Brand Safety in Gaming: Challenges and Opportunities

Gaming has become a cornerstone of digital marketing, especially for younger audiences. Platforms like Roblox offer brands an invaluable chance to engage with Generation Z and Alpha through immersive experiences. However, recent controversies surrounding safety measures and ad placement on these platforms highlight critical challenges. For instance, Roblox has faced scrutiny over lax safety controls, with reports from Hindenburg Research and Bloomberg accusing the platform of inflated metrics and insufficient protections for its young user base. These accusations have forced Roblox to implement stricter parental controls, including approval for chat features and monitoring tools for parents, signaling a commitment to safeguarding its community while preserving its appeal to advertisers.

Brand safety in gaming also faces broader industry challenges. Misplaced ads, such as those running alongside harmful or inappropriate content, have long been a concern. This issue isn’t limited to mainstream digital media, but in fact, is proving to be a considerable problem for gaming as well. Despite advancements in brand safety tools, misclassifications still routinely occurs - sometimes flagging benign content like a TIME Person of the Year article due to specific keywords while allowing ads to appear next to genuinely harmful material. These lapses underscore the ongoing need for vigilance and innovation in brand safety technologies.

With the closure of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), there is a void in the industry effort to maintain industry-wide standards. Its absence underscores the importance of individual brand safety professionals and platforms for taking responsibility for brand safety policies— a responsibility Roblox, for example, is actively navigating. Platforms must demonstrate their commitment to both user safety and transparent metrics to retain trust. Meanwhile, brands could invest in the ever-growing arsenal of advanced AI tools to mitigate risks and foster authentic connections with audiences. This means carefully assessing partnerships and leveraging tools which balance the desired reach with the necessary integrity. By aligning their strategies with evolving safety measures, marketers can successfully navigate these challenges while reaping the benefits of engaging with the gaming community.