Brand Safety Playbook a Guide to Defending Brands and Consumers Contents

Brand Safety Playbook A Guide to Defending Brands and Consumers Contents

Overview • 3

Getting Started • 5 About Your Brand Safety

Playbook Partners • 6 The 4A’s and the Advertiser Protection Bureau • 6 Trustworthy Accountability Group • 8 The Brand Safety Institute • 8 IAB Tech Lab • 9 The Playbook: How to Address

Core Brand Safety Issues • 10 How to Systematically

Address Brand Safety • 11 1. Establish Brand Safety and Suitability Profile • 11 2. Implementation—Structuring Buys and Terms • 12 3. Managing Accountability • 12 4. Evaluating, Optimizing, and Replanning • 13 5. Ongoing Brand Safety Activities • 13

Brand Safety into the Future • 14 Appendix:

Sources and References • 15 Reports • 15 Articles • 15 Press releases • 16 Websites • 16

PHOTO BY NICOLA RICCA ON UNSPLASH Brand Safety Playbook • 2 Overview

The topic of brand safety is a key issue on adjacencies, and debates about the proper consumer permissions to acti- everyone’s minds. vate targeted messaging. In the last couple of years, we have been witness to “Brand safety” can hold various mean- many incidents that have caused brands and consumer ings to different constituents and their roles in the advertising ecosystem, to pause and question what they are seeing online but generally, the term covers a broad and why. Our industry headlines have been littered range including fraud, piracy, malware, with stories citing fraud and piracy, untenable ad contextual brand safety occurrences, and issues related to consumer pri- vacy and preferences and appropriate consent. (Some also see viewability, shielding marketers from non-viewable exposures, as a brand safety measure, With all marketers, it is simply a but this document does not cover the maturation process. I believe every topic in any detail.) marketer will arrive at the same Numerous efforts and initiatives conclusion that we reached, which have been created within the indus- is Brand Safety is everything. try—crossing advertisers, agencies, If marketers get this wrong, platforms and publishers, ad tech, everyone loses. Brand Safety is a and the industry associations. Each task which is never over, because effort addresses a specific area or it’s dynamic and multifaceted. a range of issues associated with these forms of brand safety. While As such, you need to build an some specific initiatives have made infrastructure that ensures that a huge impact, we as an industry you’re able to respond immediately need to support those initiatives that when something new happens. deliver meaningful progress at scale and provide a more comprehensive —Lou Paskalis, SVP, approach for the industry to undertake Enterprise Customer Engagement, and Investment Executive, Bank of America

FROM DEFINING BRAND SAFETY: EXECUTION CHALLENGES, FROM TAG AND BSI

Brand Safety Playbook • 3 to keep both brands and consumers This Brand Safety Playbook is here safe. Brand safety should be regarded to help you know how to reduce as a continuous effort across fraud, your overall risk profile in the digital piracy, malware, and content adja- landscape, saving you precious time cencies—at a minimum—to deliver a on these specific issues and, more higher level of advertising assurance importantly, allowing you to focus on in the ecosystem. executional excellence and building of brand response and brand equity. Before going further, you might ask, why continuous? This playbook focuses on the steps advertisers and agencies can take Many forms of fraud and piracy are from the buy side of business and driven by criminals who use the digital encourages the sell side of the supply chain to trick consumers into industry to help close the gap on interactions that earn those criminals brand-safety occurrences. Participa- money. Criminals can then use that Many forms of tion by all players in the industry is money to fund illicit activities around critical to addressing brand protec- fraud and piracy are the world—many of them violations tion at every stage of a campaign. driven by criminals of human rights and personal safety, who use the digital if not plainly offensive content: bad Together, we are better and stronger. supply chain to for people, and bad for business. trick consumers Brand safety is an industry endeavor. into interactions Because bad actors will always find that earn those ways to game the system, we must criminals money. all be vigilant in our quest to manage brand safety as stringently as we can. For more information, see The Hunt for 3ve, published by White Ops, about the discovery of a pervasive malware attack.

