The Next Battle for Brand Safety Is in the Comment Section

Marketers and publishers continue to make it a priority

Headlines about YouTube's brand safety controversy may have died down, but many marketers' concerns have not. Susan Schiekofer, chief digital investment officer at GroupM, spoke with eMarketer's Sean Creamer about how the agency and the platforms it works with are alleviating brand safety concerns in the video space, and why comment sections could spark the next debate over brand safety. Schiekofer was interviewed as part of eMarketer's June report, "Policing Video Content on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter: Platforms' New Efforts to Block Offensive Clips Explained."

eMarketer:

How concerned are your clients about the brand safety incidents of the past year?

Susan Schiekofer:

They're concerned because they always want to be in a brand-safe environment. We conduct scrutiny for our clients who want it, though brand safety tolerance varies. Some clients are extremely conservative, while others are cautious. And then there are those who want engagement no matter where it is, within reason; nothing egregious.

GroupM is cautious on all of its active platforms, and we make sure to use all available tools and controls for brand safety. We've also been communicating with YouTube's heads of products over the past few years.

Interview conducted on May 2, 2018

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