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To Infinity and Beyond

Looking at the scandal approximately a month after it broke, the news has died down a considerable amount. Google and media companies were quick on their feet to find solutions and have come up with different strategies to solve the issue at hand. YouTube’s strategy appears to be trying to stop content creators from ever posting extremist content online whereas media companies are looking more towards vetting content before placing ads alongside them.

Some of the questions I had from the very beginning of this assignment have been left a bit unanswered but it is still interesting to ponder them. Overall, digital ad spend has not seemed to be affected to drastically. Although there was an initial freeze of spending when the scandal first broke, I can’t see digital ad spend declining any time soon, especially on a global scale. The digital platform has become too invaluable and integral for marketers to deliver innovative campaigns that allow them to engage with consumers for it to go anywhere any time soon. This also answers my other question as to whether or not there will be an increase in spending within traditional ad media. This does not appear to be the case, however, for a short period, the UK may see a marginal increase in traditional media ad spending as brands still may remain wary of having any communications on YouTube for a little longer until the solutions that have been put into place prove themselves.

It is so interesting to see how rapidly changing the digital world advances and how advertisers and marketers leverage it. That being said, with a quickly evolving world, comes new challenges and obstacles that advertisers and marketers must constantly face and provide quick solutions to. The ripple effect that issues like this can have across the entire industry is so fascinating and interesting to explore. That is why this industry excites me so much. It pushes you to utilize your quick-thinking abilities and to constantly be coming up with new ideas as to how to create innovative campaigns with new technologies and how to solve problems with lightning speed as a new one can arise at any moment. I hope to continue to see what kind of solutions the industry comes up with and hope to contribute to those solutions one day soon!

April 17th, 2017

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Google Search: “How is Google Responding to this Scandal?”

Not long after the scandal broke, Google provided their response. I was curious about what they would do. Here is their response: YouTube’s parent, Google, is offering up third-party safety tools to brands and marketers that will help them scan for verified and safe content that marketers will feel comfortable with their ads appearing alongside. They have also provided brands with the ability to opt out of ads appearing before certain videos if they wish and have also created more stringent policies for content creators to abide by. If the creators don’t follow these rules, they run the risk of losing sponsorships or being demonetized all together. These are good solutions, however, these things alone will not be able to entirely sweep the platform clean of extremist content, and brands still risk having their ads appear alongside offensive videos.

Listening to the podcast from my previous post, a comment from one of the interviewees got me thinking – she mentioned how Google is not the only one that needs to take action but so do media agencies. Media agencies hold a certain responsibility as to where a brand’s advertising appears, so what are they doing about it? A good example came from Omnicom, one of the largest media holding companies in the world, who has already developed a safety program that vets YouTube ads that could coax wary advertisers back on to the platform.

I believe that the way both sides have responded has been great. In order for brands to continue to deliver communications on digital platforms, they must work with the platform to solve the obstacles they face. It appears that is just what they are doing. The only thing that is worrisome to me is the amount of content that is posted every single day, hour, minute, and second on YouTube. There is absolutely no way that all of these videos could be vetted by a human, and I am sure that AI is not going to be able to catch every single dodgy YouTube content creator spewing their extremist agenda at a webcam and posting it online either. The direction we are headed is strong, we just need to continue to monitor the problem and work to finding solutions in order for brands to feel safe to advertise digitally and for Google to avoid a major loss in advertising income.

April 10th, 2017

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Podcast Post

http://aca.st/fd5cbb

This is an awesome podcast that dissects this issue very well. From talking about whether or not Google is capable of monitoring/controlling where advertising content appears on YouTube, how Google has responded to the problem and how it may affect other parts of the advertising industry and digital landscape, it’s a great sound byte that helped me develop a clearer understanding of the scandal and gain insights as to how it may affect our industry moving forward.  

April 2nd, 2017

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The Reaction to Retraction

About a week ago, media groups began to pull all of their advertising from Google and YouTube because of the content that their ads were appearing beside. Since digital platforms have become an integral and innovative medium for marketers, this freezing of ad spend has the potential to be devastating, not only to Google and YouTube but to other digital platforms as well. As I mentioned in my first post, the Internet has given regular people like you and I the ability to create content and voice our ideas and opinions on platforms. Of course, brands have leveraged this fantastic tool to create fantastic campaigns and to engage with consumers, but when these campaigns begin to appear alongside content that is controversial or extremist, it may taint the appearance and perception of the brand which is obviously concerning to advertisers and more specifically, media agencies.

The first question I want to address is: How do consumers feel about ads that appear before, after, or around YouTube videos that contain offensive/extremist content? AdWeek surveyed 502 people to find out. Here are the results in the poll below:

http://www.adweek.com/digital/what-consumers-really-think-about-youtubes-offensive-content-problem-and-its-advertisers/

Overall, there seem to be mixed reactions. I am a YouTube user, and although I have rarely ever seen anything on YouTube that I would deem as extremist or offensive, even if I did, I would not think that the brand is endorsing the content. In my eyes, as an advertising and marketing student, I would just assume that it was an unfortunate media buy/ad placement and carry on.

March 26th, 2017

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Inquiry – Freedom of Voice Leaving Brands With No Choice?

The digital world is increasingly being integrated (and possibly infringing) on/into people's lives. This has given many people powers, abilities, and opportunities to do things they weren't able to before. In this digital age we have seen the rise of the millionaire YouTube content creator and the rise of digital ad spending to become the medium that nearly has the highest spending. What does this mean? What happens when this much weight and investment is thrust into one media space? And what happens when just about anyone is able to voice their opinions online?

Just last week, Havas Group UK (one of the world's largest media and marketing agencies) stopped all ad spend on Google and YouTube. They are just one of the many brands and media groups that are pulling their ads from Google and YouTube. Why? Multiple brand's ads have appeared alongside questionable/unsafe/extremist content online, in turn tainting the brands.

How is this going to affect overall digital ad spend?

What are Google and YouTube going to do about it?

How are other digital platforms/the digital space in general going to respond?

Will this create an uptick in traditional media spending?

These are just the first few questions that I wish to investigate on this topic.

March 23rd, 2017

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Sources

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/havas-freezes-google-youtube-ad-spend-uk/308328/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social

https://www.ft.com/content/019e1608-0d88-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d

http://adage.com/article/digital/youtube-invites-safety-inspectors-powers-limited/308545/

http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/lowdown-brands-slipped-youtube-s-safety-check/308734/

http://adage.com/article/digital/youtube-offer-party-brand-safety-tools/308525/

http://adage.com/article/digital/ad-giant-omnicom-carving-safe-area-brands-youtube/308517/

https://www.acast.com/ft-news/googlereactstoscandaloveryoutubecontent?autoplay?autoplay

http://www.adweek.com/digital/what-consumers-really-think-about-youtubes-offensive-content-problem-and-its-advertisers/