The New Normal: 5 Changes to Brand Safety and Consumer Outreach in 2020

Everything from the emergence of CTV,  to rapidly changing news cycles, to the demise of third-party cookies challenges advertisers to maintain brand safety at scale. But these challenges also create opportunities to improve the industry.

The recent Programmatic Pioneers Summit featured a panel devoted to understanding how brand safety and reaching consumers is evolving, led by David Goddard, Senior Director, Business Development, EMEA at DV and Chairman of the IAB Europe Programmatic Trading Committee. Panelists included:

• Steve Mougis, SVP, Programmatic Sales and Global Strategy, DoubleVerify
• Steven Ranjelovic, Director, Brand Safety and Digital Risk, EMEA, GroupM
• Lisa Kalyuzhny, Senior Director, Advertiser Solutions, EMEA, PubMatic

During the summit, the panelists discussed five ways brand safety and reaching consumers has changed in 2020, while offering insight into what these changes mean for the future of digital media.

1. Balancing Brand Safety With Campaign Scale Is a Challenge

Blocking content is one way to avoid running against fake or inflammatory news, but it also reduces scale and runs the risk of limiting exposure to good content. Tools such as sentiment analysis, keyword avoidance and content targeting help find balance.

2. Fake News, Plus an Evolving News Cycle, Means Brands Must Be Vigilant About Their Brand Suitability Programs

COVID coverage has highlighted the issues surrounding keyword blocking. When the pandemic first began, DV took a proactive role in issuing guidance for advertisers and the public on how to exempt trusted news around specific COVID keywords. This advice included understanding how high viewability, low fraud and trusted news sources are vital to the industry.

3. CTV Is in High Demand, But Advertisers Need Greater Transparency

The demand for CTV, combined with a lack of transparency, creates an ideal environment for fraud. And according to the panelists, fraud is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to buying CTV inventory. As Steve Mougis explains, “These emerging channels are susceptible to fraud — we saw this with programmatic too. There is a tremendous demand for inventory and a limited supply. Pushing for measurement and transparency is necessary and for this we need to push for industry standards.”

4. The Third-Party Cookie Is Being Phased Out

By 2022, Chrome will no longer support cookies. But as Steve Mougis explains, DV doesn’t need third-party cookies to offer targeting solutions for fraud, viewability or brand safety. DV’s cookieless contextual targeting solution relies on the granular understanding of content on pages, which offers advertisers another way to continue reaching consumers even in a cookieless Chrome.

5. COVID-19 Is Having Far-Reaching Effects on Consumer Purchasing and Media Behaviors

Consumer behavior during the pandemic is changing purchasing and media habits in a way that is actually paving the road for the future. Not only are consumers demanding more CTV content, they’re also spending more time than ever in gaming and fitness apps, according to Lisa Kalyuzhny. This, Kalyuzhny says, is further motivating agencies to look at cookieless targeting solutions.

Where Does the Industry Go From Here?

Each of these challenges also create opportunities to improve the industry. Working together, we can foster innovation, create new standards and promote a transparent and accountable digital ecosystem that works for consumers and brands.

To get the full story, watch the live recording of “The New Normal: 5 Ways Brand Safety and Reaching Consumers Has Changed in 2020” at the Programmatic Pioneers’ Summit.

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