Thursday, April 16th, 2009
“Brand Safe” Does Not Mean “Brand Worthy”
In an effort to be all things to all advertisers, many ad networks and exchanges are claiming “brand safe” inventory. The process of deeming inventory on a network or exchange “brand safe” generally involves an engine that scans the page for content, relevancy and anything offensive such as nudity or profanity. Some of these technologies work well, in that they can avoid the potential firestorm of a brand advertiser running adjacent to inappropriate content. However, “brand safe” does not mean “brand worthy.”
Branding campaigns have a completely different set of goals than direct response campaigns. They are measured on metrics that are usually longer-term, and are as much insights-driven as they are results-driven.
1. Is it aligned with media that enhances the brand’s equity? Part of the reason why advertisers spend major dollars with familiar names is for the association with a global media brand (an NBC or ESPN, or a sports league like NASCAR).
2. Can a network measure brand metric performance (not clicks or post-click actions; things like brand lift, purchase intent, etc.) or derive meaningful insights, when the focus is on page content and not balancing impressions across a site list that is carefully selected for relevancy and audience?
3. If rich media is being utilized, can an exchange drive high rich media interaction rates when the ads are potentially not in view? Many suboptimal placements on publisher pages are devoted to exchanges due to the low yield they provide.
4. How can a daisy-chain of networks provide a high rich media fulfillment rate with the lag time of calling multiple ad servers?
These are just some things to consider when a network is promoting a “brand safe” environment. “Brand safe” does not mean “brand worthy.”
Posted in: Ad Networks by Eric Franchi @ 10:00 am Permalink |
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