Marketers trying to optimize the contextual benefits of a platform realize the challenges related to viewability, brand safety and creativity in utilizing the latest formats and targeting options. Josh Palau, senior director, global partnerships, Johnson & Johnson, says, “Even the most efficient organization would have a really hard time developing one global concept and pushing it out to all the markets in a way that adheres to all the standards, best practices, and nuances.
To help with this one thing we’re trying to put in place is somewhat of a scorecard that can track how the creative we are developing lives up to the best practices of the platforms we are advertising on and align with our objectives.”
However, brand safety is an area of prime concern for marketers especially when their ads are hijacked and abused by cybercriminals who use them in their spam videos and images that often carry malware. The question that arises is, how far are publishers willing to go in order to ensure that such abuse and misuse of brands don’t happen on their platforms? Says Palau, “What we really needed is more vigilance on the publisher’s side since they own the platform. Google was doing a good job of monitoring, but it can always get better – and, frankly, it did. When we think about this we look at: What new measures are you putting in place? What are the existing measures that are changing? Is there a scoring criterion for offensive content?”
Today, there are numerous formats available to marketers to leverage and it is really not possible to use all that consistently. Therefore, a fair amount of optimization is required to leverage the best opportunities across different platforms. Palau says, “There are just so many ways to tell a story online. The formats coming out now are a reaction to how people consume content. How do we ensure our creatives still feel energized to tell the while using new formats that publishers are finding to be successful. We are pushing everyone to think mobile-first, even if you don’t have mobile-ready creative. I think it’s about being present and useful when hitting the audience at the right time. Align content with what they want and let’s respect them by providing something that’s quick, that educates, and that fits into the platform they are on.”