Twin News Cycles Accelerate The Transition From Brand Safety to Suitability
- Sameeha Junejo and Sarah Nasir
- Aug 27, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: Sep 7, 2020
Two storylines, the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic, have impacted news media content on a large scale. This has sped up the trend towards suitability and authentic messaging. Buying programmatic ad space within almost any category right now requires moving beyond the outmoded idea of safety and identifying suitable content that fits the brand.
During extensive coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement, brands cut ad spend or aggressively blocked keywords that they feared would be controversial or unsuitable for their brand content. Prior to COVID-19, brands typically implemented safety measures in their programmatic buys by blocking content categories, keywords or entire domains. The prevalence of COVID-19 content across every category made brands realize that if they wanted to completely avoid the topic in their media buys, they weren’t going to deliver on campaigns.
Instead of standard legacy blocking, brands should adjust their targeting to include suitability strategies. They might find engaging inventory within categories that they might have been blocking.
If you have any experiences or metrics related to suitability and authentic messaging, we would love to hear from you.
We're a group of graduate business students exploring the importance of local newspapers and news sites, with a focus on sustainability and related business practices. We're hoping to build a community of stakeholders to help and support our research. Please reach out if you're available for an interview to share your thoughts and experiences on the topic.
Comments