technology partners and media partners, or even going
directly to consumers with in-house developed content,’ says Marc. ‘As an
industry, there is much opportunity for collaboration between media and
publishing agencies, where brand safety is a clear mandate for all.’
The uncontrollable proliferation of content generated on the internet
has brought with it huge issues around trust and truth, which can seriously
undermine the relationship between consumers and brands. ‘No trust equals
no data which equals no brand. A brand without trust is just a product, so
brand safety is vital for brand sustainability. We need to take action now
before ‘viewers stop viewing, advertisers stop advertising and publishers stop
publishing’,’ says Marc.
IAB aims to create a more brand-safe, fraud-free internet by demanding
brand safety from all publishers. The conference highlighted the importance
for brands to only partner and invest in responsible platforms and publishers
with a reliable approach to supply chain.
It calls on brands to take action on issues in the digital supply chain,
like global brand giant, Unilever, who warned Facebook and Google that it
could pull its digital ads if these platforms don’t do a better job of monitoring
objectionable content and fake news. Unilever vowed to work with these
platforms to collaboratively find solutions. Unilever has now also partnered
with IBM to use blockchain technology (a distributed ledger technology) in the
media to ensure that they solve the transparency and trust issue.
‘SPARK Media has a direct relationship with all publishers of the more
than 100 websites that we represent, serving almost 15 million page views
and 7 million unique visitors each month. Our Local News Network’s (LNN)
websites offer brands a safe environment. These secured sites are trusted
sources of news for local communities and have an established journalistic
network of more than 400 people on the ground that are often first to break
local news,’ Marc says.
‘SPARK Ignition SELL, our programmatic sell-side solution, offers
hyper-targeting by demographics, location and interest categories. We
offer advertisers a brand-safe environment with private, protected, owned
inventory. Our technology allows us to exclude adverts that feature next to
breaking news that could impact on advertisers’ brand identity/safety,’ says
Marc.
‘As an industry, we need to develop firm criteria for evaluating trusted
publishers and educate and drive awareness through members of the IAB,
publishing partners and the media.’
To find out more about brand
safety and how to ensure your
brand only appears in brand-safe
environments, contact SPARK Media:
call +27 10 492 8391 or email
info@
sparkmedia.co.za
.
SPARK Media DNA
Established in 2015, SPARK Media,
a division of CTP Ltd, are experts in
retail and location-based marketing
solutions. The company owns and
represents a myriad of print and
digital products that deliver locally
relevant, effective audiences for
advertising clients. SPARK Media
are Strategic Partners in Audience
Research and Knowledge and offer
‘Insights that Ignite’
Marc du Plessis
