Brand Safety Concerns Prompting Brand 'Migration to Premium'

Brand safety concerns haven't gone away in 2018, after owning headlines in 2017. Brands are starting to take matters into their own hands, however, as premium inventory sits front and center. News Corp.'s Robert Thomson sees premium taking over for advertisers as a safer, more lucrative opportunity for brands. The migration won't be immediate. But with a year full of OTT services launching, it should speed things up pretty quickly for advertisers -- even those lagging behind.Included here is your weekly video personalization and content recommendation news round-up. See anything we might have missed. Drop us a line.News Corp. CEO Predicts a ‘Migration to Premium’ as Brands Traverse the Digital ‘Bot-Infested Badlands’ [The Drum]“The bot-infested badlands are hardly a safe space for advertisers, whose brands are being tainted by association with the extreme, the violent and the repulsive.” Thomson went on to state: “There is no doubt about this, there will be a migration to premium, and that’s where we have a comparative advantage because our titles around the world are leading titles in their markets.”YouTube Revamped its Ad System. AT&T Still Hasn’t Returned. [The New York Times]“I believe that marketers, and to a certain extent agency partners, have not been in control of the way the advertising process is moving,” Ms. Carter said. “It’s incumbent upon us to drive the key issues and shine a light on them and ensure that budgets are being spent in service of the right goals.”Content Personalization Will Keep Audiences Glued To Their Screens (And Advertisers Happier) [MediaPost]In today’s jungle of content, video providers have the chance to become trusted advisors and guides to those viewers wandering about in constant search of the next big thriller or timeless romance. Providers need to shift their focus to offer a personalized and seamless customer experience able to deliver relevant content, based on personal tastes, preferences and even past experiences.How YouTube Drives People to the Internet’s Darkest Corners [The Wall Street Journal]YouTube is the new television, with more than 1.5 billion users, and videos the site recommends have the power to influence viewpoints around the world. Those recommendations often present divisive, misleading or false content despite changes the site has made recently to highlight more neutral fare, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.How Revcontent Is Using Machine Learning To Improve User Experiences For Online Ads [Forbes]From a marketing standpoint, audiences have become used to seeing personalized content and if the ad is not relevant — then it would be ignored. IDC conducted a study with 459 marketing executives and the results were that 34% of them said they are using personalization technologies to a moderate extent, 32% said they are personalizing marketing communications to a great extent and 10% said they completely digitized marketing communications. And the 2017 Economist Intelligence Unit report estimates that the artificial intelligence market is set to pass $100 billion by 2025.Bloomberg on TicToc: Yes We’ve Put Muscle Into Twitter, But Publishers Must Outsource Prudently [The Drum]Speaking to The Drum, he said that many digital platforms have come to “understand that the economic pie has not been maybe shared in a way that is helping the premium content providers”. Across the board, he said, some of these businesses are working with publishers, having realised the levels of engagement and brand safety premium content has to offer.SKIM THISUK creates machine learning algorithm for small video sites to detect ISIS propaganda [The Verge]A History of Programmatic and the Era of Control [AdExchanger]Do Big Advertisers Even Matter to the Platforms? [NewCo Shift]How Brands Are Using Machine Learning To Customize Content [PSFK]Publishers eye LinkedIn as Facebook's reliability falters [Digiday]