Brand Safety is hard work

In "White Men Can't Jump", the two leads, played by Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, trade insults about how much "hard work" it is to make the other look bad on the basketball court.

That phrase came flooding back into my memory reading this The Drum article from last year, "How publishers and advertisers can bulletproof their brand safety".

Yes, it's a year old, and we as an industry are a year wiser. However, the basics of brand safety are the same - and not very basic! The breadth of knowledge necessary to properly safeguard a brand and its reputation online is staggering.

For publishers, maintaining a brand-safe high-quality ad environment requires sophisticated always-on technology. Without it they run the risk of attacks, like the domain spoofing attack the Financial Times suffered last year. For advertisers, management of online brand safety amidst a fragmented video landscape is difficult but crucial. If mismanaged ads could appear next to illicit content or run against fake audiences.

Emphasis mine.

Every step of the process - and it's a process with lots of steps - requires detailed planning, incredible levels of communication and transparency among a myriad of parties, and constant monitoring and reporting.

The article is a good primer on brand safety, but it doesn't make the logical leap that the Brand Safety Institute has. Namely, who is going to do ALL OF THIS HARD WORK?

Clearly, anyone looking to "bulletproof their brand safety" will need a dedicated person or team to do it. That's why we are working to educate, and certify Brand Safety Officers to meet these needs.

Our curriculum is a deep-dive into the many facets of brand safety: ad fraud, knowing your partners, malware, ad adjacency, consumer experience, etc. It also discusses the skills that a brand safety professional must possess in ensuring brand safety across the digital advertising ecosystem. We are also fostering a community for brand safety professionals to discuss these difficult, and ever-changing, issues.

After all, to mangle a phrase, it may be hard work, but someone has to do it.