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As advertising budgets continue to shift towards social media and digital video, marketers are following where attention, culture and consumer decisions now live. But as spend enters these environments, control increasingly shifts to algorithms and fast-moving content ecosystems — making brand safety and suitability more critical than ever.
IAS’s 2026 Industry Pulse Report, based on insights from nearly 300 industry experts, highlights just how central these channels have become:
• 88% cite digital video as a top investment priority
• 84% cite social media as a top investment priority
With this growing investment comes heightened responsibility to protect media quality in environments that are more dynamic and unpredictable than ever before.
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Why Media Quality Is Becoming Harder to Protect
Global social media ad spend is expected to grow 14.9% to reach $306.4 billion in 2026, increasing pressure on marketers to ensure quality at scale. Experts point to three key challenges:
• The rapid rise of AI-generated content
• Growing influencer and creator suitability risks
• A persistent lack of transparency into media quality metrics
These challenges evolve too quickly for static, rule-based controls to manage effectively.
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What Industry Experts Are Most Concerned About
• 83% say AI-generated content on social media is a major concern
• 86% say identifying and avoiding AI-generated content in digital video is critically needed
• 87% prioritise influencer suitability for digital video
• 82% prioritise influencer suitability for social media
• 70% believe a lack of transparency into media quality metrics will negatively impact media spend
Experts agree: protecting brand value today requires adaptive, real-time solutions.
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How IAS Helps Marketers Stay in Control
IAS enables advertisers to protect media quality while maximising performance through:
• Frame-by-frame multimedia intelligence, analysing image, audio and text signals across digital video at scale
• Customised, pre-bid suitability controls, allowing brands to define and apply their own standards in real time
The results are measurable:
• 65% reduction in brand suitability fail rates within two months for one advertiser
• 48% reduction in wasted ad spend annually for a brand running 1 billion impressions
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Get the Full Industry Perspective
As social and digital video ecosystems continue to evolve, marketers need intelligence — not just filters — to move forward with confidence.
Download IAS’s 2026 Industry Pulse Report to explore expert insights on generative AI, digital video, social media and the future of media investment.
