Brand safety: 31 out of 100 top advertising clients need to take action
In a study by Zulu5 and the Digital Ad Trust association, an increased proportion of over 5% of advertisements on potentially brand-damaging websites was observed among 31 advertisers - five fewer than in the previous six months. Brand safety thus remains a constant challenge for marketers.
Brand Safety is one of the key topics for Digital Ad Trust Switzerland, which was founded by the three associations IAB Switzerland Association (IAB), Leading Swiss Agencies (LSA) and the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA). The current Brand Safety Report, produced in collaboration with Zulu5, is another comprehensive report.
The digital advertising of the 100 largest Swiss advertising clients and exposed industries was examined and analyzed with regard to brand safety. The report distinguishes between legal safety - advertising environments that violate the law or advertising guidelines - and brand suitability, which refers to brand-specific safety requirements. Zulu5 used an outside-in approach to search the Internet in the first half of 2022, combing through a large number of websites to audit them and record which ads appear on potentially brand-damaging pages.
The analysis showed that the majority of 52 of the top 100 advertisers in Switzerland fall into a low exposure range of between 0.1-2 percent with their advertising placements. 0.1-2 percent of the observed advertising placements were thus played on potentially harmful environments, which would only require limited measures depending on the risk profile.
The situation is more critical for advertisers with 2-5 percent of exposed cases. Here, 17 market participants were found, 16 fewer compared to the second half of 2021. A total of 31 advertisers were even exposed to an extent of more than 5 percent of their advertising placements. This is still five advertisers less than in the second half of 2021. According to Digital Ad Trust, both categories require active measures to reduce.
Overall, however, the picture has improved compared to the second half of 2021. For example, the number of advertisers that advertised below 2 percent of all cases in potentially critical website environments increased by 67 percent, from 31 to 52, while the number of cases above 2 percent decreased by 30 percent, from 69 to 48.
Most cases of potentially brand-damaging ads come from the finance, telecommunications, services and retail sectors. According to Digital Ad Trust, this is hardly surprising, as the greatest advertising pressure of the top 100 advertisers is in these sectors. In general, it can be said that the risk of advertising in potentially brand-damaging environments correlates with increased advertising pressure and, above all, broad distribution.
The Digital Ad Trust Switzerland association will inform the heavily affected advertising clients individually about their respective results, according to a statement.
In the period from January to June 2022 Zulu5 and Digital Ad Trust monitored over one million national and international potentially trademark-damaging Internet domains and examined them for advertising placements by the top 100 Swiss advertising clients.
The current Brand Safety Report can be downloaded from the Digital Ad Trust website can be downloaded.
