Zefr, the leading contextual data platform for brands and agencies, has partnered with YouTube to provide a Brand Safety & Suitability Measurement solution, which will be developed and rolled out throughout the course of 2021. This product will provide clients with brand safety & suitability measurement directly mapped to the 4A and GARM industry standards, which were introduced to the marketplace in September 2020.

The announcement comes on the heels of Zefr’s inclusion in YouTube’s Measurement Program (YTMP) as a Brand Suitability & Contextual Targeting partner. By adding Brand Safety Reporting capabilities, brands will be able to apply Zefr’s contextual data for granular post-campaign verification on suitability and safety, based on industry-standard risk thresholds as defined by the 4A’s and Global Alliance of Responsible Media. These reporting capabilities will be developed and rolled out throughout 2021 as Zefr and YouTube collaborate on integration with Google Ads Data Hub, providing seamless and secure Brand Suitability measurement on YouTube investments across both Google Ads and DV360.

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“Brands increasingly want to ensure their ads are not only brand safe, but brand suitable based on their unique risk-tolerances. We are encouraged by Zefr’s announcement of a Brand Safety & Suitability Measurement product on YouTube that maps back to the 4A’s APB and GARM Brand Safety & Suitability definitions, in an effort to standardize brand safety & suitability measurement on YouTube,” said Yale Cohen, EVP, Global Activation Standards at Publicis Media, which is a founding member of the 4A’s APB and a member of GARM.

Zefr’s Brand Suitability products are powered by their patented Human-in-the-Loop process, which brings scaled human review with machine learning to understand nuanced content. Traditionally, legacy contextual solutions were built for display advertising via keyword and semantic analysis to help marketers improve alignment with webpages, but keywords alone are insufficient indicators of suitability. Zefr’s technology will enable marketers to achieve Brand Suitability based on industry-standard risk thresholds, without imprecise and blunt tools like keyword blocking.

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“As major brand advertisers continue to shift their investment from television to YouTube, independent and trusted Brand Suitability measurement has become a necessity,” said Rich Raddon, Zefr co-founder and co-CEO. “Zefr is thrilled to partner with YouTube to build a Brand Safety & Suitability Measurement solution that reflects the critical work that the 4A’s and GARM have accomplished over the past year.”

As Brand Suitability became a key part of the advertising industry lexicon, MAGNA and the IPG Media Lab released the first quantitative research on the topic, called “Solving Brand Suitability”, in late 2019. The 3,800+ participant study measured different approaches to Brand Suitability, and their effects on consumer perception. Zefr’s human-in-the-loop approach was measured to drive considerable brand lift in key upper-funnel metrics including Purchase Intent, Recommendation Intent, and Relevance when compared to legacy contextual targeting techniques.