IAS launches 'Election Lab' to help marketers navigate a political year ahead

Integral Ad Science (IAS), a media measurement and optimisation platform, has launched IAS Election Lab, a set of actionable insights and strategic guidance for advertisers during the global election season. 

The insights are aimed to help marketers to avoid advertising on content that can be controversial or spread misinformation during political events while still reaching engaged audiences and maintaining brand reputation. 

Some of the insights featured in the IAS Election Lab Research show ads that are adjacent to risky political party content and news-related misinformation have a 66% and 53% lower success rate and a $0.82% and $0.23 increase in cost per conversion, respectively. 

It also reported that news-related misinformation rises with high-profile news events such as Super Tuesday – the United States presidential primary election day – which marked a threefold increase in misinformation compared to the volume rate in Q1. 

In addition to the IAS Election Lab, the platform also published its IAS Political Guide in April this year which provides marketers with six actionable steps on how to safeguard and scale their brand during the election year. 

Earlier this month, the IAS published the 19th edition of its annual Media Quality Report which highlighted that while global brand risk remained stable in 2023, coverage around major events such as the global elections led to a 0.2 year on year increase in brand risk across the Americas. 

To avoid brand risk, marketers need to look at safeguarding measures and brand safety solutions 

Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS, said: “As election season intensifies, marketers must be increasingly mindful of the content that they run adjacent to, which could range from misinformation to undesirable subject matter that may not be brand safe or suitable.”

“The IAS Election Lab is committed to using the power of data science to help brands navigate the risks and opportunities that the elections will bring and provide actionable insights to ensure marketers can focus on performance.”