What a week it was!

Brand Safety Week 2022 was the second annual full-week installment of what had formerly been a one-day Brand Safety Summit, hosted by 614 Group. This year, the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) joined as Founding Partners to expand the event and drive additional high-quality programming.

The mood for this year’s Brand Safety week was set by the Elon Musk acquisition of Twitter. Participants arrived buzzing around all the news surrounding its acquisition. Timing was serendipitous, as marketers were struggling to decide their position on whether to continue advertising on Twitter in the midst of new management, changing policies, and content moderation uncertainties. This frenzy prompted Rob Rakowitz and GARM to respond to Musk’s open letter to advertisers.

A statement from GARM and @wfamarketers to @SEP and @elonmusk on our work on #brandsafety - we must have Twitter uphold existing agreements and deepen future collaboration - the stakes are simply too high https://t.co/J2gQHf9mHQ pic.twitter.com/oAzMEmCct7

— Rako 🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇶🇪🇸 (@RNRakowitz) October 31, 2022

The advertising industry is as engaged as ever in determining the state of content moderation, and trust and safety in the online communities where they participate.

This year, Brand Safety Week consisted of several components all working in concert to promote the practice of brand safety.

DE&I Summit

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The Brand Safety Week DE&I Summit was content devoted specifically to addressing issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and representation, and their intersection with the practice of brand safety and suitability. Panels included:

• Best Practices for Buying Black-Owned Media
  • Kerel Cooper - Group Black
  • Gonzalo Del Fa - GroupM Multicultural
  • Lashawnda Goffin - Colossus SSP
• Building an Inclusive Brand: Why Inclusion Needs To Be the Next Critical Business Practice
  • Sheryl Daija - BRIDGE
  • Louis Jones - BRIDGE
  • Tish Archie-Oliver - Unilever
  • Emile Khader - Condé Nast
• How Brand Safety Can Create Biases for Diverse-Owned Media
  • Josh Ott - The Shade Room
  • Andrew Serby - Zefr
  • LaToya Shambo - Black Girl Digital
  • Arnetta Whiteside - Publicis Media
• Building Diverse Teams for Stronger Consumer Connection
  • Reema Elghossain - Netflix
  • Carl Desir - Homecoming Coaching
• DE&I Advertising Means More Consumers! Case Study: Brand Advance Group & Meta
  • Sarah Bakai - Meta
  • Chris Kenna - Brand Advance
  • Devinn Tafaro - Meta

Leadership Summit

Industry groups also held meetings of their leadership and advisory boards, so that members of all the organizations could have a chance to network and cross-pollinate discussion on pressing issues.

BSI announced that Louis Jones, our illustrious BSO-in-Residence for the past two years, has stepped into the role of Chief Marketing Officer. In his new role, Jones will amplify BSI’s efforts to drive awareness and engagement across the digital media ecosystem around critical brand safety and suitability issues. He will also help expand and evolve BSI’s education and accreditation programs.

We also welcomed Jennette Offenberg, Associate Director, Digital Media Innovation at Merck & Co. Inc., who will take the helm of BSI’s Brand Safety Officer-in-Residence commencing January 2023. Jennette will help to amplify the voice, contributions and importance of a well-trained and resourced Brand Safety Officer.

Thank you, Brand Safety Institute, for inviting me to address your Brand Safety Advisory Council today on linkages between marketer’s Data Strategy and Brand Safety and Suitability. Your data strategy should reflect your values, respect your customers and differentiate your brand pic.twitter.com/GEkYjWONgd

— Lou Paskalis 🇺🇸 (@LouPas) November 2, 2022

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and the Brand Safety Institute reviewed the results of this year’s brand safety consumer survey

“Consumers clearly see the value to high-quality, ad-supported journalism, and they prioritize funding for those news-gathering operations over any risk of ad misplacement with sensitive or controversial news-related content. This is good news for both advertisers and publishers, who can protect ad-funded journalism and the large audiences who follow it, while turning their attention to other complicated brand suitability issues.” Mike Zaneis, CEO, Trustworthy Accountability Group and Co-Founder, BSI

TAG also announced the launch of the TAG “Certified for Transparency” Seal, a new global standard for responsible transparency practices that will give ad buyers and their partners increased visibility into the details of their digital advertising campaigns

“Transparency and trust have forever been the backbones of sustainable business, and in the last years of programmatic advertising, the growing complexity of its ecosystem has made it harder to provide a clear picture,” Ander Lopez Ochoa, @JNJNews 👉https://t.co/EuAzsnRsyX pic.twitter.com/jlxrwK001N

