Auto-blocking in the name of ‘brand safety’ is costing brands

Published Mediaweek

Nine’s Ashleigh Thomas explores how automated brand safety tools are needlessly blocking advertisers from credible news content.

We’re living in a time when misinformation spreads quickly, algorithms reward engagement over accuracy, and AI can produce fake content at the click of a button.

In this environment, trust is the most valuable currency.

The News Nation report by ThinkNewsBrands, released this month, showed 78 per cent of Australians trust national news publishers over content creators (who 36 per cent believe are trustworthy). The idea that advertising alongside journalism presents reputational risk has established itself as a persistent myth in the media industry, but the evidence tells a different story.

Far from posing a risk to brands, credible news environments are among the most trusted and effective places for advertisements to appear.

Advertisers are missing out, because they are avoiding hard news without any consideration to the context of the articles, or the credibility of the journalism they are appearing next to.