Verizon Is No Longer Boycotting YouTube Ad Buys
James Kosur — August 17, 2017 — August 17, 2017
Photo Credit: YouTube
Verizon has ended its boycott on YouTube ad buying. The company stopped buying ads from the Google-owned company five months ago. The sudden stop was issued after the company became concerned about the type of content its ads were being paired with.
Verizon Chief Media Officer John Nitti told AdAge that the company hired Integral Ad Science to ensure that the company’s new YouTube ads were being engaged with and not shown next to offensive, violent, and other unsuitable content.
The telecommunications giant is starting with a small ad spend to test Integral Ad Science’s platform before returning to higher ad buys.
In response to the company’s new initiative, Google notes that it has supported third-party viewability reporting on YouTube since 2015. Among the company’s trusted partners are Integral Ad Science, Moat and Double Verify.
“This is an overall industry issue that Verizon is trying to address across the board, not just with Google and YouTube, but with all of our partners,” Nitti told AdAge.
AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and other Fortune 500 companies also froze their YouTube ad spends earlier in the year after it was discovered their ads were being shown next to ISIS-based video content.
Photo Credit: YouTube
Woo’ing back Verizon would be a big win for YouTube. The company spends $ 2.7 billion each year on advertising, making it the sixth largest ad buyer in the United States.
YouTube officials are already considering how to improve the ad protections it offers to buyers and plans to launch new initiatives in the “coming months” to deal with ad buyer concerns.
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