Brand Safety Playbook • 4 Getting Started

Now that we have set the industry goal for brand panacea, a set of focused activities can help keep you above the fray. safety, let’s delve into the steps you can take to increase your goal of brand safety at various points This is why the 4A’s has partnered with the Trustworthy Accountabil- in the digital campaign process. At key points in your ity Group (TAG), the Brand Safety campaign activation processes, you can trigger Institute (BSI), and the Interactive Tech Lab actions to manage brand safety. While there is no Advertising Bureau (IAB) to bring you this industry playbook on brand safety. Although together, these entities can’t solve for all your brand safety needs, each partner provides significant steps for managing brand safety in your campaigns. You will need to add a Media Rating Coun- cil (MRC) Accredited Ad Verification vendor to your mix of solutions, in addition to the whitelists, blacklists, and other methods and layers of assurance you will use to maximize safety across your campaigns for brands and for consumers.

RAWPIXEL.COM Brand Safety Playbook • 5 About Your Brand Safety Playbook Partners

suicides, gang violence, sexually The 4A’s and the explicit content, and racist opinion Advertiser Protection and comments: completely inappro- Bureau (APB) priate for any advertiser. The time and effort invested in For more than 100 years, the 4A’s has detecting, reporting, addressing, addressed the needs of an evolving and preventing these types of advertising industry. Today, we work adjacencies is enormous, distracting across the industry ecosystem to from the core remit of brand mes- provide guidance and support to our saging and building. Several studies more than 600 member agencies on over the last year indicate that nearly myriad issues impacting agencies and 70% of consumers respond nega- the work they do on behalf of their cli- tively to brands when they appear ents and their hard-earned marketing next to questionable content, and media budgets. driving down the brands’ likability In the last year, we have seen and intent (as shown in the Hearts & contextual brand safety issues play out Science chart below). Some consum- on a very public stage. Marketer ads ers believe brands have made the have appeared adjacent to con- conscious choice to be adjacent tent and videos featuring terrorism, to inappropriate content, suggest-

When ads appear next to offensive, hateful, or deragotary content:

OMG Rise, The Unreachables Study, Q3 2017, published by Hearts & Science 64% 70% say the brand will not like, recommend, or risks tarnishing purchase the brand if it its reputation appears around such content

Brand Safety Playbook • 6 ing a misperception that these adjacencies that are never appropriate adjacencies are in line with brand for advertisers (while acknowledging and company values. Not good for that in some cases, based on the brands, and not good for people. treatment and/or delivery context of (For additional perspective, see the the content, such as a news story or We are delighted to Edelman Trust Barometer or Magna/ documentary, risky content could be bring together IPG MediaLab/Cheq’s study The appropriate to a brand and its values). Brand Safety Effect.) key industry resources This outline led to the development to provide a This is why the 4A’s created the of the Brand Suitability Framework, more comprehensive Advertiser Protection Bureau (APB). applying perceived levels of risk in the This idea surfaced in 2018 at our treatment of content within the dozen approach to industry brand-safety discussion, The content categories. In lieu of specific brand safety. Advertising Assurance Forum, when digital buying guidelines, agencies one member said, “When I’m doing can use this framework as a tool to As the digitization brand-safety checks for my brands, I work with advertisers and publishers/ of media continues see other brands that I know shouldn’t platforms to discuss which content to grow in different be there too. Is there a way I can pick may or may not be right for any up a phone or send an email to tell brand, by category. Each publisher/ exciting directions, the other agency to get their brands platform does not conform directly to so will our need to out of there?” The APB was born in this framework, but most have ways to protect brands and this moment. align to the intent of the document. consumers from bad Since then, the APB has been shar- This is a big step forward in getting actors. This Playbook ing brand-safety issues to get its the industry on the same page—and represents a base- clients away from unsafe content and it’s a start for better contextual brand line on which we will meeting with sellers of media and safety. Our perspectives and capabili- build upon in technology companies that aspire to ties will grow over time. address various brand safety issues. the coming months The APB views these frameworks as In the summer of 2018, the APB and years. living documents that can be revisited decided to partner with the MRC to and refined over time. Moving for- —Louis Jones, draft the Supplemental Guidance on ward, the APB will continue to work 4A’s EVP–Media + Data Content Level Context and Brand with the industry at large to make sure . This guidance Safety Ad Verification there are appropriate approaches was meant to set a brand safety for advertiser-friendly monetization on floor for the industry and raise the content across the web. brand safety standards on con- tent-level adjacencies. You can find theBrand Safety Floor and the Brand Suitability Starting with IAB Tech Lab’s Content Framework here. Taxonomy, the APB and the MRC quickly fixed upon the dozen com- monly agreed-upon high-caution areas for content. This group quickly outlined what editorial treatment of content in these buckets constituted

