At Vidooly, we have always believed in creating valuable technology for video platforms which eventually helps YouTube creators, brands, and marketers all over the world. Today, we are excited to announce the launch of “Brand Safety Tool” where marketers and advertisers can get a list of brand-safe channels & videos, check parameters based on which the “Brand Safety Score” is calculated.
The term “brand safety” represents an environment provided by Vidooly, that is fundamentally not hostile, will not cause perceptions of uncomfortable association or, worse, spur unwelcome sharing or commenting.
Our “Brand Safety’ tool is essentially a result of the YouTube ad-apocalypse that shook the whole video marketing industry and advertisers this summer. Once various brands realized their ads were playing against extremist content, they blamed YouTube for the mistake, pulling the ads and causing Google’s online video site to seriously rethink not just the way ads were served on its platform, but also what content was deemed safe enough to deserve ad activation and monetization.
After this ad-apocalypse, brands became extra cautious on advertising their products on YouTube and started questioning,
- How can an ad be in a “pure” environment in every possible sense, one that’s hospitable for the brand and comfortable for the consumer?
- What happens when a brand’s desire to reach desirable consumers is in tension with the content on a page?
Keeping these queries in mind, we created a brand safety algorithm which analyzes contextual metadata, audio transcript & video frames for ad-supported YouTube channels & videos in data set. This will identify channels & videos with specific objectionable characteristics based on selected brand safe parameters.
WHAT ARE BRAND SAFE CHANNELS & VIDEOS?
To know the YouTube channels and videos that are brand safe, we must first understand the content where it is now unsafe for advertisers to advertise.
There is a standard “dirty dozen” category list used by the video industry, to track and exclude channels and videos with following keywords.
- ADULT
- ARMS
- CRIME
- DEATH OR INJURY
- ONLINE PIRACY
- HATE SPEECH
- MILITARY CONFLICT
- OBSCENITY
- ILLEGAL DRUGS
- SPAM OR HARMFUL SITE
- TERRORISM
- TOBACCO
- JUNK FOOD (YouTube – Kids)
HOW VIDOOLY BRAND SAFETY TOOL WORKS
Our video intelligence tool for “Brands and Agencies” already tracks thousands of videos on YouTube every day. After setting a clear objective for your media ad campaign that focuses on social media platforms, all you have to do is to fill in the Keywords that your brand characterizes as ”Offensive Keywords”.
Every brand has its own targeting and demographics. This is because any family-friendly brand like TATA will have a much more conservative approach to brand safety than an alcoholic brand like Kingfisher. This is why VIDOOLY BRAND SAFETY TOOL provides a custom keyword input for different campaigns.
4 stages of Vidooly Brand Safety tool
1. Metadata & Keyword Analysis
Analyze channels & videos based on the metadata, tags & video. Add custom keywords to more refined brand safe list.
2. Crunch Brand Safety Parameters
Calculate & measure parameters which makes the channel/video brand unsafe. E.g. A channel can have high % in metadata because of inappropriate tags/title.
3. Analyze Audio Transcript
Every YouTube video supports audio transcripts to reach the level of monetization. Vidooly’s brand safety tool analyses the audio transcript and filters the result as per brands “Safety Keywords.”
4. Filtered List
Work on the refined brand safe list, get to know why the channel/video is brand unsafe based on % weightage given to brand unsafe parameters. Eg. A news channel may have high % in case of violent content.
After filtering the channel videos through all these four factors, Vidooly brand safety tool will produce a “Brand Safety Score” which will define the content on the YouTube channel.
In this way, the advertiser will get a list of brand-safe channels & videos based on the “Brand Safety Score.”
WHY VIDOOLY’S BRAND SAFETY TOOL IS IMPORTANT?
While social media platforms like Facebook is launching two new brand measurement tools that analyze TV and Facebook performance, YouTube is still skeptical about launching its own “Keyword safety” measurement tool.
At present, advertisers including AT&T, Verizon, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble and many others have frozen spending on YouTube because of brand safety concerns. In midst of this YouTube backlash, Vidooly’s Brand Safety tool is the only way an advertiser can make sure that an ad will not appear on YouTube channels that can damage the advertiser’s brand.
Akshay Chandra
Being an artist, movie buff and a media enthusiast, content writing is my career train. I am a proud alumni of Symbiosis Institute of Media Communication (Pune) and currently working for Vidooly.