Brand suitability controls
engineered to support the GARM initiative
From safety to suitability
2020 has forced our industry to quickly shift its approach to brand suitability, reducing the use of legacy safety tactics such as blunt blocking. The sudden impact of a global pandemic across every sector of media and content has been the primary driver. Brands have learned how to use contextual suitability controls to ensure they’re not overblocking, so the return on their media investment is achieved.
Industry brand suitability initiatives supported by WFA’s Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), 4A’s and APB have been a driving force impacting this change, and Peer39 is proud to use the GARM Brand Suitability Framework as part of their targeting suite.
The Peer39 suitability controls bring a more refined and nuanced approach to your contextual alignment needs. While legacy safety tactics are about avoidance of bad or misaligned content to a brand, suitability takes a more refined and modern approach, asking advertisers:
- In what context might this content be okay?
- Is all arms and ammunition content bad?
- If it’s in the context of science or education, is it okay?
Engineering to the GARM Suitability Framework
chart source: WFAnet.org
At the heart of these controls is the Peer39 semantic classification engine, which puts brand safety into context. Rather than a block-all approach, buyers will have the ability to select various risk profiles that have the potential to unlock substantial pools of inventory volume that were previously avoided.
How it works
Medium Risk – In this example, the content is classified under “Death, Injury and Military Conflict.” But it’s also classified as being in the context of Arts & Entertainment -> Movies given its about the movie Platoon. By the definition of the GARM Framework, this would be classified as Medium Risk.
This content would no longer be blocked when you set your control to allow medium risk content.
Low Risk – In this example, the content is classified under “Death, Injury and Military Conflict” in the context of Scientific, Educational and Reference. By the GARM definition, this is classified as Low Risk
This content would no longer be blocked when you set your control to allow low risk content.
Peer39 suitability controls
New safety content categories include:
- Adult & Explicit Sexual Content
- Arms and Ammunition
- Crime & Harmful Acts to Individuals and Society, Human Right Violations
- Death, Injury and Military Conflict
- Online Piracy
- Hate speech
- Obscenity and Profanity
- Illegal Drugs, Tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaping, alcohol
- Spam or Harmful Content
- Terrorism
- Debated Sensitive Social Issues
GARM brand suitability definitions
Download the full GARM Brand Safety Floor + Suitability Framework [PDF] directly from www.wfanet.org
