The State of Brand Safety In India In 2023

Authored by Saurabh Khattar, Country Manager, India, Integral Ad Science

Brand safety practices have long been essential to marketing strategies. Historically, advertisers have always sought to protect their brands from risky content - things like hate speech, terrorism, and misinformation are generally recognized as threats to brand reputations. Over time, however, brand safety has evolved. While most brands agree on what constitutes unsafe content, the ideal advertising environment is likely to be unique to a given brand. In other words, an alcohol brand and a children’s brand might agree on what content to avoid, but they likely have different ideas about what content environments they prefer.

What does Brand Safety mean?

Brand safety refers to measures taken to protect your brand from content that’s generally recognized as unsafe. For example, topics like hate speech and terrorism tend to present threats to most advertisers.

Recently, Integral Ad Science (IAS) released their survey ‘The State of Brand In India.’ The survey uncovered what Indian consumers regard as brand safe/unsafe content and understand the impact the ad environment has on their perceptions of brands and advertising. As brand safety remains a priority for marketers across the globe, marketers are increasingly invested in protecting their brand’s reputation and allocating media budgets toward content that minimises the risk to their brand.

When strategizing their digital campaigns, marketers can keep the following findings, from the survey, in mind.

How Appropriate/ Inappropriate Content Influences Consumer Perception

Context plays an important part when it comes to understanding consumer/customer perspective. Consumers build their perceptions about brands in conjunction with the content and environment where advertising appears, and prefer that ads appear near relevant and positive or neutral content.

For example, the vast majority of Indian consumers feel it is important that content surrounding online ads is appropriate. 93% of them say it is important to them that the content surrounding online ads is appropriate. Indian consumers most commonly described these three categories as inappropriate for brands to advertise near

• Violence & human rights violations (58%)
• Adult & explicit sexual content (57%)
• Terrorism (57%) 

If you are relying solely on keywords, test out a contextual approach to brand safety and adopt a more granular, holistic approach instead of a simple binary (on-off) brand safety solution that doesn’t rely entirely on Keywords to classify content. By using context-based advertising solutions, marketers can address the challenge of scale, mitigate brand risk, and boost consumer perception.

How Perceptions of Brands And Advertising Are Related To Each Other

Just as advertising around brand-safe content will boost consumer perception, digital ads placed around inappropriate content negatively impact brand perceptions. Today’s consumer is more aware than before, so the onus of advertising alongside appropriate content lies with the brand. Every now and then, we see a brand that lands in hot water and faces backlash across social media because they did not keep consumer perception in mind, resulting in the brand either retracting their advertisements and/or issuing an apology for hurting public sentiment.

With over two-thirds of Indian consumers likely to disengage from a brand whose ads appear near inappropriate content, let’s take a look at some numbers to understand what Indian consumers think:

• 85% of Indian consumers believe that brands are responsible for the content surrounding their ads.
• 82% say they would trust a brand less if they advertised near inappropriate content online
• 82% would feel less favourable towards a brand that advertises near inappropriate content
• 87% think that content surrounding a brand’s ads is a reflection of their values

The biggest beneficiary of advertising alongside brand-safe content are — brands. By placing ads adjacent to brand-appropriate content, brands can attract new customers, build brand affinity, and boost brand recall.

How Ads Supporting Responsible Journalism Influence Consumers
Since Indian consumers are most receptive to ads appearing on social media (51%) and news (42%), it is important for advertisers to ensure their ad spends are devoted to high quality impressions that support responsible journalism. Let’s take a look at the numbers to understand how this impacts Indian consumers:

• 85% say they would feel less favourable towards brands that advertise on sites/ outlets that spread misinformation
• 90% say it is important to them that ad funding supports responsible journalism

Investing in high quality impressions that support responsible journalism also boosts brand trust. IAS’s survey found that 83% of Indian consumers say that they are likely to trust a brand whose ads appear on credible news sites.

The Need for Brand Safety and Suitability Technology at Scale

Marketers and advertisers have long held their brands as an integral part of their businesses; it shapes its identity and can help create recognition among consumers, build trust, and form loyal customer relationships. As consumers become more discerning in their preferences for brands that align with their values, it has become more imperative for marketers and advertisers to protect their brand image and reputation and ensure brands not only represent their identity, but also reflect personal values that consumers and customers relate to in their communications and advertising