GARM Folds —OOH Must Become The Most Brand Safe Channel

by Nick Parker, Global President (Veridooh)

When Elon Musk walked into the offices of Twitter (now X) brandishing a kitchen sink, he made it clear that the media industry should brace itself for disruption. And so it was last week, when the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) folded in the wake of a Musk-led lawsuit accusing the organization of trying to coordinate a boycott against X and other publishers.

GARM was originally set up in 2019 as a cross-industry initiative designed to increase brand safety, giving advertisers greater transparency about where and how their brands were appearing in online advertising. Unfortunately, as a not-for-profit organization, it was never going to be able to meet the financial strain of a court case against one of the world’s most litigious billionaires.

In today’s polarizing environment, we shouldn’t be surprised that advertiser views on what is a brand safe environment might be different to that of a tech billionaire running a digital town square.

Regardless of your political views, the downfall of an online brand safety watchdog should be viewed as a disheartening development. The implementation of content guardrails for Meta was good for both the industry and for society, allowing advertisers to avoid placing ads against misinformation and hate speech. Its dissolution feels like a step backwards in the fight to make online advertising more transparent and accountable. Advertising online is more unsafe for brands as a result.

And despite winning this battle, Musk might find himself losing the war – it’s hard to see how anyone comes away from this more likely to want to invest in advertising on X. The platform volatility, absence of brand safety reassurances and hanging threat of litigation will lead many to conclude that advertising on X is just not worth the risk.

So for the embattled CMO and media director, the already difficult job of steering a brand through issues around brand safety became a lot harder this week.

it’s hard to see how anyone comes away from this more likely to want to invest in advertising on X.

But once again we are reminded of the advantages that OOH is naturally gifted with; a politically neutral, inherently public channel that does not carry problematic content association risks.

OOH must lean into the brand safety conversation, promoting the channel’s natural advantages to present advertisers with a better alternative to the chaos of online. In doing so, OOH can claim its rightful position as the most brand safe channel for advertisers to invest in, rationalizing and commanding a greater share of ad spend as a result.

Unlike online ads, where placement can feel like rolling the dice, OOH offers a controlled, predictable environment. Brands can know exactly where their ads will be displayed, with zero risk of association with harmful content. In a world where brand reputation is everything, this kind of certainty is priceless.

But in order for OOH to claim this position as the most brand safe channel, the industry needs to offer advertisers a truly transparent delivery experience. We need to give advertisers complete confidence that their campaigns are delivering exactly as planned, setting a striking contrast against the ambiguity and unpredictability of online.

We have the most brand safe, trusted and impactful ad inventory – let’s prove it. This means implementation of fully independent third party verification at scale, now.

Here at Veridooh, our mission is to make OOH a more trusted, automated and effective channel for advertisers to invest in.

Our proprietary technology independently collects play data directly from the panel, leaving no room for doubt that an ad is delivering exactly as the publisher is saying it is – all presented in a straightforward dashboard available to all stakeholders. No dark corners of the web. No problematic content associations. Just transparency, visibility, and clarity.

Earlier this year, we ran a survey of Veridooh users to better understand the importance of independent verification in driving investment decisions.

The response from our clients was unanimous: 100% of respondents agreed that independent verification had increased their confidence in OOH as a channel. 35% of respondents agreed that their investment in OOH had directly increased as a result.

The dissolution of GARM is a firm signal that choppy waters lie ahead for advertisers in the online world. The OOH industry can help navigate the path forward – offering stability and certainty in a politically derisked environment.

Independent Verification has an essential role in giving advertisers confidence that their campaigns are delivering as planned, in brand safe and fully accountable environments. By embracing Independent Verification, OOH can establish itself as the safest channel for advertisers to invest in.

The opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author and/or subject(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of OOH Today.