Be Mindful Where You Place Your Ads
Why You Should Care
It’s indisputable that Brand Safety and Suitability are crucial for brands, both in terms of brand reputation and media performance, but getting it right is difficult. Industry standards were created to give brands guidance, but they are only the starting point as do not cover specific needs of your business and brands.
The Next Phase of Advertising Post GARM
with Channel Factory
As the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) was shuttered in response to litigation threats, many are asking, ‘so now what?’. Channel Factory is leading the conversation on what’s next for brand safety and suitability.
The closure of GARM signals a new phase for advertisers to rethink how they ensure that their ads are placed where it matters the most for their brands, creating smarter strategies that ensure both protection and relevance.
Over the next few months, we’ll be discussing these opportunities at key industry events across the globe, offering insights on how to develop customizable safety and suitability standards that are unique to your brands needs.
Upcoming events
Join our exciting activations and hear us speak on our GARM+ strategies and the future of customized safety and suitability.
Can’t catch us in person? In the meantime, let’s dive into what to do next and how we can evolve smarter approaches to responsible media in this new era.
Thank You GARM but… What’s Next?
An Opportunity to Be Smarter About Responsible Media
The advertising industry faces a critical moment to reevaluate its approach to responsible media. GARM's initiative aimed to protect advertisers from associating with harmful or illegal content, but its voluntary framework left gaps. Now, the opportunity lies in pushing these efforts further, ensuring responsibility while enhancing advertising performance.
A Flawed Brand Safety Floor
GARM's Brand Safety Floor was a valuable step, but the voluntary compliance by platforms proved insufficient.
Moving forward, the ad industry should implement compliance scores for social platforms, documenting their efforts to block inappropriate content and maintain advertiser safety.
Rethinking Adjacency Standards
GARM's Adjacency Standards Framework often conflated risk with relevance, leading to the over-blocking of certain creators and communities.
The future of brand safety must prioritize relevance while reducing risk, unblocking underrepresented voices, and supporting responsible journalism.
Inclusion, Representation, and Sustainability
True inclusion in Media is about smart targeting. We must continue to champion inclusion through conscious advertising programs while also embracing sustainability.
Environmental responsibility, when done right, can drive media efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Misinformation and Responsible Journalism
Rather than solely focusing on “true” or “false” information, we should assess the believability of content across audience segments.
Supporting responsible journalism remains vital, and testing news verification services will be key to ensuring accurate, fair content categorization.
In short, GARM helped the industry take its first steps. Now, it’s time for us all, brands, media agencies and ad tech companies to run and create smarter, more responsible media strategies.
Get in touch to learn more about customized brand safety and suitability strategies
