• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, March 3, 2022

This week’s intent data suggests marketers are looking to implement “roadblocking” in their advertising efforts. A tactic often used for gaining attention and engagement, the term describes what happens when all placements on a particular website or page are “roadblocked” with the same creative, taking over all ad sizes at once. Roadblocking has many advantages for companies looking to gain brand awareness quickly, as it enables advertisers to own 100% of voice for a given period in our distracted world. 

Marketers should take caution when using this tactic, though, because rising customer expectations mean that audiences have come to certain expect a level personalization from advertising. “One-size-fits-all” messaging is designed to appeal to everyone, but often ends up appealing to no one.

The nascency of the digital advertising ecosystem means that privacy and brand safety will continue to remain important topics in the industry for the foreseeable future. Week over week, “brand safety” remains a key area of interest among both cohorts, according to Bombora Company Surge, and the deeply disturbing events this week in Eastern Europe will only make it more important. Any professional advertiser is aware of brand-safety concerns and the importance of the context in which ads show up — and B2B Marketers have to understand the context and adjacencies in which their messaging is being consumed. In recent years some of the world’s largest advertising platforms have made brand-safety controls available to users. 

Some platforms have gone so far as to create dashboards to show safety and sustainability grades for campaigns running on them. With so much uncertainty still surrounding privacy regulations, advertisers will likely rely on using first-party data even more. And, considering new brand safety changes, marketers now can rest assured that they have significantly more control over their brand’s reputation.