Brand Safety Playbook • 7 reduced ad revenue for sites that Trustworthy promote brand and content piracy by Accountability Group between 48% and 61%. (Find the here.) The Trustworthy Accountability Group TAG Fraud Benchmark Study (TAG) is the leading global certifica- Most recently, TAG has been part- The 4As and the tion program fighting criminal activity nering with the Brand Safety Institute APB have and increasing trust in the digital (BSI) to release a series of joint white demonstrated great advertising industry. Created in 2014 papers to define, quantify, and high- leadership in by the industry’s top trade organiza- light opportunities and challenges developing this tions, including the 4As, Association around brand safety. The BSI was of National Advertisers (ANA) and founded in 2018 to support education playbook. IAB, TAG is a cross-industry self-regu- on and the practice of brand safety in latory program. Its mission is to the digital advertising supply chain. It provides clear, Through a program of research, edu- • eliminate fraudulent traffic implementable cation, and certification, the BSI offers steps for agencies • combat malware knowledge, tools, best practices, and to help protect their • prevent internet piracy a community of peers to the individ- uals charged with championing the clients, such as • promote greater transparency in cause of brand safety. leveraging TAG’s digital advertising. anti-fraud certifica- TAG advances those initiatives by The Brand Safety tion program. And bringing together companies across Institute as an industry the digital advertising supply chain resource, it goes to set the highest standards. TAG The Brand Safety Institute is a dig- ital advertising industry initiative to much further in is also the first and only registered professionalize the work of brand helping to engage Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO) for the digital protection. Through its research, and educate advertising industry. education, and certification programs, everyone from the BSI gives ad industry executives marketers across to TAG’s programs are proven to the expertise and skills they need to increase brand safety. Research con- publishers. I look minimize brand risks and capitalize ducted by the 614 Group measuring forward to putting on brand opportunities in the digital the effectiveness of TAG’s Certified advertising supply chain. Through these words to Against Fraud Program found that the its Brand Safety Officer certification action as we come use of TAG Certified distribution chan- program, the BSI helps leaders set the together to nels for digital advertising reduced highest standards for brand protec- advance the cause the level of fraud in the U.S. to 1.48%, tion, learn new and emerging best of brand safety. an 83% reduction over industry aver- practices, and build an industry-wide ages. Use of TAG Certified channels community of brand safety peers. —Mike Zaneis, in European markets has also been President & CEO of TAG shown to reduce fraud rates to 0.53%, For more information on TAG, please from an industry average of 8.99%: a visit tagtoday.net. 94.1% reduction. A study measuring For more information on BSI, please the effect of TAG’s Certified Against visit brandsafetyinstitute.com. Piracy Program and performed by EY found that anti-piracy steps taken by the digital advertising industry have

