The DV Global Insights: 2024 Trends Report provides a comprehensive overview of worldwide data, quality and performance trends, along with, for the first time, regional trend reports. The EMEA report also found that 42 per cent of EMEA media buyers saw an increase in low-quality content and made-for-advertising (MFA) sites as a disruptive threat to the digital ecosystem, while 34 per cent reported that emerging channels have a significant negative impact on media quality. Despite being the most impacted by brand safety violations, EMEA media buyers are the least worried about these issues when compared to their global counterparts.

However, the report also indicates progress in EMEA in regard to brand suitability, with violations decreasing by 15 per cent and UK violations dropping by 23 per cent. Nevertheless, with an approaching political news cycle, brand safety and suitability should be key concerns for advertisers. In May and June 2022, the UK experienced a prolonged surge in Inflammatory Politics & News and High-Risk Hate Speech & Cyberbullying violations. This is an issue across EMEA, with the report indicating that 61 per cent are at least somewhat concerned about navigating political news cycles in 2024, and 37 per cent responding that elections have a significant negative impact on media quality.

The growing accessibility of Generative AI is also a cause of concern, with over half of global respondents to the report believing that Generative AI significantly negatively impacts media quality. This concern will need to be addressed as upcoming election cycles see more politically charged, AI-generated content online.

Despite the challenges, the report found that AI is also regarded as a solution, with 55 per cent of media buyers responding that AI-driven campaign optimisation positively impacts media quality. Globally, a major cause in the overall decline in brand safety violations is the 41 per cent year-over-year increase in the utilisation of AI-led, custom pre-bid brand suitability protections. This allows advertisers to apply safety and suitability controls before a bid is placed and the ad is rendered or blocked.

Pre-bid controls reduce waste for advertisers by allowing bids to be placed on suitable impressions. For publishers, they allow monetisation of impressions that don’t align with one brand’s suitability criteria but could be a fit for another.

“As we approach a potentially challenging news cycle perpetuated by the recent election, which will also see the increasing influence of AI-generated content, it’s crucial for UK advertisers to invest in brand suitability solutions,” said Nick Reid, SVP and Managing Director EMEA at DoubleVerify. “UK and EMEA media buyers should investigate and emulate the example of North America, which has increased adoption of AI-led, pre-bid protections, and brought its market violation rate down to 5.2 per cent.”