If Only Someone Was Working on Brand Suitability Standards

Those reading are no strangers to the concept of brand safety, brand suitability, and the need to develop new tools for the brand safety community. Recent media storms such as the one between Neil Young and Spotify, have only served to further highlight these needs. 

In a recent MediaPost op-ed, Sarah Bolton, EVP of Business Intelligence with Advertiser Perceptions, writes about the uptick in companies "defining suitability according to their brand and corporate values," as well as the heightened focus on making "information integrity a defining issue for the media and advertising industries." For those new to the brand safety community, or those with experience looking to develop further, finding the right tools can seem like a challenge. 

According to Bolton, "an obvious place to start is for media providers to embrace third-party verification of brand safety and information integrity." Whether obvious or not, Bolton mentions some of the basic tools available. These include services like the trust ratings generated by NewsGuard, as well as the Global Disinformation Index, which similarly combats disinformation using an independent rating system. Finally, Bolton mentions The Trust Project, which describes itself as “an international consortium of news organizations building standards of transparency” using eight key metrics – expertise, labels, references, local, diversity, actionable feedback, methods, and best practices. 

Beyond the basics, the Brand Safety Institute and our partners have a growing range of resources and tools for those working in brand safety. These include the 4As Brand Suitability Framework, the GARM Brand Safety Floor and Sustainability Framework, and more. New tools and resources are being developed on an ongoing basis, and the brand safety community is active with examination and discussion. That community is a resource as well, and can be accessed as part of the Brand Safety Officer certification through BSI. Additionally, at the business-wide level, the Brand Safe Workforce certification provides training and industry resources for the across the organization.

Bolton concludes her op-ed by saying, "the health of the digital ecosystem depends on trust, and it’s continually under fire. Advertisers and publishers can’t afford to let vagueness around brand suitability disrupt the audience engine. Enhanced shared standards for information integrity can help restore the clarity, confidence, and sustainability the industry needs." 

Trust, shared standards, and industry needs. These concepts are at the forefront of the evolution of brand safety. BSI is working with experts from other industry leading companies to take on the challenge of analyzing and discussing a wide range of data and topics in order to develop tools that best serve the needs of the growing brand safety community.