It’s Time to Create a Risk-Free, Open and Connected Advertising Environment

The airplane is a miracle of an invention. A trip from New York to London, once a week-long steamship journey, can be completed in just six hours. But even with the promise of speedy travel, would you ever buy a ticket, even at a discounted rate, from an airline that deprioritized safety? Of course, you wouldn’t. The risk isn’t worth it.

Same goes for advertising.

Today, major digital advertising platforms are rife with risk, like privacy issues, data misuse, measurement chaos and brand safety neglect. When some platforms lowered barriers to entry for advertisers, they also lowered the basic standards of doing business. As consumers, we are all paying the price.

It’s time to stand up for a better way of doing business, creating a risk-free, open and connected advertising environment that benefits everyone and welcomes more brands.

The idea that lowering barriers to entry must come at the expense of quality standards is a false choice. It’s entirely possible to open up advertising to more marketers while still ensuring that the medium is safe for consumers and brands.

For decades, audiences have loved premium content, and advertisers have trusted networks’ multiscreen advertising ecosystems. That’s why the premium media industry has refused to compromise its core values for how that content is created and distributed, even as we disrupt legacy mindsets and reinvent how we operate.

Innovations in premium advertising—from new ad formats, reduced ad loads, AI targeting solutions, automated systems to new measurement—are enhancing the viewing experience and helping more marketers tell better stories to build stronger brands. And this is just the beginning. As premium advertising becomes smarter, more accessible and more effective, newer companies can finally move beyond limited point-and-click interactions to showcase their products on the national stage and forge meaningful connections with customers.

Already what had been an exclusive space for established companies is now welcoming a wave of entrepreneurs whose disruptive brands had long been at a disadvantage against larger incumbents. But here’s the best part: The marketplace is opening up without any compromises on consumer or brand safety.

This type of transformation in premium advertising will have incredible effects on the entire economy. It will supercharge competition, drive innovation and shift the balance of power between legacy brands and the next generation of upstarts. In other words, the revolution we’re experiencing in media, in technology and in our economy will lead to more change in the next few years than we’ve seen in the last 50.

So, instead of a race to the bottom, every single media publisher, agency and platform needs to raise standards to let a safer, smarter, more accessible advertising ecosystem take flight. And if we look to other industries, we know it’s possible.

Today’s airlines adhere to the highest standards of security and safety, engage in healthy competition and provide options to all kinds of travelers. As a result, they keep continents connected, strengthen cultures and fuel entire economies. I believe the advertising and media industry can come together and do the same. It is what people deserve, and it’s what businesses need.

The only question is: Are you onboard?

Linda Yaccarino

@lindayacc

Linda Yaccarino is chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships for NBCUniversal. She is also a member of the Adweek Advisory Board.