Brand risk average score worldwide dropped in H1 2020
In an age of unfounded rates of content creation, and during a time when hate speech and misinformation have come to the fore, advertisers have prioritised brand reputation and risk mitigation - ensuring that their advertising does not inadvertently appear next to hateful content or fund misinformation. From H1 2019 to H1 2020, the global brand risk average — the portion of pages scored by IAS as medium or high risk — dropped across all environments and formats to 4.7% worldwide.
Significant reductions in brand risk in Germany led to the worldwide average improvement across devices and formats. This was driven by a significant reduction in programmatic brand risk levels. Beyond Germany, notable reductions in brand risk for video impressions — both desktop and mobile web — were observed in Australia, Canada, and the UK.
Display brand risk levels for desktop and mobile web trended upward in Japan and Canada. Increases in programmatic brand risk levels and violence-related content drove the results in Japan. Similarly, Canada witnessed higher programmatic brand risk levels caused mainly by a larger portion of content featuring offensive language or controversial topics. Meanwhile Spain experienced greater brand risk for video inventory related to adult content across both publisher direct and programmatic buys.