Rob Bradley in Campaign on brand suitability

Brand safety is more important than ever - but, in attempting to protect their campaigns, could advertisers also be missing out on valuable audiences and blocking content that supports their brand ethos?

Read the full article here and excerpts below.

Brand safety is more important than ever - but, in attempting to protect their campaigns, could advertisers also be missing out on valuable audiences and blocking content that supports their brand ethos?

The media brand is at the sweet spot for the kind of factual and authoritative content many brands are craving in the age of “fake news” and disinformation. But at a time when brands want to demonstrate what they stand for, Bradley suggests they risk tying one hand behind their backs as they adopt an over-conservative approach to brand safety.

CNN’s brand safety and suitability tool SAM (Sentiment Analysis Moderator) uses neuro-linguistic AI to analyse the context of sentences across text, audio, video and galleries, classifying it as positive, neutral, mixed or negative to determine when content is brand-suitable. This ensures advertising is adjacent to the most appropriate content.  

It is used in tandem with an internal content classification tool which tags content using IAB taxonomy, in line with industry standards. Editors classify and tag content in the content management system, as it is published, so that there is true alignment to a brand’s requirements even if an article is updated during breaking news.

The result is that CNN has been able to offer a more sophisticated alternative to blocklists by utilising its technology for more positive contextual targeting.

The demands of the pandemic helped some brands build an intimacy with their consumers at a time when there were feelings of common purpose. With consumers demanding to know what brands stand for, the onus is on those brands to be authentic in what they say and how they present themselves.

Read the full article here.