Unproven Brand Suitability Tools Threaten Advertiser Confidence in News

The best way to drive greater investment with news publishers is to give advertisers complete confidence in their ability to engage with news content at scale while ensuring their suitability preferences are accounted for. Classification approaches that are accurate, consistent, policy-driven and aligned well with the expectations of advertisers and the broader industry are the foundation on which buyer trust and confidence are built. Classifications that are not widely supported or validated by the advertiser community, however, run a very real risk of alienating advertisers and jeopardizing revenue for news publishers as a result. Spearheaded by our News Accelerator initiative, DV continues to invest in classification innovations and product enhancements that give advertisers greater granularity, flexibility and control over their brand suitability settings. These changes are empowering advertisers to grow their investment with news publishers and capitalize effectively on the brand-building opportunities news audiences present. But elsewhere, a new set of unproven brand suitability vendors appears to be misclassifying news content in a way that could undermine advertisers’ ability to invest confidently in news. DV’s research suggests that tools provided by these new-to-market vendors could be routinely misclassifying certain content of news publishers’ as “low risk,” which is not aligned broadly with advertisers’ expectations for their brand suitability settings on certain campaigns.