By Fiona Salmon, Managing Director, Mantis
At the heart of every great advertisement is something that pulls at the emotions of viewers – think of the always heartwarming John Lewis Christmas adverts or Cadbury’s absurdist drumming Gorilla. This is the simplest rule of advertising, but in a way, the hardest to execute effectively.
For brands, putting together an emotionally resonant ad can mean the difference between a sale or not, but for charities, capitalising on sentiment is the difference between having the funds to help those in need or not, especially during Christmas appeal campaigns. However, with UK consumers coming under the strain of the continued cost of living squeeze, charity donations have dropped by £5 billion in the last year, while spending on charity ads grew by 14% from 2022 to 2023.
In this constrained environment, especially at this time of year, charities need to be sure that all ad spend is carefully allocated, and will deliver results to help further their cause. But while thought and care are often put into a digital campaign’s creative, little thought is usually given to the sentiment of the content it is placed around. Couple this with a reliance on outdated brand safety tools, and it’s clear that charities are missing out on reaching potential supporters, who could be reading content that prompts a donation.
Missing the mark
For the majority of brands, avoiding news with a negative sentiment is vital for ensuring a positive brand reputation. Four–fifths of UK consumers prefer to view ads that are relevant to the content they are watching, reading, or listening to; for charities, the placements that are often most contextually relevant – and therefore the most likely to gain results – are next to content that many brands would avoid due to negative sentiment.
Charities must tread a fine line. For example, a charity looking to garner donations to provide aid to victims of a natural disaster would want their ads surrounding content discussing the disaster to maximise contextual relevance and consumer sentiment. However, content that looks to blame groups for its occurrence or that peddling falsehoods – such as the case of misinformation around the recent hurricanes in Florida – would need to be avoided.
Too often the tools deployed by charities to navigate ever-changing digital environments are not up to task. Imprecise keyword blocklists not only leave charities open to their ads appearing in potentially harmful places, but they can also cut the reach of campaigns – ultimately leading to wasted spend.
A change of tactic
It’s clear that legacy tools such as keyword blocklists are no longer enough for charities in today’s climate. Instead, there is a need for solutions that can keep up with the rapid pace of both the news cycle and the digital landscape.
AI-powered solutions provide charities with an extra level of control to reach consumers in the locations they are most likely to donate – without exposing them to risk. These tools can accurately analyse not just the content of a webpage, but the sentiment as well – whether text, still image, audio, or video – while using machine learning to constantly refine its parameters for what is brand suitable. In this way, charities can pinpoint contextually relevant slots without cutting their reach through blunt tools.
At the same time, not every issue can be solved through technology. Greater collaboration between charities, agencies, ad publishers is vital. While The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) is now defunct, the framework it created serves as an important first step to creating a shared language for brand safety and suitability that enables all parties to better discuss both risks and opportunities. Building upon this foundation will be vital as the digital landscape continues to evolve.
If charities are to continue to garner the donations needed to further the causes they champion, a new approach to brand suitability is vital. Relying on outdated tools that fail to understand the nuance of their advertising needs will cut them off from potential supporters. Instead, embracing AI-powered suitability tools will allow charities to reach their audience at the right place and the right time.
