Brand safety’s renaissance—navigating the AI era

Brand safety is undergoing a renaissance in today’s age of artificial intelligence. Since the ‘90s, brands have sought to protect their reputations by controlling ad placements. However, the explosive growth of social media, the emergence of new media channels and the surge in misinformation have dramatically increased the complexity of maintaining brand safety. Recent events, including the upcoming U.S. election and the shutdown of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), have thrust brand safety back into the spotlight. GARM’s dissolution, resulting from legal pressure by Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), has highlighted tensions between platform policies, advertiser concerns and free speech advocacy. Occasionally, larger incidents such as the 2017 YouTube adpocalypse or the 2020 Facebook boycotts will resurface brand safety concerns. Still, one area in particular has been simmering for years. With the rise in influencer marketing over the past decade and the number of channels marketers need to have their messaging in, it has become nearly impossible to canvas all the surface area needed to keep brands safe. Although some influencers are perennially in the spotlight, like MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) with his ongoing controversies surrounding philanthropic content and business ventures in 2023, even seemingly “safe” creators like Brooke Schofield have gone through their own scandals. Schofield had several racist and homophobic tweets posted in her teenage years resurface earlier this year, leading to significant backlash and brand distancing. If it’s that challenging to work with the biggest creators, how can brands be expected to monitor hundreds of hours of past video footage across multiple different networks? For the last decade, it would either involve extremely costly manual effort, or it was just chalked up as a risk of doing business in influencer marketing. In a great irony, during a period where brands are somewhat leery of AI, it also might be a saving grace in terms of brand safety. The AI revolution in brand safety Traditional methods of vetting creator partners are time consuming and prone to human error. More than 5.17 billion people use social media, and with more than 200 million creators worldwide, manual processes are no longer sufficient. AI is stepping in as a game-changer, revolutionizing brand safety efforts by: At Lightricks, we’ve found that AI can transform brand safety efforts. By applying the expertise gained from developing our AI-powered tools to content analysis, we’re able to create sophisticated and efficient brand safety solutions. One example of this is SafeCollab, a new tool we released that leverages AI to quickly assess creator content across various platforms. This approach not only streamlines the vetting process for marketers but also creates a more transparent environment for brand-creator partnerships. The real power here lies in AI’s ability to process vast amounts of visual data rapidly and more accurately than humans ever could. This technology doesn’t just make our jobs easier; it fundamentally improves how brands and creators can work together. Navigating the AI-powered brand safety landscape As we embrace this new era, there are five key strategies marketers should work to incorporate: The intersection of AI and brand safety will continue to evolve. In the future, we anticipate more sophisticated AI models that will understand context and nuance, further reducing false positives and negatives in content moderation. We also expect to see AI-created content push the scale and speed of social networks, as well as turn up new conversations related to content rights and ownership. At Lightricks, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of this evolution. Our vision is to create an ecosystem where brands and creators can collaborate confidently, knowing that AI is working behind the scenes to make their jobs easier and to safeguard their interests and reputations. As technology continues to advance, embracing AI isn’t just an option—it’s a necessity. By doing so in a strategic way, we can foster partnerships that not only protect brand interests but also promote shared values, increase visibility and strengthen audience trust in our increasingly complex digital world. About Lightricks Lightricks, an AI-first company, is revolutionizing how visual content is created. With a mission to bridge the gap between imagination and creation, Lightricks is dedicated to bringing cutting-edge technology to the creative and business spaces. Our AI photo and video generation models, which power our apps and platforms including Facetune, Photoleap, Videoleap and LTX Studio, allow creators and brands to leverage the latest research breakthroughs, offering endless control over their creative potential. Our influencer marketing platform, Popular Pays, provides creators the ability to monetize their work and offers brands opportunities to scale their content through tailored creator partnerships.

Brand safety’s renaissance—navigating the AI era

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