Brand Safety Playbook • 8 anti-fraud specification, Open Mea- IAB Tech Lab surement SDK for viewability and The IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech verification, VAST video specification, Lab) was established in 2014 as an and DigiTrust identity service. independent non-profit organiza- Tech Lab Board member companies tion, taking on oversight of technical are represented from across the digital standards previously developed within supply chain. IAB (U.S.). Since then, Tech Lab has been engaging a member community IAB Tech Lab is headquartered in New It was important for globally to develop a growing and York City with staff in San Francisco, us to contribute to increasingly valuable portfolio of foun- Seattle, and London. Learn more at this Playbook, given dational technology and standards iabtechlab.com. the central role of that enable growth and trust in the agencies in ensuring digital media ecosystem. brand safety Comprised of digital publishers, ad for their clients. technology firms, agencies, marketers, and other member companies, Tech There are real tools Lab focuses on improving the digital advertising supply chain, measure- available now to ment, and consumer experiences, help buyers, while promoting responsible use of including several in data. Its work includes the OpenRTB Tech Lab’s real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt portfolio: ads.txt for sourcing authentic supply, taxonomies to match or avoid IAB Tech Lab: Guiding Themes content and advertised products, Brand & Media Growth Data Label for insight into Ad Fraud and Identity, Data & Ad Experiences & audience data, and Brand Safety Consumer Privacy Measurement Open Measurement for verification. The Programmatic Efficiency & Transparency Playbook highlights these and other practical ways • Transparent, safe, effective supply chain for agencies to meet • Scalable & more consistent measurement their clients’ brand • Higher-quality consumer advertising experiences safety needs today. …all supported by responsible use of data —Dennis Buchheim, SVP and GM of IAB Tech Lab

Brand Safety Playbook • 9 The Playbook: How to Address Core Brand Safety Issues

Now that you know more about the 4A’s/APB, Together we offer a solid and strong start into the safe deployment of TAG/BSI, and IAB Tech Lab, let’s take a closer look at digital advertising across the range of how we complement each other and provide a baseline planning/buying to implementation level of brand safety in your campaign logistics. to optimization and replanning. As we consider how to use each of the brand-safe approaches developed by these organizations, we think it most useful to set them within the context of the life of a campaign.

DEFINING BRAND SAFETY REPORT

Brand Implement Safety Buy/Terms Profile

Evaluate Manage Optimize Accountability Replan

Brand Safety Playbook • 10 How to Systematically Address Brand Safety

1. Establish Brand • Provide all publishers and cam- 1 paign partners with a clear outline of brand safety and suitability 2 Safety and Suitability guidelines for every media plan 3 Profile 4 e. Identify an internal point person for 5 a. Have a clear sense of communica- brand safety issues, and consider tion goals (i.e., reach and frequency/ appointing a Brand Safety Officer effective frequency dynamics neces- to oversee such activities sary to drive campaign KPIs) • Brand Safety Officers can be offi- b. Commit to the Brand Safety Floor cially certified by the BSI to ensure • See MRC-supported APB Brand they have appropriate training Safety Floor for Content here and are part of the broader brand safety community c. Determine Brand Suitability Guidelines f. Determine your Brand Safety • Consider campaign and brand Response Process goals to factor risk vs. scale when • How will you notify agency establishing these guidelines and team members? determine appetite for risk to • Who will reach out to the determine suitability guidelines media owners? • Use the APB Brand Suitability • Which details (scope/scale) do you Framework as a tool for assessing need to communicate incidents to risk tolerance for content—agen- clients and brand response (i.e., cies, advertisers, and publishers/ stop, pause, continue with caution)? platforms (and ad verification part- ners, where appropriate) should • How are media owners/suppliers complete an exercise to deter- re-evaluated moving forward? mine appropriate content settings • What are the follow-ups • It can also be helpful to know required internally, with clients and the IAB Tech Lab Content Tax- media owners? onomy and use tools to assess • What preventative measures safety and relevance of contex- need to be addressed, upgraded, tual categories or tightened? d. Draft Buy Guidelines inclusive of brand safety and suitability decisions

