AdSafe is taking aim at one of the hottest trends in online marketing with its newly released quarterly safety review: it finds that a large portion of user generated content is a significant concern to clients with high sensitivity brands or high sensitivity industries.
According to AdSafe, non-transparent inventory decreased from 58% to 18% of traffic over the course of Q4, with “non-transparent” defined as inventory for which the buyer did not know the exact identity of the webpage on which advertising appeared.
However of those inventory flows, 29% was served to sites featuring user-generated content - 27% of which was deemed inappropriate for brand advertisers. "Given its dynamic nature, UCG inventory has a higher risk profile for brands with valuable brand equity and in high sensitivity verticals," the report says. "Brands’ lack of control over UCG content allows for “off brand” associations which can erode brand equity and / or subject brands in highly regulated industries (such as pharmaceutical) to regulatory infractions."
Some of this risk can be averted by using platforms and partners that provide full ad transparency, according to AdSafe. However the rising levels of UGC - and its growing use in social media campaigns - show the risks can only be partially mitigated.
Chevy Tahoe
One only has to think back to the Chevy Tahoe YouTube campaign, once found at Chevyapprentice.com, but since discontinued. Chevy provided users with video clips and soundtracks, and encouraged them to remake these elements into commercials. As is widely known, environmentalists used the platform to create ads representing their point of view - many of which became very popular on YouTube.
Chevy responded with its own post, explaining its position and why it allows users to have free reign with its images.
Very Popular
Despite this episode - or perhaps because of it, the publicity it generated and because of Chevy's reaction - user generated content is still a very popular way for brands to engage their customers. Increasingly it is making its way into in high profile campaigns or campaigns by such entities as branches of the government.
HomeAway, an online vacation rental marketplace, is launching its first national integrated marketing campaign on Super Bowl Sunday, with a user generated content component that links into the television ad.
Michigan recently introduced its Pure Michigan Facebook page, which not only gives fans such information as where the fish are biting and what greens are running fast but also allows users to create ads as part of campaign.
