Brand safety ensures your ads don't appear alongside harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content. In an era of instant screenshots and social media outrage, one bad placement can cause lasting brand damage.
What is Brand Safety?
Brand safety encompasses practices that protect a brand's reputation by ensuring ads appear in appropriate contexts. It's distinct from brand suitability, which is more nuanced and brand-specific.
GARM Categories
The Global Alliance for Responsible Media defines key risk categories:
- Adult & explicit sexual content
- Arms & ammunition
- Crime & harmful acts
- Death, injury, or military conflict
- Online piracy
- Hate speech & discrimination
- Obscenity & profanity
- Illegal drugs & tobacco
- Spam & harmful sites
- Terrorism
- Sensitive social issues
⚠️ Risk Reality
Studies show 75% of consumers would stop using a brand whose ads appear next to offensive content. The cost of recovery from a brand safety incident averages $10M+ for major advertisers.
Mobile-Specific Challenges
- In-app environments: Harder to scan than web content
- User-generated content: Unpredictable and fast-changing
- Gaming context: Violence in games doesn't always equal unsafe
- Limited transparency: App content less visible than web
Brand Safety Tools
Pre-Bid Filtering
- Block unsafe inventory before bidding
- Use category exclusions
- Apply blocklists of known unsafe apps
- Set content verification requirements
Verification Partners
- IAS: Pre-bid and post-bid brand safety
- DoubleVerify: Comprehensive verification
- Zefr: Content-level brand suitability
- Pixalate: App-focused verification
"The best brand safety strategy is proactive. Waiting to react to incidents is too late—build safety into every campaign from the start."
Building a Brand Safety Framework
- Define your standards: What's acceptable for your brand?
- Choose verification partners: Third-party validation
- Build blocklists: Apps and categories to avoid
- Create allowlists: Pre-approved safe inventory
- Monitor continuously: Regular audits and alerts
- Have a response plan: Ready for incidents
Brand Suitability
Beyond safety, suitability considers brand-specific context:
- A beer brand might be fine near sports content
- A children's toy brand has different needs
- News content may be safe but not suitable during crises
- Customize standards to your brand values
Brand-Safe Advertising
ClicksFlyer offers verified, brand-safe inventory with comprehensive pre-bid filtering and real-time monitoring.
Learn MoreBrand safety is non-negotiable. Invest in the tools, processes, and partners to protect your brand, and you'll avoid costly incidents while building consumer trust.