Social media makes progress in brand, consumer safety

Dive Brief:

IPG Mediabrands and Magna’s latest Media Responsibility Index indicates slight improvement among social media platforms when it comes to safety, inclusivity, sustainability and data ethics, according to a press release.
Broadcast and cable, meanwhile, have the highest safety ratings, largely due to longstanding federal industry regulations and third-party enforcement when it comes to children’s advertising and general approvals.
Digital-first connected TV platforms have higher data ethics scores than their traditional-media-led counterparts, mainly because their origins are tech-oriented.

Dive Insight:

Per Mediabrands, concern continues to increase over the impact of misinformation on society. Its Media Responsibility Index (MRI) was created in 2020 to address a seeming lack of concern among social media platforms to acknowledge, measure and reduce the harmful effect their practices were having on consumers and brands.

Findings include that Snap is outperforming all platforms in its efforts to protect people and combat misinformation through publisher diligence, achieving a 6-point year-over-year lift. TikTok gained eight points on brand safety and a 24-point increase in children’s well-being. YouTube led online video inclusivity with 60% diversity in behind-the-camera casting for owned and diverse content and high marks for safety through its user-generated content policy and enforcement tools.

Since its launch, the MRI has evolved from a survey of 10 social media platforms into a wide-ranging study of more than 150 media outlets across a variety of formats in 15 countries. The latest study, MRI 4.0, evaluated outlets across broadcast, cable, connective TV, online video and display. Each outlet was assessed across four priorities — safety, inclusivity, sustainability and data ethics — in accordance with industry ESG standards.

The standards were then ranked according to Mediabrands’ 10 “Media Responsibility Principles,” enabling agency teams and clients to incorporate brand and consumer safety findings as they consider media investments.

“Our clients are increasingly pursuing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria within their own businesses and we are providing a resource to support these goals along with advocating for stronger, safer standards in media,” said Mediabrands’ Global CEO Eileen Kiernan in a release.