Why advertisers are reconsidering keyword blocklists as brand safety approaches to hard news

Michael Weaver, senior vice president, business development and growth, Al Jazeera Media Network

Brand safety has become a perennial concern for marketing campaigns. Advertisers typically rely on a shortlist of third-party vendors to guarantee the brand safety of their investments, placing these technologies and companies in an increasingly powerful position. But at what cost?

The methods for measuring brand safety usually rely on keyword blocklists. But in an effort to keep the brand safe, these lists often paint with too broad a brush, algorithmically preventing advertisers from working with publishers that are responsible and deserving of media dollars. The resulting missed opportunities for brands and critical losses for the hard-hitting news organizations cut them off from the serious — and deep-pocketed — audiences they need to reach.

Advertisers must challenge themselves, their media buying partners and their brand safety vendors to create more targeted strategies that do not punish hard news if it is responsibly reported, written and published. To do that, they first need to understand the status quo. Then, they can devise new approaches to media buying that keep their brands safe without proscribing hard news or depriving themselves of premium audiences.

Keyword blocklists prevent advertisers from reaching engaged and diverse audiences

Keyword blocklists have rewarded soft content while penalizing socially important content dealing with complex and controversial topics, including hard news.

For example, keyword blocklists early in the pandemic prevented promotions from appearing alongside coronavirus-related content from hard news publications like CNBC, Bloomberg, The New York Times and Vox. Some of the content flagged included critical updates on what the public needed to know about the pandemic and recommendations for supporting struggling small businesses.

“There is no brand suitability problem for advertisers being adjacent to this content — in fact, quite the opposite,” Ryan Pauley, Chief Revenue Officer at Vox, wrote to CNBC at the time. “The fact that a high percentage of articles are being flagged as brand-unsafe across premium news outlets like the New York Times or Vox is a misapplication of generic ‘brand safety’ concerns.”

Misapplications of brand safety also create significant roadblocks for diverse, equitable and inclusive advertising and media owned by and featuring underrepresented groups.

For example, an agency that might want to prevent promotions for its clients from appearing alongside news stories about political protests could, through a keyword block, steer funding away from virtually all Black-owned media.

Under the current status quo, content dealing with current and, at times, controversial affairs faces an arduous road to ad monetization. The continued use of blocklists carries serious, negative ramifications for hard-hitting news organizations — especially those dealing with social and political issues affecting the underrepresented communities most advertisers claim to help.

What’s more, advertisers do themselves a great disservice under this approach. They stand to lose out on the dollars from the disproportionately affluent readers that engage with hard news stories.