WPP's media buying arm GroupM is partnering with OpenSlate to enhance brand safety on YouTube media buys.
OpenSlate is a social video analytics company that scores YouTube content for quality and brand safety, and provides advertisers with deep contextual insights. It maintains data about all ad-supported content on Google's video platform.
GroupM says it will provide its agencies with additional controls and content safeguards to support their YouTube media buys.
The solution will initially roll out in the US and UK with plans to adapt it to additional markets. AdNews has aproached GroupM to find out details about when it will roll out in Australia.
"Long gone are the days when advertisers could simply rely on reaching audiences in carefully curated programming environments," GroupM North America chief digital investment officer Susan Schiekofer says.
"Most brands today have scaled their advertising on digital platforms like YouTube, where most content is user-generated, but their needs for mature and safe ad products and environments persist.
"Although it is not possible to eliminate all risks in user-generated media, our clients’ hard-won brand reputations must be protected with the best efforts possible. We appreciate that Google is enabling our work with OpenSlate to provide our clients with better brand safety controls, and we believe it’s essential that all digital platforms carrying ad-supported user-generated content do the same."
GroupM says the solution will enhance brand safety in YouTube's reserved media, including Google Preferred, and in auction-based inventory bought through AdWords or DoubleClick Bid Manager.
The media agency holding group, which has MediaCom, Mindshare, MEC and Maxus among its media agencies in Australia, will be able to define the type of content that should be excluded from their YouTube media buys.
OpenSlate will also provide clients with contextual reporting that highlights exactly where their campaigns run and clients will be able to access these Google-supported services from OpenSlate for Google Preferred campaigns.
“Our initial focus is to use OpenSlate data to better ensure that GroupM’s ads run only in content that flexibly matches the brand safety parameters established by their clients,” OpenSlate CEO Mike Henry adds.
"Every client is unique and each has different brand values and tolerance for risk, which GroupM agencies can accommodate through their use of OpenSlate’s data and tools. Over time, more transparency about where ads are running on YouTube will strengthen the ecosystem and help advertisers better understand the role that YouTube content plays in campaign performance.”
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