Brand Safety’s Secret Role in Brand Suitability |   21 Sep, 2023

With the rise of online advertising and social media, brands can reach consumers in unimaginable ways. However, with great opportunity comes great responsibility, especially when we are talking about brand suitability.

In this digital age where the internet is filled with tons of information, ensuring your brand is seen in a safe and appropriate context is paramount. Keep reading to understand the basics of brand safety and suitability and explore why brand suitability begins with brand safety and why it should be a top priority for every business.

What is Brand Safety?

Brand Safety refers to the practice of safeguarding a brand’s image by preventing it from appearing alongside content that could be damaging or inappropriate. This includes avoiding associations with topics such as hate speech, terrorism, illegal activities, piracy, obscenity, and content related to death or injury. For instance, a brand wouldn’t want its ads to be displayed next to breaking news about a conflict or crisis. Traditionally, brand safety has employed methods like keyword banning and URL blocklisting to avoid unwanted connections between the brand and harmful content.

What is Brand Suitability?

Brand Suitability, on the other hand, takes brand safety a step further. It goes beyond simply avoiding harmful content and focuses on understanding the deeper meaning and context of the content surrounding the brand’s advertisements.

For example, a publisher in the banking industry whose ad inventory is ideal for banks. If reports of financial wrongdoing emerge in the news, banks may want to avoid placing ads within those specific articles. However, completely blacklisting the entire website may harm the advertiser’s efforts. This is where brand suitability comes into play, allowing advertisers to filter out specific articles or content that may be considered “risky” while still benefiting from advertising on the rest of the site.

In short, brand safety is about avoiding content that is obviously harmful, while brand suitability involves a more nuanced approach, taking into account the context and meaning of content to ensure a brand’s advertising aligns with its values and objectives. Both practices are essential for maintaining a positive brand image in the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape.

How Brand Suitability Begins With Brand Safety?

Historically, brand safety has centred on the marketer’s need to prevent ads from appearing next to content deemed inappropriate for the target audience. These tactics now seem outdated and inflexible, lacking the level of control needed to build and maintain successful online businesses.

Currently, the major challenge for brand safety is the consideration of context and audience, both of which are essential for determining brand suitability which require more nuance.

Brand suitability is critical for the success of any advertising campaign since it focuses on the context of advertising and its influence on the brand. Furthermore, brand appropriateness may aid in determining which regions appeal to the intended demographic.

As a result, it might be viewed as the next evolutionary step in brand safety. While brand safety is mainly concerned with preventing or deleting the most harmful and destructive information, brand appropriateness is the act of minimising the possibility of a brand appearing in an improper setting so that companies’ reputations may be maintained. However, by tweaking the message, some firms are changing and employing historically dangerous pages for advertising.

Brand Suitability and Safety in a World of Constant Change

As consumers become more sophisticated, marketers and brands must adapt and adopt brand safety and suitability best practices.

In line with the media targeting strategy, brand safety should be flexible and evolve over time to assess emerging events and news cycles independently and determine which content is acceptable or inappropriate for a brand so that ads appear only on websites and apps that will benefit.

As a result, brand safety technologies that enable you to regulate and include or omit ad placements are critical for keeping a positive and suitable brand image.

Unfortunately, certain brand safety products are designed to be one-size-fits-all. It is tough to identify whether the ad is acceptable since not enough attention is paid to a brand’s distinctiveness or the context of words or visuals that appear in an ad.

Conclusion

By prioritizing brand safety and suitability, brands can protect their reputation, reach the right audience, and maximize the impact of their advertising efforts. In today’s competitive digital landscape, ensuring brand suitability is not just a choice; it’s a necessity for long-term success.