ISBA and the IPA have given real-time advertising company Quantcast independent verification for its brand safety policies under the Brand Safety Initiative.
The verification confirms that Quantcast’s systems and policies prevent ads from appearing within unsuitable or damaging contexts and is being described as an important milestone in offering safeguards for advertisers.
Last month Facebook was heavily criticised after it relaxed rules concerning offensive and upsetting material. As a result, a video showing a human decapitation appeared without warning, upsetting users, parents and advertisers sharing the page space.
ISBA’s director of media and advertising, Bob Wootton, lambasted the social media platform for continuing to “antagonise advertisers by directly refusing to give them safe passage on their channel.”
Facebook, which eventually bowed to public pressure and changed its rules back, has also served as warning to other online platforms Wootton has argued.
“Almost the entirety of Facebook’s revenues comes from advertising in some form or other,” Wootton said. “That means the company’s valuation is critically dependent on advertising revenues and prospects.
“In this context, advertiser skittishness is something that should be avoided at all costs. The online social players should grasp this before it’s too late, and the newcomers should learn from their elders’ mistakes lest they too fall foul of it.”
Phil Macauley, European managing director at Quantcast said that brand safety now has to be a priority in the new age of buying digital advertising.
“Protecting our client’s brands has and always will be of utmost importance to us and this Brand Safety initiative highlights the effort we have put into ensuring safe environments for them,” he said.
