MRI Tracks Progress on Safety and Suitability for Advertisers
14 Jun 2024
Companies
IPG Mediabrands and its media investment and intelligence unit, MAGNA, released the fifth issue of The Media Responsibility Index (MRI), an assessment of global media platforms which aims to raise awareness and standards around harm reduction for brands and consumers in advertising. For the first time, the study evaluated how 10 ad tech firms addressed key issues within the industry, from brand safety to misinformation.
The MRI, introduced in August 2020, has become an integral component of IPG Mediabrands’ Media for Good initiative, centering on creating meaningful change within and beyond our agency network across key focus areas such as safety, inclusivity, sustainability, and data ethics. The index enables teams and clients to integrate brand and consumer safety priorities into their investment decisions across various media platforms, including major global social networks, programmatic, and local broadcast media.
“We have seized the opportunity to further our Media for Good efforts, which are focused on making a positive impact within and beyond our holding company, by introducing an impactful, robust assessment that helps to create a culture of accountability and transparency in the media landscape,” said Eli Harris, EVP of Impact Investment at IPG Mediabrands. “With each new report we have seen the measurable impact of the work we do together with our media and industry partners, all of whom are committed to this shared goal of media responsibility.”
Key findings from the 2024 MRI include:
- There is a high level of consistency across companies across priority areas, such as safety and data ethics.
- Sustainability strategies were identified as one area for improvement, among both programmatic and social media companies.
- Unified enforcement against made-for-advertising websites was a hot topic over the past year and is one of the largest areas of opportunity.
- Moderators are a key element of building responsible media practices, and advertisers could encourage social platforms to publish diversity statistics on their human moderators in an effort to ensure inclusive representation and best reflect the audiences engaged.
