The backlash against Google and the subsequent ad ban currently going on in the US and UK is unlikely to flow on to Australia, experts say.
Global brands have begun pulling all their spends after it was revealed ads were appearing next to extremist hate videos on Google’s YouTube and the ad money was helping fund the creators.
On Wednesday, B&T published an opinion piece by Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindlerm, where he admitted the company “had to take more responsibility to its advertisers and publishers.”
B&T sought comment from Google Australia, however, only received this well worn statement that appears to be handed out to all media outlets: “We don’t comment on individual customers but as announced, we’ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear. We’re also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers’ brands.”
Speaking to Fairfax Media, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Vijay Solanki, said the boycott was unlikely to find its way to Australia and if marketers, agencies and publishers worked together then it was possible to keep brands safe.
“If you use the filtering processes and you do your planning rigorously you can create quite strong levels of brand safety,”Solanki said.
Havas in the UK has pulled all its brand’s advertising from Google, while CEO of the Australian operations, Mike Wilson, told Fairfax there was no plans to do the same down here.
“We are conducting our own internal audit around brand safety,” Wilson said. “[There’s] no local plans to suspend partnerships with anybody until we have conducted our audit.”
In statement to B&T, Think TV’s CEO Kim Kim Portrate, declined to comment on brands pulling their advertising from Google, but said: “So far in 2017 we have seen a groundswell; some very big brands are insisting they get what they pay for when it comes to media.
“As the AANA’s media transparency events in Melbourne and Sydney this week showed, brands deserve a safe environment to advertise in, where their ad is 100 per cent viewable and free from bot-fraud.
“And as Procter & Gamble’s Marc Pritchard told marketers in his seismic speech on these topics in January, this is your money and you are absolutely right to demand better as you navigate the increasingly complex media landscape.
“Choosing to advertise in a premium quality environment where the content you advertise against is crafted and managed by professionals is the most powerful way to protect your brand.”
