‘Placing digital ads with misaligned content can impact brand perception’ 

As many as 28% of ads displayed on digital platforms do not align well with the content they are shown alongside, a 2021 study by Channel Factory and GroupM has revealed. Such misalignment can not only tarnish the brand image but also have a negative impact on the bottom line, shared Chirag Bhatia, Managing Director - India for Channel Factory, at the e4m TechManch conference.

Often marketers fall into the trap of low-cost CPM (cost per mile or cost per 1000 impressions of an ad on a digital platform), which could be an illusion if one calculates this negative impact, Bhatia shared at e4m TechManch. 

“The internet penetration today has given the power of content creation in the hands of a common man. An average user today scrolls an equivalent of two marathons or 52 kilometres on social media in a year. While this presents a great avenue to marketers, it is a double-edged sword as being associated with a misaligned or negative content it could be a recipe for disaster,” said Bhatia. 

All marketers, he said, try to spend the brand dollars effectively. However, chasing low-cost CPMs can often lead to alignment with content that can cause brand depreciation. In some cases, it might lead to a situation where the money spent by your brand on advertising on a particular platform works for your competitors instead. 

In order to clarify the concept further, Bhatia gave a few examples. Imagine a child watching a cartoon on their father’s phone and the behaviourally targeted ad of a financial planning service plays. “Here, if the ad for a candy played in accordance with the content rather than the user reflected, it would possibly lead to increase in the purchase intent of the kid,” he explained. 

Similarly, if the ad for an alcohol brand shows next to religious content or a car advert being placed alongside videos of car crashes. In both cases, there will be a negative brand recall. The alcohol brand may even stir up emotions while the user in the second instance would subconsciously associate the car brand with crashes and accidents. 

“Though the advertisements in such cases are not violating any platform policies, they still end up being a non-conducive placement. Everything that is brand safe is not brand suitable, even if it is available at a low CPM,” said Bhatia. A Channel Factory study done along with GroupM in the United States of America in 2021 revealed that on an average 28% of the impressions of digital ads are run with misaligned content, he informed.

He went on to cite the example of YouTube, which is the largest user-generated content platform in the world today. As creators earn money by allowing the platform to run ads alongside their content, creators would want to maximize their revenue. “This often makes them maximise the keyword mapping as well which can often mislead marketers. In order to get contextual targeting along with behavioural targeting right, YouTube has come up with a partner program called YouTube measurement program. It was created to offer an array of trusted independent solutions, driving in measuring marketing performance and understanding content trends on YouTube,” he said. 

To simplify, a YTMP badge means that an array of independent technology providers have been carefully vetted to meet YouTube standards. Channel Factory has the YTMP badge, meaning that they have access to expanded APIs which enables them to pull tons of data, process it and create value for the YouTube advertising ecosystem. 

“Making use of these metrics along with technologies enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning can help solve the misalignment problem to a large extent. Channel Factory, for example, has a technology called ViewIQ which goes beyond the meta tags, title and description to actually understands the content, its context and production quality ,” shared Bhatia. He added that the tool makes an overall sentiment analysis of the said content including that in the comment section to categorise it in different categories in accordance with Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). 

Bhatia also cited another study that they did with Magna Media Trials in 2021 wherein 5000 respondents were shown ads in suitable content and others were shown ad in misaligned content. Among the first group, there was a positive impact on the brand matrix and it was the other way round for the latter group. “We found out that while brand respect and brand trust fell down for misaligned content, there was also a huge negative impact on the purchase intent as well as brand quality perception. Essentially, the money spent on misaligned content worked negatively for the brand, which means your effective CPM goes up that much higher,” said Bhatia. 

He ended the session with a quote from the master David Ogilvy who had once said, “Context is key when it comes to marketing and advertising. You can have the best creative in the world, but if it’s shown to the wrong audience or at the wrong time, it won’t resonate.”