While traffic has soared at many news sites during the pandemic, digital advertising has declined as marketers have pulled back on budgets and many are using keyword blocking to keep their marketing messages away from words mentioning coronavirus or COVID-19.
MediaMath, one of the industry’s leading DSP’s, is urging marketers not to use “blunt” keyword blocking. As an alternative, it is using the contextual tools of Peer39 to allow marketers to understand the “sentiment” of content, explains Daniel Sepulveda, SVP for Policy and Advocacy at MediaMath.
Through this alliance, the companies expect to expose an additional 30-35 percent of inventory with the contextual tools versus blunt blocking, he says in this interview with Beet.TV
Also seeking ameliorate the impact of blacklisting is Integral Ad Science, which is using machine learning to allow brands to be more “granular” in applying blocking. This according to IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider in this recent interview with Beet.TV
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of brand safety and the use of keyword blocking during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
