Originally published on Mercado Negro in Spanish

As big and deep as an abyss of information and data. Today, that's the internet. With more than 3 million searches on Google , more than 41 million messages circulating on WhatsApp,more than 4.5 million videos watched on YouTube and more than 1 million accesses to Facebook , all in one minute, according to data from Digital Information World , how are you doing marks to be part of that conversation without falling into the gray areas of the universe?

It seems that this is a task that few are solving and for which there is still a long stretch to learn. In this path of accelerated change and development, companies are betting on exposing their brands to this environment , often without having a real knowledge of the threats that can be found along the way.

They are usually reacting when something has already happened to them. Verbigracia we have the cases of #retodeMomo (or momo challenge ), which would have been sent in Facebook messages or appeared in half of children's videos on the Internet, many of which would be content linked to companies aimed at segments of children and youth ; or those dangerous coincidences in which the brands, their messages and / or their keywords coincide with contents of doubtful reputation, for example, the advertising of cruises with photographs or news of shipwrecks, which has already happened.

Clear examples of how not to apply security protocols to digital advertising end up contaminating brands and, therefore, affecting their reputation. As these have already been many cases and are missing to appear more. And is that the internet is a long blog that continues to be filled with content every minute, so it is difficult to control. In that sense, it is basic for brands to apply Brand safety .

Read also: The Brand Safety Edge

And it is that outlining advertising in relation to categories of content related to types of users and according to the interests of the brand is not entirely effective in terms of reputation management, without considering other tools, such as those that allow us to make a research prior to the launch of our campaigns; or those of listening , which allow us to know what is being talked about in the digital environment; or the tools of ad validation, such as Moat, Comscore, Integral Ad Science, that help us to check and validate the advertising spaces pre-campaign and during the campaign, and be able to take measurements and optimize in real time.
The tools exist, but unfortunately not all advertisers implement them or know about them, and in this they fall from small companies to larger ones.

Also, another of the problems facing brands in the current times is advertising fraud or ad fraud . Here we find different types: clicks generated by robots, pixel stuffing, add stocking, media fake phishing , among others. For this reason, it is important that brands use media and platforms that allow them to be audited and that agencies audit the purchases of space and tageen advertising pieces, so that the brand is permanently monitored. That is, transparency is an unavoidable factor in the design of campaigns.

In the midst of the sea of ​​content that abounds on the Internet it will be difficult to control one hundred percent the risks that may affect a digital communication campaign, but it is about using all the existing protocols to minimize the risks that contexts other than those objectives and intentions of companies and / or advertisers spoil the reputation of their brands.