Social Media Continues to Pose Opportunities and Risks, Digital Media Experts Say
Social media will again this year be the top priority digital environment for digital media stakeholders, according to an Integral Ad Science (IAS) report [download page], ahead of influencer marketing and video livestreaming. But also once again this year, social media will face more challenges than other media types in the digital ecosystem, per the report.
The survey asked close to 300 US digital media experts (across advertisers, agencies, publishers and platforms, and ad tech) who use programmatic advertising their opinions on digital media this year. Some 84% identified social media as the top priority digital environment, ahead of influencer marketing (61%), video livestreaming (56%), audio livestreaming (50%) and retail media networks (47%).
Social media was also tabbed the media type with the most potential for innovation and opportunity this year, by 46% of respondents, with digital video (34%), digital display (32%) and influencer marketing (30%) trailing.
Once again, though, social media (52%) is also seen as the media type facing the biggest challenges, as it has for the past couple of years. Beyond social media, digital media experts also see some risks ahead for digital video (39%), digital display (36%) and to a slightly lesser extent, influencer marketing (31%).
The challenges attributed to social media marketing are likely the result of brand safety concerns, although brand safety isn’t necessarily the top concern with social media advertising. Still, among brands and agencies, ad content adjacency – whether deepfakes, AI-generated content, or influencer/creator content – emerged as the top anticipated media challenge. And among publisher and platform respondents, ads delivering alongside risky content was the joint top challenge anticipated this year, on part with providing scaled audience extension.
Brand safety concerns extend to various digital media types, and influencer partnerships are a focus. More than 8 in 10 (82% of) digital media experts overall said that brand safety and suitability of the influencer/creator will be an important consideration when advertising adjacent to social content. An even greater proportion (87%) think that this will be an important consideration when advertising adjacent to digital video content, and 82% agree with respect to advertising adjacent to influencer content on retail media networks.
As for generative artificial intelligence (AI), most respondents (61%) appear excited about AI developments in digital media and look forward to taking advantage of the opportunities to advertise within AI-generated content. By contrast, only a tiny fraction (2%) will not consider advertising within AI-generated content and do not want their ads running next to it.
The types of AI content that are considered most unsuitable for brands are content that contains inaccurate information or hallucinations and content that provides an ad-spammy or cluttered user experience. By contrast, respondents are slightly less concerned about content that regurgitates or plagiarizes existing content.
For more, download the full report here.
