In today’s dynamic and challenging world, marketers face a host of opportunities and pitfalls as they chart their course into 2024. With planning season in full swing, BSI’s Marketer Roundtable came together to discuss how members are evaluating these factors. From navigating global events and conflicts to grappling with the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), this discussion among senior marketing executives shed light on key themes, questions, and considerations that can help shape investment strategies in the coming year. Our hope is that these insights will be valuable to Brand Safety Officers across the ecosystem, whether you’re buying ads in 2024 or selling them.
Navigating World Events & Conflicts:
- What crisis response plans or frameworks should a company have in place that allows them to adapt quickly to new and ongoing developments that pose a suitability risk? Consider how these plans apply to the wars in Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Gaza, major elections in the US, EU, Taiwan, India, and Russia, the Paris Olympics, and other significant cultural events in 2024.
- Consider leveraging keyword- and risk-tier-based solutions where available to mitigate the need to pause campaigns in response to breaking-news events.
Opportunities and Risks of AI:
- Where can marketers leverage AI in their media-buying practices today, and what net-new opportunities and risks does using these solutions pose? Are there existing risks that are potentially mitigated or exacerbated by AI?
- When assessing AI solutions, how can marketers differentiate between novel technology utilizing generative AI and legacy automated systems rebranded with the "AI" label?
- With AI-generated ad creatives, what concerns arise regarding efficacy of these tools, and how can partners ensure that marketers are not opted-in to such programs unknowingly?
- How can marketers navigate the opacity of AI systems and retain control and transparency for how they show up online (i.e. placement settings, targeting preferences)?
Regulatory Compliance and Privacy:
- In the face of rapidly changing global privacy and advertising laws, how can companies stay ahead of evolving regulations to ensure appropriate advertising practices across geographies?
- Every company across the supply chain has its own set of compliance efforts. How can companies balance the imperative to ensure regulatory compliance and privacy considerations in their own products/practices without causing unnecessary friction for their partners’ efforts?
Brand Safety Controls & Transparency:
- A host of new brand safety solutions reached the market in 2023, namely in-feed adjacency controls, brand suitability inventory tiers, and third-party measurement solutions. How can marketers sift through the options to leverage the right solutions to ensure responsible placement and investment?
- Following a year laden with anecdotes highlighting the importance of brand safety efforts, how can marketers effectively quantify the ongoing benefits of this work, whether to protect profits and/or mitigate costs, to ensure continued investment?
Measurement Challenges in an Expanding Media Landscape
- How can marketers make the most of viewing data across linear, digital, and streaming services for meaningful and actionable buying strategies?
- With the growth of audio platforms, how do marketers achieve not only brand-suitable choices but have confidence that measurement parameters are stringent and comparable (i.e. using the MRC Digital Audio Measurement guidelines)?
Sustainability in Marketing
Platform Adjacency:
- The overall taste and tone of platforms were highlighted in 2023 as critical factors influencing how ad dollars are allocated. Marketers are suggesting that they must consider the extent to which their brand aligns with the values, atmosphere, and behavior of a platform and its representatives.
- In the wake of tech sector layoffs impacting Trust & Safety functions, how can marketers maintain confidence that their ad dollars support platforms committed to user safety and integrity in the face of misinformation, hate speech, and other harmful content?
Topics:
Brand Safety,
marketing,
AI
