In a recent episode of The Six Sells Podcast, host Mike Nicholson sat down with Emily Roberts, Head of Digital at Responsible Marketing Advisory and Co-founder of the Women in Programmatic Network, to discuss the urgent need for responsible practices in digital advertising. The conversation, prompted by recent alarming reports, delved into the persistent challenges of brand safety and transparency in the programmatic ecosystem.
Emily’s work at Responsible Marketing Advisory focuses on helping brands implement robust governance across digital channels, including social media and programmatic. This involves ensuring brand safety and improving processes in an increasingly complex landscape.
The discussion opened by revisiting a significant historical event: the 2017 YouTube crisis. Emily, who was at Google at the time, recounted the shock when a Times headline revealed that major brands' ads were appearing alongside inappropriate and extremist content. This incident triggered a mass exodus of advertisers and was a wake-up call for the industry regarding brand safety in user-generated content environments.
Fast forward to 2025, and alarming headlines are resurfacing. A recent analytics report, highlighted by the BBC, revealed that ads from major brands, including some industry giants, were found funding websites hosting child abuse content. The shocking similarity to the 2017 incident underscores a critical point: despite years of focus on brand safety, fundamental issues persist.
A core problem, as Emily explained, is the lack of transparency in programmatic advertising. Many advertisers simply do not know the specific websites where their ads are running. While programmatic offers efficiency and reach, the intricate web of intermediaries can obscure the final placement, making it difficult for brands to control their environment. This lack of visibility is not only a risk but, in Emily’s view, unacceptable, especially when dealing with sensitive or illegal content.
The solution, they argue, lies in a more deliberate and controlled approach. Relying solely on broad exclusion lists or chasing low CPMs on the open web can expose brands to significant risks. Instead, Emily advocates for curated site lists – potentially under 500 quality URLs based on research suggesting this is sufficient for reach – and working directly with premium publishers.
Supporting quality news brands and established publishers is crucial, not just for brand safety and suitability but also for sustaining vital investigative journalism. Unfortunately, these publishers often struggle financially while ad spend inadvertently ends up on questionable sites within the opaque programmatic long tail.
Emily also touched upon the "adtech tax", the significant portion of ad spend absorbed by technology fees between the advertiser and publisher. Working directly with publishers can reduce these intermediaries, offering greater transparency on where money is going and ensuring more budget reaches the content creators.
In conclusion, the conversation served as a stark reminder that in the pursuit of reach and efficiency, the ethical responsibility of where ads appear must remain paramount. Marketers need to move beyond passive buying, actively reviewing site lists, demanding transparency, and prioritising direct relationships with trusted, quality publishers to navigate the digital advertising landscape responsibly.
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