Safeguarding Your Brand Against Dirty Attention

In the digital age, where content is king and attention is the currency, advertisers are increasingly facing the challenge of navigating the murky waters of the "dirty attention" economy. This term refers to the kind of attention an online ad receives when placed near content designed purely to attract views, thereby inflating the value and cost of ad placements. This phenomenon not only impacts advertising budgets but also raises significant concerns about brand integrity, misinformation, and the ethical implications of digital advertising practices.

While your marketing team, or advertising agency, are celebrating the number of views the ads they are creating are getting for you. Your brand and reputation may be skewing in a direction you don't like due to all these views.

The Cost of Misinformation

Advertisers allocate significant portions of their budgets to Cost Per Thousand (CPM) campaigns, aiming to maximize exposure. In the past this has been viewed positively as it 'increases brand reach'. However, when ads are placed next to misleading or sensational content intended to grab views, your advertising budget is inadvertently contributing to the proliferation of misinformation.

The algorithmic chase for clicks by advertising platforms often prioritizes engagement over accuracy, leading to an environment where sensational content thrives, supported by advertising dollars. This symbiosis between advertising spend and dubious content creators fuels a cycle that amplifies and rewards misinformation, fake news and problematic memes.

Today few people have the skill or time to validate the authenticity of the volumes of media they are immersed in. Add to that, that artificial intelligence (AI) tools make it easy to create realistic looking fakes in all areas of content creation. It's no wonder consumers are increasingly finding it harder to differentiate between genuine and fake.

For those who are quick to criticise others for being tricked by scammers using deep-fakes and misinformation, the sums of money involved in these cases are getting bigger. Which means that the 'click-bait' content is becoming more believable.

It also means that more people who are looking for a 'quick pay day' are taking advantage .Causing a rise in the number of websites using poor quality content (filled with inaccuracies, misinformation, fake news, synthetic media, AI generated videos and more) as they chase dirty attention to create revenue.

Brand Tarnishment by Association

The adage "you are the company you keep" rings particularly true in the context of online advertising.

From as far back as 2008, there have been warnings about ad placement that positions ads next to offensive or inappropriate content. In an iCD Research study done at the time, it was found that 78% of 1000 the participants said they would 'think less of a brand' if it allowed an ad to appear next to such content. While 40% said they blamed the advertisers for allowing their ads to be misplaced.

In 2022, a TAG/BSI brand safety survey found that 88% of respondents said that it is very important that advertisers ensure their ads are not placed near unsafe content.

Consumer trust is fragile. So in an era where brand values and ethics are under the microscope, the implications of having "difficult" associations can have long-lasting and very damaging affects.

Most consumers are not consciously aware of this problem yet, so there is still time to avoid the inevitable backlash and decline in consumer trust.

The Importance of Understanding Memes and Sources

Memes, a staple of internet culture, are potent tools for engagement. For some time now, brands have leveraged memes for advertising and promotional purposes for more reach and to grab attention.

However, a memes origins and meanings can be complex, layered, and context-dependent. Misinterpreting or misusing memes can alienate audiences or worse. Aligning your brand with unintended messages or ideologies for more reach and attention can be dangerous.

This is exactly what happened in Japan when the local Warner Brothers marketing team chose to leverage the then viral 'Barbenheimer' meme to promote the movies.

The source of all content, be it news articles, blog posts, or video content, can significantly impact the perception of an ad. Advertisers must be diligent in understanding the cultural and contextual nuances of the content they align with to avoid fails with major consequences.

Deep Background Checks on Influencers

Influencer marketing is a powerful strategy, yet it comes with its pitfalls. Influencers may present curated personas that align with a brand's values, but their other affiliations, past controversies, or the range of brands they represent can affect the authenticity and reception of an endorsement.

Whether it is you or an advertising platform that puts your ads within influencer content (ie. videos, podcasts, live streams, blogs, etc) the extent to which you vet your influencer matters.

Few advertisers check all content created by an influencer (usually due to the volume) and so are surprised when the influencer creates poor content (with misinformation, conspiracies, ideologically challenging or fake media) that conflicts with the brands values in which their ads appear.

The most high profile and stunning fall from grace was in 2022, when Kanye West went 'postal' on social media. The internet is awash with influencer fails that are far less offensive than Kanye West's, like Gal Gadot promoting Huawei mobiles while using an iPhone or influencer Terrie McEvoy who rigged a competition so her friends won the prize provided by her sponsor Tower Jewellers.

