Brand Safety Institute Names Two Dozen Industry Leaders to Help Design Brand Safety Curriculum

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2018  – The Brand Safety Institute (BSI) today named two dozen industry leaders as founding members of the BSI Editorial Board, which will help design the brand safety curriculum for BSI's accreditation program for corporate executives. The new editorial board includes senior executives focusing on brand safety and related issues from top trade associations – including the 4A's, IAB UK, IAB Tech Lab, ISBA, JICWEBS, and TAG – and companies – including Bank of America, Facebook, IPG Mediabrands, GroupM, and Pandora.

"If you want to establish a rigorous standard for brand safety knowledge and expertise, you need to consult with the industry leaders who have set the bar on those issues," said Neal Thurman, Co-Founder of BSI. "We are delighted to welcome a powerhouse panel of brand safety experts from across the digital advertising space to help us design a robust, impactful, and forward-thinking brand safety curriculum. Working together, we can give brand safety executives the information and tools they need to protect their brands – and our ecosystem – from the growing range of brand safety threats."

Founding members of the BSI Editorial Board include:

• Joe Barone, Managing Partner, Digital Ad Operations, GroupM North America
• Rob Beeler, Chairman, AdMonsters       
• Alyssa Bergman, VP & Chief Privacy Officer, Adobe
• Jason Bier, EVP, Chief Data & Privacy Officer, Engine Group
• Dennis Buchheim, SVP & GM, IAB Tech Lab
• Steve Chester, Director of Media, ISBA
• Scott Cunningham, Founder, Cunningham.Tech
• Christine Desrosiers, Director, Revenue Systems & Programmatic, BabyCenter
• John Devine, Head of Global Operations, Facebook
• Richard Foan, Executive Chairman, JICWEBS
• Rachel Glasser, Chief Privacy Officer, Wunderman
• Stacey Hultgren, Senior Manager, Ad Quality Measurement, Pandora
• Louis Jones, EVP, Media & Data, 4A's
• Jessica King, Senior Product Manager, Unruly
• Joshua Lowcock, EVP, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, UM (part of IPG Mediabrands)
• Jon Mew, CEO, IAB UK
• Jessica Morel, VP, Global Marketing, Oracle Data Cloud
• John Murphy, VP, Marketplace Quality, OpenX
• Richard Murphy, EVP, BPA Worldwide
• Terri Schriver, SVP, Enterprise Media, Bank of America
• Rachel Nyswander Thomas - Chair of BSI Editorial Board - SVP, Operations & Policy, Trustworthy Accountability Group
• Sal Tripi, AVP, Digital Operations & Compliance, Publishers Clearing House
• Kyle Turner, Senior Manager, Inventory Quality, MediaMath
• Eric Warburton, VP, Ad Operations, Horizon Media
• Oliver von Wersch, Founder & CEO, vonwerschpartner Digital Strategies

As part of the announcement, BSI and the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) also released the second in a series of joint white papers on brand safety issues, "Defining Brand Safety: Execution Challenges." The white paper found that investment in brand safety initiatives resulted in a positive ROI for some marketers who tracked that cost, while brands' increased focus on brand safety strategy enabled greater, more transparent collaboration with their agency partners. The paper was also the first to quantify brand safety investment, finding that large agency holding companies are currently spending between $3-7 million annually on fixed-cost brand safety expenses.

"By talking to the people on the front lines of brand safety, this white paper helps identify the opportunities and challenges we face as an industry," said Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG and Co-Founder of BSI. "The most important takeaway was the importance of making brand safety a strategic imperative in every organization and investing the necessary resources for success. When companies elevate brand safety as a priority, they can reduce risk, improve coordination, and strengthen ROI across their marketing programs."

Areas of focus for the brand safety curriculum will include building brand reputation, creating a safe supply chain, improving ad quality and experience, safeguarding ad adjacency, strengthening consumer choice, establishing the role of the brand safety officer, and reducing criminal activity (piracy/fraud/malware).

The Brand Safety Institute plans to work with the Editorial Board to develop the curriculum for its Brand Safety Officer certification program before launching its training platform for executives in Q1 2019. Individuals can request information and an application for the certification program by registering at brandsafetyinstitute.com.

About the Brand Safety Institute 
The Brand Safety Institute is a digital advertising industry initiative to professionalize the work of brand protection. Through its research, education, and certification programs, the Brand Safety Institute gives ad industry executives the expertise and skills they need to minimize brand risks and capitalize on brand opportunities in the digital advertising supply chain. Through its Brand Safety Officer certification program, the Brand Safety Institute helps leaders set the highest standards for brand protection, learn new and emerging best practices, and build an industry-wide community of brand safety peers. More information about the Brand Safety Institute can be found at brandsafetyinstitute.com.

Media Contact:
Andrew Weinstein
202-667-4967
[email protected] 

SOURCE Brand Safety Institute