As the programmatic CTV market heats up, video content providers are counting on DSPs and SSPs to flag video creative in objectionable and highly regulated categories
Digital advertisers are chomping at the bit to meet video viewers on connected TV—eMarketer predicts programmatic ad spend on CTV in the US alone will hit $6.73 billion in 2021 and $8.67 billion in 2022. Programmatic buying platforms are getting slammed with
But what’s in the content of these videos? Especially when it comes to ads appearing on the biggest screen in the household, video content providers are wary of serving offensive creative or wading into highly regulated ad areas like pharmaceuticals or political advertising.
Who is ensuring that gambling ads aren’t showing up on children’s shows? Do video channels know when pharmaceutical ads will be delivered? What about adult or provocative content during Sunday morning news and religious programming?
Video content provider creative policies are rightfully strict, and violating them could cost an AdTech partner a lot of business. Therefore DSPs and SSPs alike need to screen video creative for potentially offensive content or regulated categories at scale, and in a way that doesn’t slow down operations because advertisers keep on uploading ads.
That’s where Video Ad Categorization comes in. A video-specific spinoff of our Ad Categorization tool, this solution uses AI to analyze video creative against more than 15 categories of contentious subject matter—before ads hit user screens.
How Video Ad Categorization Works
Precise and Flexible
Rather than rely on advertiser self-declaration or the IAB Content Taxonomy, The Media Trust has built out its own creative categorization system in collaboration with major AdTech platforms to offer more precise classification. These categories include:
- Adult Content
- Alcohol
- Gambling
- Violence, Guns and Knives
- Inflammatory/Hate
- Marijuana (CBD & THC)
- Pharmaceuticals
- Political
- Tobacco
Beyond speech translation and text/object identification, our AI leverages logo recognition to confidently categorize sensitive creative.
Ads in question may not focus on a specific category, but could contain a sensitive element—for example, a person drinking a glass of wine in a travel creative. That’s why we have easily adjustable tolerance thresholds based on AI confidence levels to empower AdTech platforms in building policies. In addition, platforms can receive violation alerts and easily review video playback right in the dashboard. The user interface also enables escalation and re-scanning, as well as direct remediation with advertisers.
Most important, Video Ad Categorization is fast. DSPs and SSPs can upload large batches of creative through The Media Trust API and receive results in as little as 15 minutes.
Keep Video Clean
Digital video is an exciting, rapidly evolving space, and CTV represents the culmination of many advertiser, content provider, and consumer desires. However, to keep this medium pristine, AdTech platforms have to protect users and downstream partners from offensive creative or advertising-driven liability.
