Having a company brand in the world of Social Media can yield great benefits for the business:
– Make the company brand visible and relevant
– Communicate directly to customers
– Bring people to the company website to buy
– See the company’s position to customers and competition
– Know who to advertise to.
However, the existence of a company brand in cyberspace can also have its downfalls. Running into unsafe content – inappropriate or offensive content, hateful speech or fake news – and just being placed right next to it on any platform (Social Media or other) can have a negative influence on the consumers’ views of both the brand and the platform in question itself.
According to AdColony, 2 out of 3 marketers will tell you that their brands or those they have worked with have come across some form of brand safety issues at least once. And no wonder – scandals are part of our daily routines now more than ever – which is why they decided to see how all that affects brands and any ads they might place on Social Media platforms in their new survey.
While respondent ages ranged from 16 to 75, participants were typically over 35 years old. Results indicated users prefer to encounter ads in mobile games (16%) over Social Media platforms like YouTube (15%), Snapchat (9%) and Instagram (7%). After seeing an ad in mobile games, 29% of users purchase products or services advertised through the platform, 17% through YouTube, but there are only 10% and 9% of those who make purchases on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram respectively.
The majority of users also said that they encounter offensive, inappropriate or hateful content mainly on Social Media, especially Facebook (60%), while only 19% of users found this type of content on Google or in mobile games. On the other hand, the platform with the least amount of undesirable content is said to be Instagram with only 15% of people who listed it as such.
Moreover, ads from “fake news” outlets were also most commonly found on Social Media. About 47% of these “fake news” ads were found on Facebook, 21% on Google and just 9% in mobile games.
But how all that affects the way consumers view brands that are placed near unsafe content?
A similar research by Hearts & Science can give the answer to that question. Focusing on Millennials and Gen Xers, they had 64% of consumers say that a brand risks damaging its reputation when found next to unsafe content, while 70% said they would not like, recommend or purchase the brand’s product.
Such is the extent of the negative impact being near unsafe content on the brand, that as many as 51% of consumers said it wouldn’t matter if the placement was brand’s fault – they still wouldn’t buy from it.
Based on all of this, it is very clear that consumers care a lot about the brand’s image and their ads they see and especially where they see them. One wrong move can mean a complete pullback and cast a negative light on the brand, AdColony said. That’s why it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to invest in brand-safe environments where they can feel comfortable knowing that their message is going out to the right audience and their image isn’t being harmed.
For those of you out there who might be having problems with this and other digital marketing things, we can help you out. Drop us a note or call us today!
