Trustworthy Accountability Group (Tag) Study: 80% of People would Avoid Buying Brands Featured Next to Extreme or Dangerous Content
Trustworthy Accountability Group (Tag) recently conducted a study. Results from the study revealed that 80% of people would avoid buying brands featured next to extreme or dangerous content. The study showed that 80% of people in the US reduced or stop buying a product if it was advertised next to extreme or dangerous content online.
About the Trustworthy Accountability Group (Tag) Study
The study was created to highlight what they described as “the real and measurable risk to a company’s bottom line from a preventable brand safety crisis”. Trustworthy Accountability Group (tag) worked with the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) on the study. They surveyed 1017 people and tested how a range of hypothetical situations involving ad misplacement would impact their purchase decisions. On this post, we would discuss some of the results from the study.
Results from Trustworthy Accountability Group’s Study
73% of people in the study believed that running creative adjacent to hate speech was most damaging for brand reputation. 72% of consumers stated that brands should take steps to prevent themselves from being associated with phonography. 70% of consumers stated that brands should make it a priority to stop their ads from appearing next to violent content. The overwhelming majority (90%) said was very or somewhat important for brands to ensure their ads weren’t placed on websites or apps that hosted dangerous or inappropriate content. Just 2% believed it wasn’t the responsibility of advertisers to ensure this didn’t occur. When shown an ad next to a Neo-Nazi propaganda video (which is what household brands were appearing next to during YouTube’s 2017 brand safety crisis) 87% said they would reduce spending on the product being promoted, while 58% said they’d stop buying it altogether. 90% said they would reduce spending on brands shown next to terrorist recruitment videos, while 67% said they would boycott it. 93% stated that they’d limit how much they invested in a brand if it advertised on a site that had infected their computer or mobile device. 73% said they’d completely cut it from their shopping basket. When asked who should be responsible for ensuring ads do not run with dangerous, offensive, or inappropriate content, respondents assigned responsibility broadly. 70% said it fell to the advertiser, 68% said the ad agency, 61% the website owner and 46% the technology provider.
Trustworthy Accountability Group (Tag) Speaks on the Study
Mike Zaneis, chief executive of Tag and co-founder of BSI spoke about the study. He stated that it drives home the real and measurable risk to a company’s bottom line from a preventable brand safety crisis. He explained that even though reputational harm can be hard to measure, consumers said that they plan to vote with their wallets if brands fail to take the necessary steps to protect their supply chain from risks such as hate speeches, malware, and piracy. Read the full article
