• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, March 1, 2017

ADmantX is a provider of data for brand planning and targeting. What makes it a bit different is its semantic cognitive technology and artificial intelligence (AI) profiling solution. RTBlog checked in with Giovanni Strocchi, the company’s CEO ,to find out more about brand safety and viewability as they relate to programmatic media.

RTBlog:What are “human, viewable, and appropriate impressions”? (HVAI) And what makes HVAI different from other types of viewability metrics?

Giovanni Strocchi: The HVAI paradigm should be the benchmark for all brand-led digital investments. We’ve all known for some time that fraudulent impressions shouldn’t be tolerated. The focus this year has been predominately on viewability, thanks to the comments of Procter & Gamble’s Marc Pritchard regarding digital’s antiquated media-buying practices. Any of the elements of HVAI isn't enough in isolation to judge campaign performance. A combined improvement in the quality of all three areas will contribute to improving the overall quality of programmatic.

You could argue that out of the three main issues the industry is facing—fraud, viewability, and brand safety—that brand safety should be the priority. Consumers won’t care that your ad spend has been wasted on fraudulent ad placements or that your ad didn’t meet the Media Rating Council’s viewability threshold.

However, they will be influenced—either positively or negatively—by the content your brand has selected to appear alongside. Consumers will judge brands for appearing to support dangerous or inappropriate content. 

Inventory that’s viewable by humans, and appropriate with regard to placement, should be the gold standard for all advertisers looking to ensure quality in a programmatic environment.

RTBlog:You’ve mentioned that you believe that pre-bid analysis is essential. Why?

Strocchi: The real-time nature of programmatic means there’s little margin for error, and for marketers to be confident of performance, knowing where an ad appeared after it’s been placed is no longer acceptable. Advertisers that rely solely on keyword analysis or simply hope for the best when making automated buys are placing their brand at risk of appearing in inappropriate environments.

Pre-bid analysis, in which inventory is assessed before a bid is made, is essential for marketers looking to efficiently and effectively place brand messages without the risk of inappropriate placements.

There are a number of benchmarks that should be incorporated into a placement strategy: context, sentiment, relevancy, and appropriateness, to name a few. The waste associated with ads placed in irrelevant environments has clear financial implications. hHwever, damage to brand reputation from an inappropriate placement can be harder to quantify. 

RTBlog:Which marketers are using pre-bid analysis today, or Natural Language Processing?

Strocchi: Natural Language Processing is a cognitive technology used during pre-bid analysis to read and understand content as a person would at an individual page level. By pulling out the key themes, sentiment and emotion that are elicited from content, decisions can be made in real time to determine whether the environment is suitable for the ad.

This deep understanding means a brand can actively target away from inappropriate or damaging content. Keyword targeting can’t understand the negative connotations of the content. Rather than suspend all digital advertising, brands can introduce tighter restrictions on ad placements.