Ben Shepherd and Vanessa Lyons slam Christian Juhl’s claim brands ‘avoid news’: ‘Completely out of hand’

Published Mediaweek

“This is a categorical misrepresentation that is stunning from the leader of a media agency in control of over USD$60 billion of investment globally.”

Two of the news industry’s biggest advocates – Schwartz Media CEO Ben Shepherd and ThinkNewsBrands’ CEO Vanessa Lyons – have hammered outgoing GroupM CEO Christian Juhl‘s claims that “brands prefer to avoid advertising” next to the news.

Appearing in Washington for the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Collusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media earlier this month, Juhl said: “Today, trust in news sites is at a low point, and brands generally disfavour advertising next to news. For example, only 1.28% of brand spend is allocated to online news at this point.

“This is because brands prefer to avoid advertising alongside common news content, war, scandal, political division, and also because they do not need to advertise there to reach their target audience. Alternatives such as sports and entertainment provide a better way to reach these same consumers.”

Lyons, CEO of ThinkNewsBrands, agreed with Shepherd that news is engaging and effective, and questioned the accuracy of Juhl’s comments.

“The thinking around ‘brand suitability’ which has seen some brands and their agencies avoiding news has gotten completely out of hand and isn’t based on facts,” Lyons told Mediaweek.

“Recent research by Stagwell and HarrisX found that placing ads next to news stories about conflict, inflation or crime had no discernible difference on brand perception compared to ads placed next to sport or entertainment.