Oxford Road's Path to Brand Safety & Suitability

By Dan Granger

One of your first jobs as a marketer is to follow the marketer’s version of the Hippocratic oath–to do no harm to your brand. But your other job is to grow, and these directives can easily come into conflict. Advertising on politically-oriented shows or leveraging hosts with strong followings can be a way to capture attention in a crowded space. But that also exposes your brand to the controversies that the hosts and their guests can create.

You don’t have to look far back to have an example of how these controversies go for advertisers. Here’s what you’re likely to expect.

First, the host or guest says something controversial that a specific group wants to call out.

Next, you would receive an email—from a seemingly credible media outlet, blog, or group—seeking comment about your intention to continue your existing relationship with the program. Oftentimes, there’s a deadline for you to make a comment before your brand name is released on a list. That list will be used by a constituency who will contact you and others at your company—accusing you of supporting the beliefs of the offending party. 

Usually, the host’s words are taken somewhat out of context, but it doesn’t matter because the optics are bad and you wish they had made their point differently. You are tempted to respond to the email. However, real customers are rarely involved. Usually you will start to receive pressure from within your company. Questions start flying at you about why you would ever consider affiliating your brand with programs that so clearly do not represent the values your company represents. All the pressure to hit growth and CAC goals are out the window and now you must respond—or so it seems. All of this has happened in a matter of hours. It is at this precise moment that you must ignore your impulses to act and take a moment to pause amidst the immense amount of pressure and judgment surrounding you. 

Instead of following your emotions…Here’s what you need to do:

1. Address Internal Stakeholders 
2. Say Nothing Publicly
3. Immediately “Pause” Your Media Investment 
4. Gather Facts and Think Deeply
5. Lay Out All Your Options
6. DECIDE

One final note. Last year we began working with a company called Barometer to build a tool in order to proactively get ahead of this type of scenario. Powered by AI, Barometer is able to apply a Brand Safety & Suitability score by rating each episode and show using the GARM framework in order to determine the risk level of content. By looking through a host or shows track record you, as a brand marketer, are able to determine if the content they put out is consistent with your brand values and if it’s something you can feel confident sponsoring based on their track record.

As a brand marketer you don’t have hundred of hours in the day to listen to new shows you’re looking to test or to track episodes released by the hosts you’re currently choosing to sponsor. Barometer does this for you, all you have to do is sign up for an account and assign risk levels (no, low, medium, high) you are comfortable with across the 12 Risk adjacent elements GARM warns against. In a matter of second you have full transparency into the content of the show, can see potential issues flagged, and are able to make a data-backed decision as to whether or not you feel confident investing your brand dollars in a show.

Go forth and spend your influence wisely. 

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