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YouTube gifted ‘brand safety certificate’ by Jicwebs

YouTube gifted ‘brand safety certificate’ by Jicwebs

Companies should regard YouTube as a safe place for advertising their brands, it has been proclaimed.

Google’s video platform has, following an audit by BPA Worldwide, been handed a Jicwebs (The Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards in the UK and Ireland) brand safety certificate.

For those unfamiliar with such awards, they are handed out by The Digital Trading Standards Group and are designed to “significantly reduce the risk of misplacement of advertising across the digital trading ecosystem” and to recognise outlets that “uphold brand safety” and “prorect [sic] the integrity of digital advertising”.

The news comes just one day after we reported that a number of advertisers had recoiled in horror at the news that their brands were being advertised on alt-right channel InfoWars.

Just a few months ago advertisers were facing a similar nightmare over the controversy surrounding content deliberately designed to upset children and the problem of predatory comments directed at children being left in YouTube’s comments section. That, of course, followed on from the previous outcry about hate speech.

It'll all be fine

None of which seems to be of huge concern to Jicwebs.

"It's a breakthrough step and we welcome YouTube being certified and having that independent check on the processes they are applying," the director general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (which is a Jicwebs member) Paul Bainsfair said.

"This step reduces risk through increased transparency and we will continue, with the other Jicwebs stakeholders, to raise standards that reduce risk further."

Google UK and Ireland MD Ronan Harris added: "Providing more transparency and visibility to our advertising partners remains important to us, so we are pleased YouTube has achieved certification for brand safety by Jicwebs. We remain committed to listening and working with the industry on cross-industry standards for digital advertising."


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