Meanwhile, our considerably-less-tactful friends in the social media world are focused on near-term revenue. Alphabet-owned YouTube has announced it will allow ads to run in videos about COVID-19, reversing an earlier policy intended to help advertisers avoid unpleasant associations. They still won’t check whether the videos are distributing lies.
It looks like consumers will be watching more TV than usual for a while. So let’s look at TV advertising news. First up: Valassis just launched Connected TV, a service that lets ad buyers use Valassis’ 120 million household identity graph to target audiences on devices, apps, and networks. Buyers can also correlate ad placements with results including foot traffic.
Today’s secret word is “intelligence”, so we’ll finish with audience intelligence vendor DataQ.ai, which provides e-commerce marketers with automated recommendations for advertising campaigns. They just launched their latest version which lets users specify campaign goals. Pricing starts as low as $19 per month.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.