IAB Australia has issued an urgent call to action for brands, agencies, ad verification firms, and other companies in the digital advertising supply chain to stop blocking the news.   

The call comes as many brand and agency teams have mistakenly updated their programmatic and all other media buying to prevent any advertising surrounded by topics including “crisis,” “COVID-19,” and “coronavirus”.

IAB has also encouraged brands who may currently be reviewing their creative and messaging before relaunching their advertising campaigns to ensure they consider their policy around which environments they support when they relaunch to ensure they don’t inadvertently block premium content sites.

According to Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, news consumption has understandably changed over the last month as people seek out information and return to news websites for regular updates, yet advertisers aren’t keeping step with this demand.

“Credible news and media organisations are seeing huge jumps in online traffic, but many brands are blocking advertising from appearing near content mentioning coronavirus.  It’s essential that brands support news and journalism because with this content now so ubiquitous, without advertising support it will be simply unworkable and unsustainable for the production of news content.”