DV Apologises to Musk over Brand Safety Ratings Error

Digital media measurement and analytics firm DoubleVerify (DV) has apologised to X, formerly known as Twitter, for an error which over a recent four-month period gave the microblogging site brand safety ratings as low as 70%, when actual scores were as high as 99.99%, according to reports.

DV's Pinnacle dashboard displayed the incorrect ratings between October 24th last year and March 14th this, despite the measurement firm's background data being correct, according to a letter sent by its CEO Mark Zagorski, reported on Bloomberg and on variety.com . Zagorski pointed out that in fact 'X's Brand Safety Rate exceeds global benchmarks for brand safety, based on DV's global industry data'. The errors occurred as X continued to lose advertisers worried about potential damage to corporate reputation from ads appearing next to hate speech and controversial topics.

X appears to have been the only site whose ratings were affected by the problem. Zagorski says the error has been fixed and that DV is taking full responsibility for the misreporting. He notes that: Double Verify is working closely with X to ensure that all future reports reflect the accurate Brand Safety performance of campaigns run on X's platform. We also are conducting a thorough review of our processes and systems to ensure this issue does not occur in the future.

X owner Elon Musk has thanked DV for the correction and its co-operation, noting that the corrected figures show 'brand safety on X is extremely good'. However according to a report on Bloomberg, X CEO Linda Yaccarino in an email to partners said the errors sent an 'extremely misleading' message to advertisers and would have had a 'significant impact' on the company's business. Brands with access to the Pinnacle dashboard included Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Charles Schwab, Disney, FedEx, GM, McDonald's, Mondelez, Samsung, Sony and Uber. Yaccarino says advertisers should review the ad campaign choices they made during the four month plus period.

Although the revelations are likely to impact the reputation of DV itself, the company has enjoyed an impressive and active start to 2024, with high profile launches and partnerships, following recent revenue jumps, and will be hoping to move on and maintain that momentum.

Web sites: www.doubleverify.com and www.twitter.com .