Is Your Brand in Safe Hands?

Marketers Have 99 Problems but Here's the Biggest 1:

There are a million and one things that keep marketers up at night; creative and strategic decisions, financing and resourcing, logistical and scheduling conflicts and so much more that affect a brand's journey.

Really what marketers are asking is whether or not their brand is in safe hands.

With the fragmentation of audiences and content split across so many popular platforms, they want to know that their brand is on a reliable feed that is consistently delivering on performance objectives. Questions often arise about the transparency of the platform's policies, reliability of the data and tools and validity of the audience and traffic. What else could be more important for marketers than the safety of what they continuously build - and relevancy to ensure they will always have a space in people's minds?

Picking the Right Platform

The first place they look is the Platform itself; What experience does it offer? What content does it display? And finally, is the brand audience even on the platform? When platforms deliver on these three metrics they prove the integrity and relevance of their platform and inspire confidence from businesses for their products, information and interface. Popular, rapidly growing, platforms like TikTok are ahead of the curve in ensuring they offer everyone a safe, inclusive and diverse experience from end to end with features and tools in-app.

In fact TikTok is one of the only platforms that has a minimum age threshold for users i.e. 13 and up. Beyond that features like Family Pairing allow guardians and parents to screen content their family is exposed to. TikTok have taken steps to keep the platform a place for people 13 and older and identify those who may have mistakenly registered on the platform. TikTok has also introduced meaningful tools and policies designed to promote a safe and age-appropriate experience for teens 13-17. For example, when younger teens start using TikTok, the platform intentionally restricts access to some features, such as LIVE and Direct Messaging, and automatically set accounts of users ages 13-15 to private by default.

Moreover, TikTok also has rigorous fact-checking and screen-time management functions that ensure users have a healthy experience, along with curbing misinformation. All of which can be explored via readily updated T&Cs, Privacy Policies and Community Guidelines. In fact, the overall positive perception of a platform usually spawns from the user experience and will often affect the perception of business viability for brands and marketers.

So, understanding how robust and updated the policies of a platform are - such as Community Guidelines - is usually the first sign of a platform you can trust to keep your brand safe.

Partnerships that Deliver

But it's 3P partnerships - and the endorsement that comes with them - that most brands can look to when picking their Always-On platforms of choice. This is a valid concern in the post-iOS14/Cookie less world where user-level measurement is becoming difficult. Both media strategies and measurement models are evolving to be able to effectively gauge the viability and relevance of their platforms of choice. Knowing that an objective 3P industry leader, specializing in safety and transparency is partnered with a platform, can offer security and clarity to brands.

TikTok has partnered with leading industry experts on ensuring a brand-safe environment. Through a model that places emphasis on Accountability, Transparency and Trust. A first-party solution called The Inventory filter which appears pre and post-bid which provides advertisers with an additional level of filtering above and beyond the Community guidelines. Available across KSA/UAE/EG/TR. TikTok has partnered not just with MOAT and Double Verify but also with other leading 3rd party agencies that set the global standards for ads and content. In the MENA and TR region alone TikTok announced 3 new solutions, in partnership with global leaders, aimed specifically towards ensuring brand content appears alongside UGC and Creator Content that not only follows community guidelines but is also filtered.

Other solutions and 3P industry leaders include:- A new third-party "post-bid" Integration with Zefr, that works in combination with the Inventory Filters, and is now available in UAE & KSA. And finally the third, and full-service solution, they announced was the latest integration with OpenSlate which is a pre and post-bid solution. This is a fully automated, end to end 3rd party solution, available in-feed, and launched in KSA in Arabic & English. TikTok also inaugurated its MENAT Safety Advisory Council. An external group of experts who have an ongoing dialogue with the TikTok team to discuss topics related to issues such as child safety, hate speech, misinformation, and bullying. TikTok works with the council to develop forward-looking policies that not only address the challenges facing TikTok today, but also identify existing and emerging issues in MENAT, which affect the platform and community, and develop strategies to tackle these challenges. The committee is invaluable in addressing the real challenges that impact digital wellbeing today, whilst identifying emerging issues specific to the MENAT region that affect TikTok and its community.

Clearly, TikTok is invested in the well-being and success of their community - including users, brands and businesses - which is why they are regularly implementing new tools to support that community to feel in control of their TikTok experience. Platform and Brand Safety are the bedrock of TikTok's diverse and creative eco-system, which is why their work in this space is never done.