Snap teams with IAS for AI-driven brand safety solution

Snap teams with IAS for AI-driven brand safety solution

Dive Brief:



  • Snap has teamed with Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global media measurement and optimization platform, to develop a post-campaign brand safety reporting solution, according to separate announcements

  • The solution leverages IAS’s AI-driven Total Media Quality Brand Safety and Suitability Measurement product to offer advertisers transparency into the percentage of safe and suitable content their ads appear against. The feature will be available in the coming months. 

  • Snap additionally announced a first-party tool at the pre-campaign level designed to help advertisers ensure their ads are shown alongside optimal content, specifically for creator mid-roll ads. The announcements from Snap arrive as the platform continues to expand its advertiser opportunities. 

Dive Insight: 


Snap is continuing its quest to distance itself from other social media platforms, first with an advertising campaign, which included its debut Super Bowl appearance, declaring that the world needs “Less Social Media. More Snapchat.,” and now through the assertion to advertisers that its platform can be trusted when it comes to brand safety. The content that advertisements run against has been an ongoing concern by marketers, especially as poor content proves to have negative impacts on the well-thought-out ads that neighbor it. 


Together, Snap and IAS will leverage the latter’s AI-driven brand safety product to develop a reporting solution offering advertisers transparency into the percentage of safe and suitable content their ads appear against. The tool will be aligned to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and is meant to give advertisers the benefit of third-party validation. 


“We are excited to partner with Snap to deliver best-in-class measurement solutions for marketers to safeguard and scale their businesses on Snapchat,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS, in press details. “Snap is focused on developing ad offerings in a premium and safe content ecosystem, and our partnership will give advertisers actionable data to maximize their investment across Snapchat.”


Along with its announcement, Snap also revealed that it recently worked with IAS to conduct a measurement sample study on the advertiser suitability of its public content including its Spotlight and Creator Stories. IAS found that both Spotlight and Creator content on Snapchat is 99% brand safe. 


The effort with Snap and IAS marks an expanded partnership between the two. IAS currently serves as a member of the Snapchat Brand Safety Coalition and has an existing partnership with the company focused around driving greater transparency and media quality measurability of in-app photos and videos. 


Joining its IAS brand safety solution, Snap also unveiled a first-party tool that allows advertisers to ensure their ads are shown alongside the most premiere content on Snap, specifically for creator mid-roll ads. The brand safety tool will give advertisers the choice to add another layer of protection through a filter which, if turned on, ensures ads appear near content that has gone through additional brand safety moderation filters. 


Snap plans to further enhance the pre-campaign solution over the coming months and intends to provide additional transparency later this year. The move comes as Snap continues to shore up additional advertiser opportunities. It recently named Samba TV its preferred measurement partner to allow entertainment marketers to better track viewership conversions generated by Snapchat campaigns. Last fall, the company launched a new suite of ad solutions, called Creator Collab campaigns, designed to make it easier for brands to work with its creator community. Additionally, Snap launched its Creator Stories placement last year.