Brand safety refers to measures taken to protect a brand’s reputation by avoiding placements in environments that are illegal, harmful or damaging. This includes avoiding legal content that is violent, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate. The goal is to prevent any association with content that could negatively impact all brands’ reputations and images.
ISBA has a long history of working with industry bodies, the government and the wider ecosystem to promote best practice and raise awareness of media placement issues to brands. For instance, ISBA drove the development of cross-industry brand safety guidance when ad placement adjacent to illegal and unsafe content became the focus of UK media coverage in 2017.
ISBA regularly develops and publishes industry guidance with its members and cross-industry. This is often then fed into the Media Services Framework which members and their suppliers such as agencies, use to set the parameters of their agreements.
The Brand Safety chapter of our Responsible Media Guide contains more information of guidelines and best practice, and is available here.
If you are an ISBA member with any questions about ensuring the safety of your brand online contact Stephen Chester or Dan Larden.
As an independent trade body, ISBA does not endorse any position taken, or not taken, by any other bodies we reference or include guidance from in this section. It remains the sole discretion of ISBA members whether to follow their recommendations.
Contact us
Stephen Chester
Stephen Chester
Steve has spent the last 18 years of his career in the digital advertising industry.
He’s the Director of Media for ISBA, leading a team delivering industry education, standards, research and shaping and campaigning for effective, responsible industry self-regulation across all media platforms on behalf of marketers. He is also a permanent member of the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) overseeing digital trading standards for the UK including brand safety, viewability and ad fraud.
Prior to ISBA, Steve spent 5 years as Director of Data & Industry Programmes at the Internet Advertising Bureau in the UK leading a team covering Display, Search & Data, 8 years at Microsoft Advertising leading a variety of account management/client service teams and 4 years as Head of Operations at Agency.com, a leading full service digital marketing agency.
Rob Newman
Rob Newman
Rob leads Public Affairs for ISBA – engaging with government, Parliament, policymakers, and regulators to represent our policy positions to external audiences.
He leads our Strategic Policy Action Group, a corporate affairs forum for ISBA members; and our Influencer Marketing Working Group, which developed a Code of Conduct launched in 2021.
A former political adviser and consultant who has worked in Parliament, at think tanks and in the private sector, Rob spent 12 years working for the Labour Party in various guises – for frontbenchers and backbenchers; in government and opposition; in constituencies and in Westminster. He attended Shadow Cabinet meetings as part of its secretariat and worked in the Whips Office.
Subsequently, Rob spent over three years at Edelman, the world’s largest communications agency, supporting clients including FTSE 100 companies and multinationals in the FMCG and tech sectors on their public affairs programmes. He then ran communications and policy for the foreign affairs and defence-focused Henry Jackson Society think tank, before becoming a freelance consultant. He joined ISBA in 2019.
Here's what we've found...
Didn't find what you were looking for? Click here to search through our Knowledge hub.