MCLEAN, VA. June 15, 2021—The Media Trust, global leader in quantifying and managing digital risk, today launched Video Ad Categorization, a groundbreaking AI-powered solution for identifying and isolating video ads featuring sensitive or objectionable content. Based on more than 15 categories of contentious subject matter, Video Ad Categorization enables AdTech platforms to efficiently comply with video provider creative policies and protect viewers from objectionable ad content.
Advertiser demand for digital video inventory has surged, especially with accelerated household adoption of connected televisions and ad-supported streaming services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital video ad spend is predicted to top $38 billion in 2021 and advertisers are flocking to programmatic video channels that offer unprecedented control over targeting and price when buying inventory on household TVs.
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs) need to swiftly identify sensitive and offensive material in the vast amount of video creative advertisers are uploading to their servers. This is not only to comply with the creative policies of downstream partners and video providers, but also to prevent potentially offensive ad content from appearing before viewers. Sensitive creative goes beyond categories such as nudity, alcohol, and violence to highly regulated advertising verticals like pharmaceutical and political.
“U.S. households are increasingly using connected TVs to enjoy their favorite programs and discover new ones—often on ad-supported video-on-demand channels (AVOD) that monetize through programmatic marketplaces,” said Chris Olson, CEO of The Media Trust. “Advertisers, demand and supply platforms, and video platforms all share a responsibility to maintain an appropriate digital environment that puts consumer safety first.”
Rather than rely on advertiser self-declaration of ad content, The Media Trust uses AI-powered speech transcription, text and object recognition, and logo identification to analyze video creative against more than 15 categories of contentious subject matter developed in partnership with major AdTech companies. These include:
- Alcohol
- Gambling
- Violence, Guns and Knives
- Inflammatory/Hate
- Nudity and Adult Content
- Marijuana (CBD & THC)
- Pharmaceuticals
- Political
- Tobacco
“A key factor in gaining access to more premium digital video inventory, especially on connected TVs, is the ability of AdTech platforms to meet acceptable creative policies and guarantee they’re not passing through ads that will upset or offend viewers,” said Cory Schnurr, Director of Marketplace Innovation at The Media Trust. “With the huge amount of video that advertisers want to deliver to consumers, AdTech platforms require automated quality control at scale that can flag volatile creative content, as well as religious, regulatory, and ‘brand’-sensitive elements.”
AdTech platforms can easily send large batches of video creative through The Media Trust’s API connection. Specific policies can be developed for each creative category based on AI confidence levels. Descriptive policy violations and video playback can be quickly surfaced in the intuitive interface, where AdTech platforms can also remediate violations with advertisers directly.
Video Ad Categorization is now live for multiple large video platforms. To learn more about, visit Video Categorization
About The Media Trust
The Media Trust is on a mission to make the internet a healthier, more valuable place for publishers and consumers. Working with the world’s largest, most-heavily trafficked digital properties and their upstream partners, The Media Trust delivers real-time security, data privacy, performance management and quality assurance solutions which help protect, monetize and optimize the user experience across desktop, smartphone, tablet and gaming devices. More than 600 enterprises, media publishers, ad networks/exchanges, and agencies—including 40 of comScore’s AdFocus Top 50 websites—rely on The Media Trust to protect their website, their employee internet use, their revenue and, most importantly, their brand.