Deep background checks are essential to ensure that an influencer's overall persona, values, and associations do not conflict with a brand's ethos or contribute to the dirty attention economy by association.

For tips on conducting a deep background check, download a copy of 'A Checklist for Vetting Influencers and Brand Ambassadors'.

Identifying Dirty Attention in Your Advertising Outcomes

Factoring "dirty attention" into your advertising campaign results, ROI, and marketing statistics is crucial for several reasons that directly impact the effectiveness, efficiency, and ethical standing of your marketing efforts.

1. Accurate Measurement of Effectiveness: Dirty attention inflates engagement metrics, making campaigns appear more successful than they actually are in terms of reaching genuinely interested potential customers. By accounting for the quality of attention your ads receive, you can more accurately assess campaign effectiveness.
2. Cost Efficiency: Let's be crystal clear here. Ad budget spent on placements that garner dirty attention does not contribute to ROI positively. Identifying and minimizing such waste ensures that marketing budgets are spent more efficiently, targeting audiences that are more likely to convert. Only when you seperate out your dirty attention results can you truly understand how much of your spend it is consuming.
3. Brand Integrity and Reputation: Knowing that ads placed next to controversial, misleading, or inappropriate content harms your brand's reputation. If you decide to continue advertising in these ways, then you must be prepared to spend on initiatives that reduce the impact of dirty attention by taking proactive steps to protect your brand's integrity. By allocating budget towards an advertising or marketing contingency in this way, you are forced to factor this additional an necessary cost into your dirty attention ad spend.
4. Legal and Compliance Risks: In some industries, especially those heavily regulated (like finance, healthcare, and children's products), advertising next to inappropriate content can lead to legal issues and non-compliance penalties. Obviously it would be fool-hardy for an advertising exec to do this. By being able to provide the audit results for your advertising platform and provide insight into the ad placement controls and their chosen settings. You provide the board, other executives and compliance officers with confidence in your recommendations and a better understanding of why performance results are different to those of Company X.
5. Supporting Quality Content Creators: It's true that quality content creators cost more and have lower output, which is why so many choose platforms that thrive on sensationalism and misinformation. However a quality content creator is more likely to create a post that will go viral, one that will have longevity and give your brand reflected .

How to Avoid Dirty Attention

To navigate these challenges, advertisers can adopt several strategies:

1. Targeting and Personalisation: By recognizing and avoiding dirty attention, you can refine your targeting strategies to focus on channels, platforms, and content that aligns with your audience's interests and values. This leads to better personalization of your marketing messages and higher engagement from your target demographic.
2. Ethical Marketing: Marketing ethically is becoming increasingly important to consumers who prefer to engage with brands that demonstrate social responsibility. By actively avoiding dirty attention, your brand can stand out as an ethical player in a crowded marketplace, aligning with the values of your customers and building long-term loyalty.
3. Supporting Quality Content Creators: Redirecting ad spend away from platforms that thrive on sensationalism and misinformation towards those that produce quality, relevant content supports a healthier digital ecosystem. This not only benefits society at large but also helps cultivate a more engaged and loyal audience for your brand.
4. Pay-per-Click (PPC) Search Only: Get old school and advertise against search contexts that appeal to your audience's interests. Through search engine marketing (SEM) you may not get the volumes of impressions, however you do get to tightly control where and how your ads show up.
5. Embrace Ethical Advertising Networks: Choosing to spend advertising budgets on platforms and networks that prioritize ethical standards and transparency can help avoid the pitfalls of dirty attention. These platforms vet content and creators, ensuring alignment with brand values.
6. Foster Direct Relationships with Content Creators: Deeply investigate potential influencers then build direct partnerships with them. This give brands an opportunity to exercise greater control over the context in which their ads are placed. This approach encourages a more transparent and accountable relationship between the brand and content creator.
7. Prioritise Match Rate: If you're still focused on getting the lowest cost rather than the best value inventory then your spend is probably going straight to made of advertising (MFA) websites. A more important factor is match rate - how closely the audience your ad is shown to matches with the profile of who you want in your ad audience. Create campaigns and place your ads where you will get the highest possible match rate.

As the digital landscape evolves, so too must the strategies employed by advertisers to safeguard their brands. By recognizing the implications of the dirty attention economy and taking proactive steps to mitigate these risks, advertisers can protect their brand integrity, support accurate and meaningful content, and contribute to a healthier digital advertising ecosystem for all.