Insights From the U.K.’s 2024 General Election: Brand Safety Lessons for Every Advertiser

For advertisers, navigating the media landscape during an election can be a complex challenge. The heightened political narratives, divisive debates and potential misinformation often result in a wave of objectionable content circulating across various platforms.  

The influx of political content can be hazardous for advertisers. In fact, DV found that in 2020, 72 percent of adults encountered at least “some” election news that seemed completely made up. And a 2019 study revealed that 67 percent of consumers would likely stop using a brand or product that’s advertised next to objectionable or inflammatory content. When ads are placed alongside problematic content, it can tarnish a brand’s reputation, diminish ad performance and ultimately affect an advertiser’s bottom line.  

How, then, can advertisers find the balance between protection and optimization? Some brands choose to simply avoid all news content during an election. But doing so sacrifices valuable opportunities to gain reach through trusted news sources. 

In 2024, with more than half of the world’s population residing in countries that are either in the midst of or have recently concluded nationwide elections, marketers can develop solid brand safety and suitability strategies that withstand the dangers of election content without sacrificing scale. 

How the DV Election Task Force Keeps Brands Safe

To help keep brands safe during evolving news cycles, DV analyzes billions of impressions per day to ensure ads appear alongside content that is safe, suitable and contextually relevant. DV Universal Content Intelligence™ — DV’s AI-powered classification technology — analyzes all content types, including visual, audio, speech, text and link elements, across all channels, devices and formats. 

Specifically, the DV Election Task Force — a multidisciplinary team, composed of brand safety and suitability specialists and analysts from the DV Fraud Lab — offers ongoing, in-depth analyses of emerging content themes during election cycles. For instance, certain content categories become more relevant during an election, including: 

• Inflammatory Politics & News: Looking at structure, language and rhetoric, this content category offers coverage for:
  • News or political content associated with or exhibiting inflammatory points of view
  • Potentially fake, unreliable or unsubstantiated information
  • Significant political intolerance, hateful or threatening rhetoric or other significantly controversial elements

• High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbullying: This content category offers coverage for any instances of hateful content and also applies to any hateful content generated over the course of the election.

The DV Election Task Force helps global advertisers understand online content trends influenced by elections, enabling them to better protect their brand reputations and ensure their advertising investment does not inadvertently fund harmful content. 

What We Can Learn From the U.K.’s 2024 General Election

The year has been filled with news coverage surrounding elections taking place throughout the world. The U.K. and France, for example, experienced a whirlwind of political activity with unexpected elections announced in May and June, respectively, leading to intense campaigning over the span of just a few weeks. On the other side of the Atlantic, the U.S. is preparing for its own pivotal election, and the campaign trail is intensifying as the country counts down the final weeks before its citizens head to the polls.

To evaluate the impact of challenging news cycles, we took a closer look at key data we collected from the U.K. over the past two years. Below, we offer three insights that can help you establish a solid media strategy during similarly turbulent political discourse.

Insight #1: Problematic Content Can Spike Suddenly

In reaction to certain political events, problematic content can surge very quickly. Within the first five months of 2024, DV saw repeated spikes in Inflammatory Politics & News and High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbullying in the U.K. This includes the day U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unexpectedly announced the upcoming General Election where DV recorded a 55 percent increase in Inflammatory Politics & News.

This spike pattern is very similar to the prolonged surge we saw in the U.K. in 2022 when the “Partygate” scandal emerged, Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned and Liz Truss took office. When Sunak was later appointed as the new prime minister, we saw a 26 percent increase in Inflammatory Politics & News.     

In 2024, other significant events led to a substantial increase in High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbulling, including the Israel-Hamas War, which saw spikes up to 145 percent, as well as allegations of antisemitism and islamophobia between the Conservative and Labour Parties, which caused a 179 percent spike on February 28, 2024. 

Insight #2: Things Are Improving Year-over-Year

Interestingly, despite these spikes in 2024, the overall average for both Inflammatory Politics & News and High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbullying have decreased compared to previous years. Within the first quarter of 2024, Inflammatory Politics & News dropped 38 percent and High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbullying dropped 71 percent, compared to the last five months of 2023.

Insight #3: Pre-Bid Protections Make an Impact

Pre-bid protections allow advertisers to apply brand safety and suitability controls before a bid is ever placed. It’s possible that the decrease we’ve seen in Inflammatory Politics & News and High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbullying is tied to the growing use of pre-bid protections. DV’s Global Insights: 2024 Trends Report found that there was a 41 percent increase in the usage of Authentic Brand Suitability year-over-year in 2023.

Brand Safety Best Practices During an Election 

With the right tools in hand, advertisers can achieve brand safety coverage without impacting campaign performance and delivery. Here are some best practices DV recommends while maneuvering political content. 

Advertise on Trusted News Sites 

Simply avoiding all news content may sacrifice valuable opportunities found in trusted news sources. Brands should advertise across trusted news sites unless there is a direct connection between the brand and a specific news incident. 

Here are three ways you can include trusted news sites in your brand safety strategy:

• Content Classification: Exempt trusted news publishers from broad avoidance category coverage.
• Keyword Blocking: Keep keyword lists precise and exempt trusted news publishers from breaking news-related keyword blocklists.
• Page Exceptions: Add trusted news provider homepages and section pages to page exception lists.

Gain Consensus and Review Your Creative Strategy

Establish safety and suitability guidelines for your brand, and make sure your creative strategy reflects your brand’s values in light of breaking news.  

Leverage Available Tools

Learn how to maximize your brand suitability toolkit. Adjust your strategy to be agile and responsive to a news agenda that shifts on a daily basis, and make sure your classification guidelines and policies provide full coverage for your brand.

Ask Questions and Adjust

Determine how you can adopt the most appropriate tools based on your brand’s suitability preferences and sensitivities, and make adjustments to your strategy and profile based on the situation.

Stay Updated on the Latest Election Insights

Are you interested in learning more about how your brand can navigate elections in the future? Watch the recording of our webinar Back to Basics: Brand Safety and Suitability Insights to Navigate Election Season or download The Advertiser’s Guide to 2024 Elections. Or reach out to us at Sales@doubleverify.com and someone will reach out to you.