There’s always a first time for everything, and this week we had to deal with the first time a client ever asked us this question.
Domain, one of our best and long time partners in Australia, sent a broadcast request to all their trusted digital partners, including Outbrain, requesting an urgent confirmation that their brand messages were not appearing on any pornographic, pirate or gambling sites.
“What did they mean?” I asked my team. “They know our network better than we do. They see exactly where people discover their brand on Outbrain”. It was later in the morning that I understood why they issued this request.
This week we saw an open public exchange between the two real-estate giants - Domain and REA - with regards to programmatic digital practice. I am not here to take sides, and I have no formal knowledge of what exactly happened (or didn’t happen).
For full disclosure, we work with both Domain and REA. Both are great clients leveraging Outbrain smartly and efficiently.
I have formally responded to Domain and the Fairfax executive team, reinstating that Outbrain is not installed on any porn, gambling or piracy sites as these are prohibited categories. My response, which was published on the AFR earlier in the week, also clarified that unlike some platforms, Outbrain is transparent and fully discloses to clients the list of sites it is installed on. Partners view and control referring websites in real time.
This episode however, is a strong reminder of what companies in the marketing-technology space must do to protect brand clients and agency partners.
Domain, like many other brands, uses Outbrain to promote content and videos and engage relevant audiences across the web using our Discovery platform. The process is programmatic and streamlined, and to ensure our partners are protected, we strictly and religiously follow this trinity of principles:
1. Safety first
At Outbrain we have the privilege to be working solely with premium publishers and brand-safe sites where real people engage with genuine content. Brands already do and will continue to place higher price premium to ensure their messages appear in brand-safe places. Ad tech platforms that can’t guarantee brand-safe environments for brands to work with will not “make the cut” in the next round.
2. Absolute transparency
If you have nothing to hide, don’t hide.
The programmatic “blind network buy” model is failing. Ad tech platforms must provide absolute visibility and transparency in real time to brands. Smart brands will shy away from non-transparent platforms. And they should.
Outbrain Campaign Management Dashboard:
Full transparency over where brand messages appear
3. Real time control
Brands require tools to control their campaigns and fine tune the environments where their brand messages appear. Smart platforms offer the necessary level of controls that let brands do that seamlessly and effortlessly…with a click of a button. We do.
Outbrain Campaign Management Dashboard:
Controlling discovery sources
Programmatic is a great efficiency vehicle but there are no shortcuts on price or quality. I am confident that in the end, tech platforms that prove to genuinely care about their client reputation and respect brand safety, transparency and control, will continue to gain traction in the market.
By Outbrain MD, Ayal Steiner