RAWPIXEL.COM Brand Safety Playbook • 11 as well as specifics surrounding blocked impressions vs. flagged impressions

e. Identify requirements for placement of fourth-party technology tags and terms for non-compliance (tag- ging hierarchy)

f. For programmatic buys, establish buy to adhere to brand safety settings: • Use DSP plug-ins or settings, and be cognizant of IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy in Open RTB 2. Implementation— requests, including the URL of the page where the impression Structuring Buys and occurred (for browser content) Terms • Use ads.txt (browser-based inven- tory) and (mobile app a. Know whether your partners are app-ads.txt TAG Certified, and where possible, inventory) to select and prioritize prioritize TAG Certified Channels authorized sellers in the ecosystem for placing buys • Manage inclusion (i.e., white lists and exclusion lists) accordingly. b. Be familiar with consumer consent/ Remember to review and update privacy requirements (e.g., General blacklists constantly. Be consistent Data Protection Regulation, CCPA) that apply to you and all of your with your content taxonomy vendors and suppliers, and take • When accessing data as part of advantage of relevant tools and your buys, prioritize reviewed data frameworks, such as the Transpar- sources at www.datalabel.org that ency & Consent Framework and are consistent with the IAB Tech The GDPR: What United States Lab Audience Taxonomy and Agencies Need to Know come with verified data definitions and statistics c. Ensure payment terms established with every vendor include specifics regarding payment (or non-pay- 3. Managing ment) for identified brand safety Accountability violations and brand suitability Select an MRC Accredited ad veri- guidelines (as well as fraud, view- a. fication vendor to track and govern ability, etc.) brand safety, invalid traffic, view- d. Include terms surrounding use of ability, etc. fourth-party ad verification tags (the Apply brand safety settings within leading ad verification vendors: b. fourth-party technology. Create DoubleVerify, Integral Ad pre-bid filters and post-bid block- Science, and Oracle Data Cloud) ing protocols for identification of violations,

RAWPIXEL.COM Brand Safety Playbook • 12 c. Understand verification technology acceptance by publishers 4. Evaluating, • Identify publishers, site sections, Optimizing, and formats, or apps that will be Replanning able or unable to run verification a. Adjusting Programmatic buys technology as part of the planning process. As you can only manage • Adjust settings or inclusion/ risk where you can measure it, exclusion lists according to note: flagged media violations

• mobile in-app (open measure- b. Considerations when replanning: ment SDK streamlines viewability • History of repeated violations, and other measurement across difficult-to-manage sites and apps and verification vendors) suppliers, detected unsafe or • VAST 4.1 is the current video unsuitable content standard, but VPAID and older • Low acceptance of verification versions of VAST are still being technology used. Push publishers and vendors to upgrade to take • Issues resolving payment advantage of important new for violations capabilities that will benefit • TAG Certification status your campaigns • Reassess brand suitability d. Measurement and validation • Identify potential impacts to • Check reporting to ensure you’re performance, reach, and ROI receiving data as expected through suitability structure, • Identify and assess violations as well as historic issues, to determine if guidelines should • Alert publishers and partners to be adjusted violations (or provide access to reporting) and resolve 5. Ongoing Brand • Ensure partners deliver make- goods for unapproved violations Safety Activities a. Reassessment of brand suitability • Adjust buy accordingly parameters as needed Enforce payment terms e. b. Staying current on technology ver- • Ensure that violations have been sioning (VAST 4.1, which succeeds flagged and adjusted so billing VPAID and VAST 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0) matches payment terms c. TAG Compliance Officer training d. Brand Safety Institute participation e. Prioritize accredited or certified channels/providers/protocols

Brand Safety Playbook • 13 Brand Safety into the Future

Congratulations! You are well on your way Together, we can beat bad actors at their game, ensuring that our brands to effectively managing a great deal within the thrive in the digital ecosystem, and realm of brand safety. our consumers experience the inter- net the way we always intended them While the steps outlined above go a to. By following this playbook and long way in protecting both brands staying up to date, we can deliver a and consumers, you should know that better consumer experience. Good your work is never done. Always look for brands, and good for consumers! for new technologies and processes Good luck! that can improve upon what you are doing today. As mentioned at the top of this play- book, the bad actors who create the tension in the ecosystem will never rest—and that means we cannot either. As new technologies emerge, and new barriers are levied, they will be sure to Podcast seek ways around our defenses. As the advertising industry, we must Learn more about the fight against remain vigilant and continue to ad fraud with a 4A’s podcast: “Ad be creative in closing off access to Assurance, The Next Chapter: inventory and campaigns to protect Understanding Fraud,” recorded at the reputation of our brands and 4A’s Decisions 20/20 conference in the safety of the very consumers we March 2019, moderated by Louis touch day in and day out. For all the Jones and featuring Michael Tiffany, resources laid out in this document, co-founder and president of White know that there will be constant Ops, and Abrahim Farraj, manager of updates, new protocols, and better creative content protection at NBC versions of all the tools over time— Universal. Stream or download the you must stay up to date. episode here.

