Authored by Industry Leaders from Across Europe
Provides a European-Level Overview to Brand Safety in the New CTV Environment
12th May, 2021, Brussels, Belgium: IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, has today released its ‘Guide to Brand Safety in CTV’ to help all stakeholders working in the CTV ecosystem maintain best practices and ensure brand safe environments for advertisers.
Today, the modern marketer is equipped with a variety of solutions for brand safety and content verification when dealing with tried and tested digital advertising formats. However, Connected TV (CTV) is a new channel, bringing new challenges. As advertising budgets continue to shift to this new medium, trust will be key to unlocking the full potential of this channel. As with every new or emerging channel, advertisers are excited, but also initially cautious. They want to know that their media investment is protected, and they want to be able to evaluate its efficacy in the same manner that they do other digital media channels. So, building great trust within the CTV ecosystem will be imperative as we continue to move forward.
As such, the Guide to Brand Safety in CTV draws on some of the key considerations to help the Digital Advertising industry navigate brand safety in the new CTV environment. The guide provides an overview of the brand safety and ad fraud market within CTV, highlighting best practices, solutions and case studies. Written by CTV experts from IAB Europe’s Quality & Transparency Taskforce including Comscore, DoubleVerify, FreeWheel, MediaMath, Rakuten Advertising, SpotX, IAB Tech Lab, and Integral Ad Science (IAS) the guide also looks at the future landscape and what the market needs to do in terms of standardisation, measurement and transparency to fully support this emerging channel.
Commenting on the guide, Graeme Lynch, VP Demand Facilitation at SpotX explains, “2021 is the year CTV advertising has reached a tipping point throughout many of the European markets. Measurement and attribution solutions are now coming to fruition enabling increased investment from advertisers to match increased audience adoption. Knowledge of the format is dramatically increasing and this new guide focusing on brand safety within CTV is an essential tool for brands and their agencies as they take practical steps to realise the full potential of their CTV campaigns.”
Speaking on the need for transparency in CTV, Dan White, Group Director, EMEA at DoubleVerify said "With many people staying indoors over the past year and streaming services becoming ever more popular, consumer behaviour has drastically shifted to enable CTV to reach new heights. So, while advertisers are bullish on CTV, there are some hesitations when it comes to fraud, brand safety, and measurement in the space. As ad verification companies like DV continue to create transparency into CTV supply, advertisers will be able to unlock the full potential of the channel.”
Emmanuel Josserand, Senior Director, Agency, Brand and Industry Relations at Freewheel echoed these comments saying, "We’re seeing a big shift with connected consumers now accessing content through IP delivered mechanisms. The rise and unique opportunities offered by CTV means that it has become a highly coveted marketing channel but unfortunately, it has also attracted organisations that threaten the integrity of the medium, to the detriment of legitimate players,” said Emmanuel Josserand, senior director of brand, agency and industry relations, FreeWheel. “Of late, CTV platforms have seen an uptick in such activities and various quality challenges. It is absolutely critical for marketers and the ecosystem as a whole to ensure the appropriate processes are in place to provide a brand safe and transparent environment. This guide is a must read for all marketers trying to navigate brand safety in this exciting, new connected TV universe’’
Commenting on why CTV is a key priority for IAB Europe, Helen Mussard, CMO at IAB Europe said, "Over the last 18 months, from our own studies we have seen a surge in interest in the CTV environment. To fully enable investment to follow and for CTV to be able to successfully scale across Europe, IAB Europe developed a dedicated work track to encourage education, confidence, and investment in the CTV market. This latest guide follows on from IAB Europe’s Guide to Connected TV that was released in June 2020 and IAB Europe’s Guide to the Programmatic CTV Opportunity in Europe, released in April 2021.
Interested stakeholders can expect to see more CTV-related guides this year which will delve deeper into targeting and measurement. We are very grateful to the support of our members for their collaboration and expertise in making all of this possible.”
Download the Guide here.
