Brand reputations can be shaped, or shattered, by a single post.  

Ensuring robust brand safety is no longer optional, and this is especially true in Influencer Marketing, where the voices representing your brand are independent creators whose actions and content can have a direct impact on your public image.

Brand safety in advertising involves ensuring that a brand's content, message, and reputation remain untainted by association with harmful, inappropriate, or contradictory environments. Within Influencer Marketing, this means partnering with creators who align with your brand’s values while safeguarding against potential controversies.

Brand safety in Influencer Marketing

Influencers possess the power to shape perceptions and sway purchasing decisions. However, their personal brands are built on transparency and relatability, which means their content and opinions can sometimes be unpredictable. An influencer’s past content, public opinions, or even their follower base can raise concerns about brand alignment.

Brand safety in Influencer Marketing involves thoroughly vetting creators to ensure that they:

1. Have an authentic following free of bots or fraudulent engagement.
2. Align with the brand’s values and have no history of statements or actions that could pose a risk.
3. Comply with industry regulations, such as ad disclosure standards.
4. Can maintain professionalism, even under public scrutiny.

How to ensure brand safety 

Brand safety is an integral part of campaign planning. At Digital Voices, we employ clear best practices to ensure influencer campaigns are both impactful and secure. Although tech tools and AI can support brand safety checks, we take pride in ensuring that manual human checks are always conducted so that nothing can slip through the net. 

1. Follower analysis

Using specialized tools, both that we’ve partnered with, like Captiv8 and built like our internal strategy tool Composer, we evaluate creators’ audience and historic engagement data to verify the authenticity of their audience. This process identifies red flags like unusually high follower spikes or low engagement rates that indicate inauthentic or purchased followings.

2. Media and brand safety checks

We conduct comprehensive background checks to uncover any controversies, misconduct, or statements that contradict the brand’s ethos. For example, a brand focused on sustainability would avoid creators who have previously been accused of promoting unethical practices.

3. Regulation compliance 

We assess influencers’ adherence to advertising regulations. Creators who have a history of noncompliance are flagged as potential risks. Oversights can lead to fines or loss of consumer trust in a brand.

4. Morals clauses in contracts

Every partnership we undertake includes a morals clause in the contract, legally binding creators not to engage in activities that could harm the brand’s reputation. This clause provides a clear course of action should an influencer's actions result in public backlash.

5. Brand safety in ad placements

Beyond influencer selection, ensuring a controlled advertising environment is essential. We work with DoubleVerify to monitor ad placements, ensuring that our creator's and clients' ads only appear in brand-safe contexts. DoubleVerify offers advanced content filtering and real-time ad monitoring to ensure any concern is immediately actioned. 

What can go wrong? 

Failing to prioritize brand safety can lead to reputational and financial consequences for your brand. Consider these scenarios:

• Your brand’s ad appearing alongside hate speech or violent content can alienate consumers and damage trust. They may subconsciously align your brand with these themes.  
• Working with a creator who later becomes involved in a scandal can lead to public criticism and calls for boycotts. You should have a strategy in place for this whether it be a standard response to hateful comments or restrictions on comment sections.
• Ads failing to disclose paid partnerships risk penalties and public backlash for perceived dishonesty in connection with your brand.

Brand safety is more than a precaution, it’s a necessity for protecting your company’s reputation. By adopting thorough vetting processes, incorporating legal safeguards, and utilizing technology to control ad placements, your brand can minimize risks and maximize the effectiveness of your Influencer Marketing efforts.

Partnering with agencies like Digital Voices that prioritize these practices ensures that your campaigns are not only impactful but also protected from brand safety risks.

Want to learn more about brand safety in Influencer Marketing? Reach out to us at hello@digitalvoices.com.