News is Efficient, Effective, and Influential
News becomes ever more relevant to the brand safety discussion as the months go by.
“70% of people get their news from social media – you want to make sure you are there” says one marketer that is a firm believer in news.
Many buyers remarked that it is not about blocking news or avoiding the left or the right (“there are customers on both sides”), but more about how to achieve a balanced portfolio of inventory that is sufficiently in the middle of that spectrum, and valid.
Some advertisers have chosen to stay out of opinion shows and strongly politicized sites but have declared news as a right place to be for their brands. Many we talked to agreed, with an agency person chiming in that “more clients invest in news when they better understand [and can control for] the landscape... More news equals better performance”.
So, the big question before us becomes how to navigate the muddy and choppy waters to get to inventory and sources that are responsibly reported and based in fact.
With a little effort you can make news work for you and signal to diverse communities that you support fair and credible reporting on issues of concern to them. This act of solidarity may yield worthwhile dividends in connecting with customers. Agencies and marketers believe it takes getting well enough under the hood to really understand the topics, biases, factual strength, context, and sentiment around sensitive issues – all elements of data quantity, quality, clarity, and management. “It’s extra work, but it helps us to show up correctly.”
No set of technology and human reviewers can be completely foolproof, which is why brand safety is a daily effort. It comes down to how often and how thoroughly you are reviewing your brand safety strategy and its component parts. Beyond suitability factors, block lists, exclusion/inclusion lists, pre-bid strategies, post-bid and log file analysis, how do you ensure that the content you show up in is credible (even if it leans to one side or the other) as the conversations on the social landscape around these issues shift.
There are several news analysis sources in the marketplace to help you focus in on these aspects around news topics and their polarity. One source, supported by BSI, is the Local Media Consortium (LMC), which provides a curated list of news sourcesand brand safe categories to choose from. Other sources to help delineate appropriate news inventory-based brand requirements include:
Ad Fontes Media – Delivers a perceptual map/grid to chart your preferences.
The Trust Project – All participants subscribe to 8 Trust Factors.
NewsGuard – Gives ratings and reports on consistency of coverage.
Seekr – Sorts news sources based on reliability and political leaning.
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