— Trustworthy Accountability Group (@tag_today) November 3, 2022

Brand Safety Master Classes

BSI and GARM offered a series of Brand Safety Master Classes featuring experts on a range of brand safety and suitability topics:

• Brand Safety as A Pivot in Brand Media Leadership
• Piecing Together Government Regulation + Industry Self-Regulation
• Navigating News in the Age of Partisanship and Misinformation
• Metaverse: A look at what the space holds for digital safety

Thanks Rob Rakowitz, GARM, and the Brand Safety community for the opportunity this week to present the challenges to journalism in the United States and some solutions that help fund the REAL-information news providers that serve our diverse communities. #brandsafetyweek pic.twitter.com/n9ijFZpoht

— Scott Cunningham (@CunninghamST) November 4, 2022

To learn more about our upcoming Brand Safety Master Classes, email info@brandsafetyinstitute.com

Brand Safety Summit

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Catch the Brand Safety Week New York sessions on-demand now!.

Finally, our Brand Safety Summit was standing-room-only for the in-person audience who came to hear leaders in our space provide important updates and perspectives about their individual and collective efforts. Here’s a quick rundown of the sessions and key takeaways:

Our full day of programming started with a special Brand Safety Boot Camp, created in partnership with WFA’s GARM

Excited to see so many marketers and agencies at the Brand Safety Bootcamp this morning!

@_brand_safety⁩ pic.twitter.com/No1wCnJUSH

— Erica DeLorenzo (@thebrassring) November 3, 2022

To learn more about our upcoming Brand Safety & Suitability Boot Camps, email info@brandsafetyinstitute.com

Through the rest of the day, panels explored the latest issues facing the brand safety professional:

• TikTok Runs in the Family: Empowering Teens and Parents to Thrive in An Ever-Evolving Digital World
  • Tracy Elizabeth - TikTok
  • Carrie Neill - National PTA
• Brand Suitability in the Age of Misinformation
  • Christopher Murphy - Zefr
  • Elijah Harris - MAGNA
• Supporting Teens: Designing with Well-being and Safety in Mind
  • Samantha Stetson - Meta
  • Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble - The AAKOMA Project
  • Vaishnavi J - Meta
• Preserving the Democratic Internet: Avoiding Inherent Bias in Digital at the Intersection of Conscious Marketing and Performance Marketing
  • Alyssa Boyle - AdExchanger
  • Karan Dalal - Media.net
  • Wendi Dunlap - Kinesso
  • BetMcLeod - H&R Block
• Driving Quality and Performance on CTV
  • Deva Bronson - dentsu
  • Gian LaVecchia - DoubleVerify
  • Jack Smith - DoubleVerifDavid Roter - Snap
• Safe & Sound: How Spotify Is Raising the Bar on Audio Brand Safety
  • Dave Byrne - Spotify
• A North Star for Brand Safety Is Paramount
  • Susan Schiekofer - GroupM U.S.
  • Rob Rasko - Brand Safety Summit Series
• Progress and Promise: Raising the Brand Safety Bar
  • Mike Zaneis - TAG
  • Tim Brown - Fiducia
  • Rachel Nyswander Thomas - TAG
  • Scott Cunningham - Cunningham.tech
• The Future Is Live: Leveling Up Brand Safety at Twitch
  • Olga O'Donnell - Twitch
  • Joshua Lowcock - UM Worldwide
• Building a More Privacy-Centric Ecosystem
  • Drew Stein - Audigent
• Is Pre-Bid a Mistake?
  • Yale Cohen - Publicis Media
  • Tom Burns - Publicis Media
• Moments Matter: Risk, Opportunity and the Speed of Culture
  • Adam Katz - Sightly
  • Rob Rasko - Brand Safety Summit Series
• Media Leadership and Brand Safety: Individual Responsibility and Industry-Wide Collaboration: A Look Back at the Creation of GARM from Unilever and What is Next in Store for the Industry
  • Rob Rakowitz - GARM
  • Luis Di Como - Unilever
• Agency Perceptions of Suitability in the Age of CTV
  • Brian Quinn - Pixability

The keynote address was by George Resch, aka Tank Sinatra, on How Influencer King of Memes Tank Sinatra Delivers for His Brand Clients".

King of Memes and influencer Tank Sinatra's @GeorgeResch advice to brands: The most important thing to remember when creating content is to be current and not be afraid to use humor. The right content will emerge if a brand can get out of its own way. pic.twitter.com/fG8qJ8nHnJ

— Brand Safety Summit Series (@_brand_safety) November 3, 2022

When creating his own content, Tank keeps brand safety and suitability in mind because he knows how important it is to his business.