From YouTube's brand safety crisis to lack of relevance: is Peppa Pig a bigger threat than ISIS?
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 9:36 am
YouTube has recently faced one of its biggest crises. Some advertisers began reporting that their ads were appearing next to videos containing violent content or related to religious extremism.
Google's video platform has had to launch a complete overhaul of its policies, giving advertisers greater control over where their messages appear. A problem that has only increased fears about the lack of brand safety we face.
Brand safety concerns are growing for advertisers returning to YouTube (or those advertising on the network of networks). How can they be sure their ads won't appear on Islamic State videos again?
An issue that has made us go one step further. Videos with violent content, related to terrorist groups or that promote hatred are just the tip of the iceberg. The automation of advertising on the Internet places us before the great challenge of relevance.
For example, what about ads that are not targeted at children but appear in content intended for younger children?
YouTube is the leading platform for consuming videos globally. And video is positioned bahrain phone number as one of the most attractive formats for capturing the increasingly distracted attention of users.
After the boycott against Google with which we opened this news, all the advertisers who supported it have returned to YouTube. Including the most critical ones such as Johnson & Johnson or Nestlé . And the reason is none other than that they prefer to take a chance with the lottery of algorithms and programmatic buying rather than lose the diffusion that the giant offers.
We find names like Walmart or Procter & Gamble that continue to avoid YouTube.
With this photo in hand, we are aware that brand safety is only the beginning. YouTube's big problem is the lack of relevance . A situation that derives from the first by placing inventory in inappropriate places that have nothing to do with the audience.
A situation that has been analyzed in Ad Age by Andrew Serby, marketing director of Zefr, focusing on the analysis and orientation of video placements on YouTube.
He explains that more often than not, alcohol adverts appear in videos whose audience is not the target audience. He gives as an example the appearance of these adverts in videos about Peppa Pig or Minecraft.
“We have seen campaigns targeting 25-year-old men or 35-year-old women who have appeared in Peppa Pig videos due to algorithm errors ,” she explains, pointing out that younger children do not usually skip the ads and end up watching them.
“It’s a difficult and cumbersome task to set something up inside Google. These things happen because it’s becoming more of a media company and its goal is to sell as many ads as possible,” explains John Snyder, CEO of Grapeshot.
He explains that Google has the tools in place, but they are not being used in the way they should be. The company has its own custom capabilities when it comes to buying keywords and systems to place ads exactly where marketers want them.
A formula that is completed with the announcement by the search giant of the implementation of brand safety reports in its third-party audience verification system.
This brings us to a worrying point: who watches the watchers? At the moment we are witnessing how more and more advertisers are joining the Google Preferred program . A platform that allows them to buy categories in premium channels to place their advertising in seemingly safe spaces.
Google's video platform has had to launch a complete overhaul of its policies, giving advertisers greater control over where their messages appear. A problem that has only increased fears about the lack of brand safety we face.
Brand safety concerns are growing for advertisers returning to YouTube (or those advertising on the network of networks). How can they be sure their ads won't appear on Islamic State videos again?
An issue that has made us go one step further. Videos with violent content, related to terrorist groups or that promote hatred are just the tip of the iceberg. The automation of advertising on the Internet places us before the great challenge of relevance.
For example, what about ads that are not targeted at children but appear in content intended for younger children?
YouTube is the leading platform for consuming videos globally. And video is positioned bahrain phone number as one of the most attractive formats for capturing the increasingly distracted attention of users.
After the boycott against Google with which we opened this news, all the advertisers who supported it have returned to YouTube. Including the most critical ones such as Johnson & Johnson or Nestlé . And the reason is none other than that they prefer to take a chance with the lottery of algorithms and programmatic buying rather than lose the diffusion that the giant offers.
We find names like Walmart or Procter & Gamble that continue to avoid YouTube.
With this photo in hand, we are aware that brand safety is only the beginning. YouTube's big problem is the lack of relevance . A situation that derives from the first by placing inventory in inappropriate places that have nothing to do with the audience.
A situation that has been analyzed in Ad Age by Andrew Serby, marketing director of Zefr, focusing on the analysis and orientation of video placements on YouTube.
He explains that more often than not, alcohol adverts appear in videos whose audience is not the target audience. He gives as an example the appearance of these adverts in videos about Peppa Pig or Minecraft.
“We have seen campaigns targeting 25-year-old men or 35-year-old women who have appeared in Peppa Pig videos due to algorithm errors ,” she explains, pointing out that younger children do not usually skip the ads and end up watching them.
“It’s a difficult and cumbersome task to set something up inside Google. These things happen because it’s becoming more of a media company and its goal is to sell as many ads as possible,” explains John Snyder, CEO of Grapeshot.
He explains that Google has the tools in place, but they are not being used in the way they should be. The company has its own custom capabilities when it comes to buying keywords and systems to place ads exactly where marketers want them.
A formula that is completed with the announcement by the search giant of the implementation of brand safety reports in its third-party audience verification system.
This brings us to a worrying point: who watches the watchers? At the moment we are witnessing how more and more advertisers are joining the Google Preferred program . A platform that allows them to buy categories in premium channels to place their advertising in seemingly safe spaces.