brand safety

As a brand marketer, you know how important it is to positively represent your company’s image and values in everything you do—which may make it difficult to reach the broadest possible audience without creating conflict. 

Many brands are engaging in programmatic ad spends, and they may not be aware of the specific sites where their ads are appearing. But even if unintentional, a placement that doesn’t seem to align with your brand values can cause a negative impact. 

A recent CMO Council report found that 72 percent of marketers are concerned about brand integrity relating to digital advertising, and for good reason: more than a quarter have experienced incidents in which their advertisements were placed next to offensive content. The Guardian reported that in 2016, extremists and preachers of hateful viewpoints generated more than $300,000 in revenues from YouTube ads purchased by brands including L’Oreal, Sainsbury’s, and The Guardian itself. 

Consumers are paying attention, too, and if your brand advertises on a platform that offends them, they may change their purchasing behavior. Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said that they would think carefully about whether to buy from the brand again; nine percent said they would complain about the issue; and 10% said they would boycott the brand as a result.

If you want to preserve your brand integrity, consider shifting your marketing dollars away from programmatic ad buys, and into experiential marketing events that enable your brand to control every aspect of the experience.

Why experiential marketing?

Creating an immersive experience, such as a product launch, a conference, or a festival, allows you to carefully curate an agenda that aligns fully with your brand vision. You can customize everything from the entertainment to the expert-driven seminars to the color of the cupcakes, ensuring that the content is not only engaging to your audience, but fully supports your branded viewpoint.

By focusing on live events, you’re able to create a direct connection to your audience with no filter in between. That allows you to show your audience what you stand for, and gives them the ability to participate by providing real-time feedback, both through live responses and real-time social media engagement. By carefully monitoring your live event app or social channels during your event, you’ll be able to instantly address and remedy any concerning issues.

Safely expanding your reach

Live events can be expensive, and your audience numbers may be limited—so, while experiential marketing may provide more control over brand safety, how can you ensure that you reach enough of your potential audience to make the investment worthwhile?

Consider amplifying your experience with live streaming which can expand your audience exponentially with a digital broadcast strategy. Interested consumers won’t need a ticket for the event; they’ll be able to tune in at any time from the comfort of their living room or even a bus ride. Events that might reach just a few thousand live attendees can now reach millions, as with Apple’s WWDC conference, which reached an estimated 2 million people this year via livestream.  Weekend one of the 2019 Coachella Music & Art Festival’s livestream audience  grew 90% year over year from 2018 to reach an astounding audience of 82.9 millions views significantly benefiting the title live stream sponsor T-Mobile as well as Coca-Cola and Garnier in Canada.

Of course, expanding your audience virtually also leaves your brand vulnerable to safety hazards, if you provide unrestricted communication channels for participants to share their thoughts. It’s important to strike a balance between encouraging free thought and protecting your brand image on communication platforms.

In order to do so effectively, you can use algorithm-based tools that instantly filter out messages with derogatory comments or negative brand associations on your in-stream social channel. If brand safety is a concern, it makes sense to encourage fans to comment and participate within the platform itself, rather than asking them to comment with a hashtag on services like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where you can’t moderate the conversation. You can also ask users to register with their real name before commenting, and ensure that they are of legal age for the content, which will help to create a positive and engaging discussion.

Capitalizing on your event

Your event has gone off without a hitch, and you live streamed it to an audience of millions—but that’s not the end of the story.

Armed with hours of high-quality live footage, you can repurpose your live event footage into curated video segments to reach new audiences and engage with your existing audience further. Encourage your audience to share links to the footage on their social media channels, building your own viral marketing strategy to grow your follower base.

Promoting your video-on-demand through advertising can also be a supplementary strategy to consider to expand your reach further—but when doing so, consider using targeted social media advertising, rather than advertising on YouTube channels or on media websites that you haven’t pre-vetted.

Maintaining a positive brand reputation is important for building an audience of engaged followers that will advocate for your company to their own friends and family. By focusing on building proprietary events and live content that you can execute based on your brand values, you’ll be able to broadcast what your company is all about, and create a committed audience of engaged followers who value what you do.