IAS, DoubleVerify release YouTube brand safety solutions

Integral Ad Science (IAS) announced Thursday the general availability of a brand safety and suitability solution for YouTube.

Now out of beta, it uses machine learning and human review to continually monitor and flag content that doesn’t adhere to brand safety guidelines to advertisers and YouTube.

Measurement provider DoubleVerify also unveiled on Thursday a recently expanded partnership with YouTube to ensure what it calls “brand suitability,” by combating risks to brand safety with its own third-party verification process.

Why you should care

Advertisers and brands have been vocal about brand safety concerns in programmatic video advertising generally, and YouTube specifically, for well over a year now, causing responses and solutions from a several corners, including YouTube, the Trust Accountability Group (TAG) and many vendors.

The IAS and DoubleVerify partnerships with YouTube are aimed at providing greater third-party assurance to advertisers that their brand ads are placed near content that aligns with their suitability objectives.

“Today, brand suitability is a core advertiser expectation – across all media types and buying platforms,” said Wayne Gattinella, CEO of DoubleVerify.

Over the past couple of years, some advertisers have briefly paused their YouTube ad spend after ads were been shown running next to objectionable content and after Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard’s challenged programmatic platforms to submit to third-party measurement audits.

“Brand safety can’t be solved alone, it is going to take all the stakeholders in our industry, working together, to find a solution,” said Harmon Lyons, SVP of IAS’ Global Business Development.

More about the news

• While in beta, IAS’s brand safety and suitability solution monitored campaigns across seven countries for more than 50 advertisers, including Verizon, Bayer Health, and Diageo.
• DoubleVerify’s solution allows advertisers to opt into 10 additional brand targeting categories, such as pets, automotive and travel – based on relevance to the brand.