09/25/19
People are consuming more news content than ever, but some advertisers avoid it like the plague. In fact, the word “plague” is probably on a bunch of keyword blacklists.
“We battle the narrative that news is an unsafe place for marketers,” said Christine Cook, SVP and CRO of CNN’s digital portfolio, during a panel Tuesday hosted by TrustX at Advertising Week. “There’s a growing list of brands who wholesale say they won’t advertise in hard news environments.”
Although third-party ad verification tools are getting more sophisticated, the keyword blacklist is still the first line of defense for brand safety, and it’s a fairly blunt instrument, especially when it’s not regularly refreshed and/or doesn’t take context into consideration.
