Brand safety risks, publisher pushback on AI and OpenAI’s failed promotions

Welcome latest Spotlight, your recap of some of the main headlines from across adtech and digital marketing.

What we have for you today: The brand safety risks of social platforms, the publisher fightback against AI, and OpenAI’s abortive move into promotions

Protect your brand

What happens when you weaken content moderation on platforms like Instagram? Well, according to Forbes they become home to some of the vilest forms of so-called content you can imagine. As Ad Exchanger points out, this content receives millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes and often appears against ads from major brands.

Brands that value their reputation must scrutinise where they advertise. The message is clear: open-web publishers and verified audiences aren’t only better in terms of performance, they’re also becoming the safer choice for brands.

Collective action

We’ve long championed publishers and advocated for them having greater control over their advertising business models. It’s therefore great to see a growing number of publishers clubbing together to take on the monetisation threat of AI collectively.

This month, more publishers joined the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) Collective framework, which aims to standardise how publishers tell AI systems what content they can and can’t use, and how they must pay. Ensuring that publishers are adequately rewarded for their content is key for the open web. All we need now is some regulatory underpinning to give initiatives like the RSL a bit of force.

Doubling down on data

Times are changing for publishers with affiliate operations, and during Black Friday many were under increasing pressure to understand the evolving commerce landscape as well as where their readers will come from. According to industry leaders, with organic search losing its reliability, the holiday shopping season expanding to all of November, and publishers shifting toward first-party channels, direct relationships with loyal readers are taking center stage. If this remains the case over the long term, publishers must, more than ever, find reliable and privacy-centric ways to verify and profile their readers. Telco-verified IDs could well be the solution they need.

Publishers say “no” to the EU’s Omnibus

Last month, we brought you the news that the EU was looking to water down key privacy controls in GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive, the AI Act, and other flagship laws. This month, news is in from publishers, and their reaction is far from positive. Reports suggest that publishers are describing the Omnibus PACKAGE as a “cosmetic” attempt to fix the complex rules and are concerned that the changes will actually make their jobs harder. So far, the Omnibus appears to be unwelcome news for consumers and publishers alike.

The power of personalisation

Finally, reports emerged that OpenAI was forced to suspend promotional messages in ChatGPT after users pushed back. The ads surfaced within chat responses and promoted brands such as Peloton and Target, even when they had no relevance to the conversation.

Much is currently being made of the potential for advertising on AI search engines. But as OpenAI’s first foray has proved, no matter how innovative AI may be, the fundamental rules of advertising apply: consumers demand relevant content that’s personalised for them. Just as with any platform or publisher, brands will need to ensure that AI chat companies are able to deliver the right audiences using privacy-compliant data practices.

US TikTok sale to go ahead

After years of back and forth, that TikTok has agreed to a deal to sell its US business to Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. The deal ostensibly addresses data privacy concerns of the US government and ensures that US consumers will continue to be able to access the service.

However, there are concerns that the deal will result in yet more centralisation, with just a handful of US companies in charge of all major internet platforms – and the associated advertising ecosystem.

Fragmentation and competition are key for a healthy digital world. For that reason, it’s more important than ever that the open web flourishes. That means shoring up publishers’ business models and giving them the best possible chance of monetising their content.

More from Novatiq

Tanya Field, Novatiq’s Chief Product Officer, appeared in an in-depth interview in Ad Exchanger on the topic of telcos entering the adtech market. To learn more about the opportunities on offer for telcos, and how they can help reshape digital marketing, check out the article.

You can also delve into more comments and insights on our regular blog. This month, we’re asking whatever happened to the Google Privacy Sandbox.