Tell Me More: Brand Suitability Flagging Techniques

Our Tell Me More series is designed to break down ad formats and products into bitesize chunks. There’s a growing universe of strategies and tactics and it’s our goal to make that universe a little more comprehensible.

Today we’ll be exploring three different techniques for brand suitability flagging: viral content flagging, sentiment filtering and audio transcripts.

WHAT IS IT?

Brand suitability became a legitimate concern for advertisers about a year and a half ago when brands were seeing their ads run on terrorist, pornographic and generally brand unsafe content. Brand suitability is especially a concern for advertisers on social media.

  • A recent study showed that 94% of advertisers are still concerned about brand safety, and almost half of respondents think platforms like YouTube and Facebook aren’t doing enough.

Brand suitability on YouTube is a shaky tightrope to walk because all content is user generated. While many brands use popular inclusion and exclusion list features to completely outlaw any obviously risky content and approve of safe ones, the fact that anyone can publish any video at any time with little to no restrictions means that even the most brand safe of content creators could cause a brand suitability scare every once in a while.

For this post, we’ll go a little bit outside the box to explore a few brand suitability flagging techniques you may not have thought of. These features are:

  • Viral Content Flagging: Identify and monitor viral videos that may cause brand suitability issues as they begin to trend on YouTube’s platform.
  • Sentiment Filtering: Ratio of likes-to-dislikes and overall sentiment of comments to analyze how videos are received by viewers.
  • Audio Transcripts: Audio transcripts of videos to flag keywords and phrases based on your brand’s specific brand suitability parameters.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Viral content flagging, sentiment filtering and audio transcripts are for all brands that want to bolster their brand suitability strategy. If you are finding that your current strategy isn’t giving you the brand suitability security that you’re looking for, then look to these flagging techniques for further control of your YouTube advertising.

These flagging techniques are for brands that want to:

  • Be aware of trending content that may pose a brand suitability threat before it goes viral and your ad runs on it.
  • See how specific video content is received by viewers and protect their ads from running on negative content.
  • Analyze exact keywords and phrases used in videos to avoid potentially harmful content.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Each of these flagging techniques has unique benefits that will give your YouTube campaign a brand suitability boost.

  • Viral Content Flagging
    • Proactively exclude high-risk content like Logan Paul’s Suicide Forest video immediately so your brand’s ad isn’t associated with a harmful viral video.
    • Protect your brand from running on risky content that ends up on the news for being offensive.
    • Aside from brand suitability purposes, viral content flagging also recognizes viral content that matches your audience targeting parameters and aligns your ad with positive trending videos.
  • Sentiment Filtering
    • Get to know the videos you are targeting. Sentiment filtering gives you a comprehensive data of how viewers are reacting to a specific video.
  • Audio Transcripts
    • Don’t have time to watch every video? View transcripts of content audio to see exact words and phrases being used.
    • General excluded words and phrases will be highlighted.
    • View a full report of how many times certain keywords are used.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Viral Content Flagging works by using machine learning to analyze audience data points to flag trending videos before they go viral.

Sentiment Filtering works by taking a look at recent amount of likes, dislikes, and comments to find out how viewers are reacting to videos.

Audio Transcripts work by using AI and machine learning technology to transcribe videos and analyze the text to flag exclusion listed keywords.

ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

Yes! All three flagging techniques are available on Channel Factory’s ViewIQ platform as part of our brand suitability solutions. If you’d like to learn more, contact us today.