Industry body ThinkNewsBrands is fighting back at what it calls myths about brand safety and advertising with news.
The body released a multi-study research showing no negative impact on a range of performance and brand perception measures from advertising in hard news.
Christian Juhl, the now former global CEO of GroupM, recently raised concerns about news when making a submission to the US House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee investigation.
The press was historically the main advertising driver but trust in news sites was at a low point, he said.
“Brands now generally disfavour advertising on news and politics websites,” he said.
Juhl claimed less than 5% of GroupM overall client advertising investments are allocated to news, and he claimed that was consistent across the industry.
“And only 1.28% of our clients’ ad spending is on online news sites,” he said.
“This is not only because brands prefer to avoid advertising alongside content related to war, scandal, and political division; it is also because they do not need to risk advertising in those environments to reach their total audience and because alternatives to news—such as sports and entertainment—generally provide better measurement, formats, and capabilities,” he said
However, ThinkNewsBrands says advertisers are sacrificing significant ROI and profit growth by avoiding news.
The report exposes a “brand suitability” myth that placing ads in news has a negative impact on advertising effectiveness and brand perception.
“The thinking around brand suitability has gotten completely out of hand and isn’t based on facts,” said the CEO for ThinkNewsBrands, Vanessa Lyons,
“Evidence strongly contradicts any suggestion that brands suffer from being placed in news content. The reality is the exact opposite.”
The report highlights research by NASDAQ-listed company Stagwell, involving 50,000 adults, which shows no negative impact from advertising in “hard news”.
The study found placing ads next to stories about conflict, inflation, politics or crime had no discernible difference on purchase intent, favourability or brand perception compared to placing ads next to sport or entertainment.
Across eight key brand metrics, including among others “purchase intent,” “trustworthiness” and “‘right values,” the average perception score difference between “hard” and “‘soft” news was 1.6%.
The ThinkNewsBrands report also includes research by Peter Field, which shows advertisers that avoid news sacrifice market share, pricing power (quality perception) and profit growth.
According to the Field research, brands that advertised on news platforms from 2018-2022 had an 88% higher profit and market share growth compared to those that did not.
Lyons said the global studies were supported by Australian data including ThinkNewsBrands own effectiveness research.
“Australian market studies show news media boosts campaign effectiveness and brand recall due its high trust, focus, and engagement attributes which is passed on to advertising,” she said.
“The evidence is clear. Not only are some advertisers avoiding news based on a myth, but they are also significantly limiting the effectiveness of their campaigns.”
Lyons said brand suitability concerns should be targeted elsewhere noting that social media houses harmful content and misinformation that really can impact brand perception.
“The irony is that brand suitability actions seem reserved for news, despite everyone knowing that social media holds rivers of harmful content and misinformation that will actually hurt a brand,” she said.
Lyons referred to a study by Integral Ad Science that showed 70% of Australians are unlikely to purchase a product or service advertised next to unsafe content.
"In the interest of their brands, the marketing and media communities must reassess their thinking and practices around brand suitability. We call on the industry to look closely at this data and invest more in news, not less,” she said.
A slide from the ThinkNewsBrands research:
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