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In 2022, Twitter (now X) informed advertisers that their ads on the social network had been running on profiles that solicited child sex abuse materials.

After the notification, Dyson, Mazda, Forbes, and PBS Kids, among other brands, suspended their marketing campaigns and removed their ads from the platform. And although Twitter took measures to ban offending profiles, damage to the affected brands' reputations had already been done.

Brands take chances when advertising on social media platforms and influencer channels that feature a wealth of user-generated content (UGC).

Without proper policies and controls, companies risk destroying their carefully crafted reputations. With appropriate procedures and robust brand safety and suitability (BSS) guidelines, however, brands can safeguard their reputation and bottom line.

The Importance of BSS in Digital Marketing

A brand's reputation can be drastically affected by where its ads are shown, whether on a specific social media platform, such as Facebook or TikTok, or a video streaming platform, such as YouTube or Netflix.

Association with harmful or sensitive content may create a negative perception of the brand. And that is where BSS makes a difference:

  • Brand safety refers to protecting a brand's reputation and keeping it from appearing in unsafe environments. For instance, if a company posts ads on platforms that feature inappropriate (such as racist, sexist, or otherwise insensitive) content, it could damage its reputation. In addition to not wanting their ads to run alongside content that promotes illegal activities or spreads misinformation, most brands don't want to monetize harmful content through ad revenue.
  • Brand suitability refers to assessing the risk level of sensitive content and making informed choices to balance the brand's reach, goals, and values; to target customer segments; and to maximize brand positioning. It also refers to prioritizing content that matches all or some of those factors, and it differs for each brand.

B2B businesses need transparency and controls to safeguard brand reputation across platforms. One way to ensure brand safety is to vet potential advertising platforms and influencers to determine whether their typical content aligns with a brand's values and goals.

It is imperative for companies to build strategies to evaluate content risk levels and policies to inform their marketing teams on where to run their ads while tracking the effectiveness of their policies.

Influencer Marketing and UGC

Influencer marketing is gaining popularity in the B2B marketplace, and fully 94% of B2B marketers cite it as a successful strategy.

This type of marketing can come with a high rate of return, but without proper controls it can place a company's reputation in danger. Therefore, it's essential for B2B enterprises to communicate BSS policies and contractual guidelines clearly with influencer marketing partners.

In addition, it's important to vet influencers and thoroughly analyze their past content and audience interactions. Companies can also enact an approval process before any content goes live.

Considering that 86% of consumers say they are more likely to trust a brand that features content from real-life customers over influencers, UGC, including images, videos, and social media posts, is gaining traction in the B2B space.

Yet, moderating UGC is challenging because of the scale and diversity of the creative output.

The complexity of scanning and analyzing materials for BSS across various platforms, such as X, TikTok, and YouTube Live, has grown exponentially. Live UGC requires substantial time and resources to evaluate the content in real-time.

Another piece of the puzzle is misinformation. Using AI, fraudsters can create political deepfakes and other disinformation, which can be especially tricky to detect at scale. Some tools, such as TrueMedia.org, use AI to identify political deepfakes.

Solutions: BSS Framework, Strategy, and Tools

Strategic practices and consistent policies help companies ensure brand safety and suitability.

Until recently, the industry has been using the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) framework to define and address risk levels (low, medium, high) across standard content categories for brand safety (such as hate speech, violence, explicit sexual content, and misinformation) and suitability (profanity, drug use, spam).

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How to Safeguard Brand Reputation in an Increasingly Risky Digital Landscape

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Janak Bhawnani

Janak Bhawnani is the director of product management at Amazon's Twitch Interactive, where he leads a team that develops monetization and advertising solutions for one of the largest livestreaming platforms. He has 15+ years of experience in product management and technology.

LinkedIn: Janak Bhawnani