Brand Safety Playbook • 14 Appendix: Sources and References

Reports 4A’s Advertising Assurance Brand Safety Floor Framework https://www.aaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/APB-Brand-Safety- Floor-Framework.pdf 4A’s Advertising Assurance Brand Suitability Framework https://www.aaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/APB-Brand- Suitability-Framework.pdf 4A’s The GDPR: What United States Agencies Need to Know https://www.aaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/4As_Venable_GDPR_ Primer_2017.pdf The Brand Safety Effect: How unsafe ad placement impacts consumer brand perception https://magnaglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Brand-Safety- Effect-CHEQ-Magna-IPG-Media-Lab-BMW-Logo-101018.pdf MRC Supplement to IAB Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification: Enhanced Content Level Context and Brand Safety https://www.aaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/MRC-Ad- Verification-Supplement-Enhanced-Content-Level-Context-and- Brand-Safety-Final.pdf TAG Fraud Benchmark Study https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2848641/Tag2018fraudbenchmarkstudy.pdf

Articles Adweek: “4A’s and Holding Companies Executives Form Advertiser Protection Bureau to Tackle Brand Safety: Marla Kaplowitz announced the formation of APB in Accelerate,” by Erik Oster, April 10, 2018 https://www.adweek.com/agencies/4as-and-holding-companies- executives-form-advertiser-protection-bureau-to-tackle-brand-safety/ Adweek: “What’s the State of Brand Safety in 2018? Marketers and publishers strive to make digital media safe for advertising,” by Kelsey Sutton, July 23, 2018 https://www.adweek.com/digital/whats-the-state-of-brand-safety-in-2018/

Brand Safety Playbook • 15 Press releases 4A’s Advertiser Protection Bureau Delivers Brand Suitability Framework and Brand Safety Floor In Move to Help Advertisers Assess Risk (September 20, 2018) https://www.aaaa.org/4as-advertiser-protection-bureau-delivers-brand-suit- ability-framework-and-brand-safety-floor-in-move-to-help-advertisers-assess- risk/ IAB Tech Lab: Final Version of app-ads.txt Ready for Adoption to Fight Inventory Fraud in Mobile Apps And OTT (March 13, 2019) https://iabtechlab.com/blog/final-version-of-app-ads-txt-ready-for-adoption- to-fight-inventory-fraud-in-mobile-apps-and-ott/ IAB Tech Lab Releases VAST 4.1 for Public Comment (June 14, 2018) https://iabtechlab.com/press-releases/iab-tech-lab-releases-vast-4-1-for- public-comment/

Websites Brand Safety Institute https://www.brandsafetyinstitute.com/ DoubleVerify https://www.doubleverify.com/ Edelman Trust Barometer https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer IAB Tech Lab https://iabtechlab.com/ • ads.txt Aggregator https://iabtechlab.com/ads-txt/ads-txt-aggregator/ • Content Taxonomy https://iabtechlab.com/standards/content-taxonomy/

• Data Transparency Standards https://iabtechlab.com/standards/data-transparency/ • Open Measurement SDK https://iabtechlab.com/standards/open-measurement-sdk/ Integral Ad Science https://integralads.com/ Oracle Data Cloud https://cloud.oracle.com/data-cloud Trustworthy Accountability Group https://www.tagtoday.net/platinum-members White Ops: The Hunt for 3VE https://www.whiteops.com/3ve

Brand Safety Playbook • 16