Sans Guardrails, Social Media Advertising Has Become Riskier for ‘Brand Safety’
An anticipated 120 million people watched the Super Bowl Sunday. Many tuned in just to see Super Bowl ads featuring celebrities, stunts, humor and nostalgia. That’s why advertisers paid $7 million or more for a 30-second chance to make an impression. For many, the high cost was a commercial no-brainer.
There is far less certainty for the future of advertising on social media platforms where guardrails and fact-checking for malicious or false content are slipping away to avoid the appearance of silencing freedom of speech.
The MAGA movement has forced brands and their marketers to abandon cultural hot buttons in their advertising campaigns. Brands and their marketers now worry about exposure and proximity to inappropriate or false content on social media platforms.
Facing Future of Relaxed Guardrails
X, formerly Twitter, has especially felt the effects of skittish advertisers fleeing the platform out of concern for brand safety. Meta, formerly Facebook, could be next after it dumped third-party fact-checking in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.
“X is a hot mess,” says Curtis Hougland, founder and CEO of People First. “The quality of the ads on the platform are really poor and often akin to late-night Fox News commercials. Musk politicized his decisions for X, demonstrating a path not worth taking for any social media platform looking to bring in revenue.” A 2024 study found only 4 percent of marketers think X ads provide brand safety. Marketer trust in X ads has fallen from 22 percent to 12 percent since 2022.
“Meta is not yet the wild west,” Hougland says. ”I suspect Meta will leave the general population to swim in dirtier waters, but they will tighten up sector-specific guardrails for brands,” using algorithms to avoid a pharmaceutical ad appearing adjacent to vaccine skeptic commentary.
Marketers won’t totally abandon Meta, he explains, “because it has perhaps the best ad-targeting functionality on the planet. It is massive. If TikTok is indeed banned domestically, advertising on Meta becomes even more essential.”
Hougland predicts a wait-and-see period by brands and marketers to see whether Meta’s more relaxed publication standards drive away audiences or invite a wider set of viewers and attract more revenue.
Brands Create Their Own Platforms
Regardless, another trend picking up steam is for brands to create their own content platforms, thus providing their own brand safety, says Jason Ouellette, partner and co-founder of Escalate PR.
“Brands today are spinning up their own content hubs and using them as a place where prospects, customers and employees can get their latest information,” Ouellette says. “The decision by Meta could be a boon for those in corporate communications and PR as the ability to get your message and content out in a way that drives influence is controlled to a higher degree.”
Prime examples are the Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club apps where people go to buy apparel and enjoy the community of fellow runners. The brand media hubs include social events, challenges, leaderboards, expert guidance and exclusive content that aims to strengthen brand identity based on fitness.
Red Bull has traveled a similar path by sharing extreme sports content on dedicated media channels that promote its brand image. Dove uses its media platforms to promote body positivity and inclusivity with campaigns such as Real Beauty Sketches that seek to deepen brand engagement.
Another tactic is to use branded flagship social media sites to deliver customer service. The trend has become mainstream enough that Harvard Business Review has written about how to build your own brand platform, using Nike as a case study.
Super Bowl Unites Viewing Audience
Brand safety concerns were suspended for the Super Bowl as “veteran advertisers used celebrity cameos, humor and cute animals to win over watchers and newer advertisers courted the outrageousness using stunts to try to stand out in the battle to capture the attention of the more than 120 million viewers,” observed Mae Anderson of the Associated Press.
“As Eugene Levy’s trademark eyebrows fly off for Little Caesars. A tongue dances to Shania Twain to promote Nestle’s Coffee Mate Cold Foam. And Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reunite at Katz’s Deli in an ad for Hellmann’s,” Anderson wrote, “means one thing: it is Super Bowl ad time again.”
Regardless what team they root for, viewers will be watching and enjoying the ads. “This is a societal moment where we come together as a country,” explains Kimberly Whitler, marketing professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. That’s the safest place a brand can be these days.
Featured image: Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel for Haagen-Dazs; Eugene Levy for Little Caesars Pizza; Seal as a seal for Mountain Dew. PHOTO: HAAGEN-DAZS US/YOUTUBE; LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA/YOUTUBE; MOUNTAIN DEW/YOUTUBE.)
