Source: www.insideradio.com, September 2021

Eight in ten (82%) advertisers say they are vetting media partners based on trust-related attributes. That is up from six in ten (58%) a year ago. This is according to the 2021 Advertiser Perceptions Trust Report. It shows a majority (54%) of advertisers said they would alter their media plan to defund media outlets promoting disinformation. And four in ten surveyed said they had already cut a media partner or shrunk their share of an ad buy this year based on trust factors.

Marketing Drive reports that brand safety issues have also overtaken data misuse as the top concern of advertisers. It notes the data shows eight in ten marketers think media outlets should be held responsible for using their website to distribute harmful content – including whatever is posted in the comments section.

Advertiser Perceptions Executive VP Sarah Bolton said corporate social responsibility and business ethics issues have captured the attention of the upper reaches of management. “They’re increasingly not willing to accept performance at any cost,” she said.

To that end, the survey data shows four of five advertisers say brands need more oversight and control over who profits from ad placements, even though 77% also think it’s difficult to figure that out.

To avoid any potential challenges, nearly two-thirds (64%) say it is now better to place advertisements in places other than online news websites, to avoid brand safety complication, even though most think it means probably steering ad dollars away from news sites that are brand safe.

The findings are based on 250 ad buyers including ad agencies and advertisers.

Concerns about brand safety have become so important that Ad Results Media has said it plans to create a new system to help the ad agency’s clients decide whether an environment is right for them. CEO Marshall Williams told last month’s Podcast Movement conference it will rely on whether key words appear in content, and how many times. “We’re not judging or grading, this is an awareness index,” said Williams. Ad Results Media has placed more than $2 billion worth of audio buys during the past two decades.