In the rush to adopt AI across the media industry, it can be easy to forget that just because you can automate something, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
AI enables us to move faster, but speed alone isn’t the only goal. We’re using AI to make media more contextual, more relevant and more inclusive for today’s fragmented attention economy.
Using AI to help brands get more out of their media budgets
At Channel Factory, we use AI across the full cycle, from classification to targeting to optimisation and reporting. One of the places it has had the biggest impact for us is in how we categorise and contextualise ad placements.
Traditional media planning has relied on blunt instruments like keyword targeting or broad demographic buckets. But AI has changed the game. We’re now able to feed huge swathes of data - language, audience signals, on-screen representation and content risk levels - into advanced models. In return, we get a deeper understanding of tone, sentiment, context and nuance.
This gives us the ability to decode content that brands stand for, so we can place their ads in environments that feel more relevant and aligned with their values. AI systems also monitor and optimise our campaigns continuously while they’re running. This means we can see which videos and channels are delivering the best performance and adjust them accordingly. Once the campaign is over, generative AI speeds up reporting and analytics. Doing this manually takes hours, but with AI we can generate the same insights in minutes.
Brands are under increased pressure to deliver measurable outcomes without compromising their values
We’re also embracing AI internally, using it to better develop sales narratives, create better client presentations and streamline branded-content generation across the organisation. This makes us more efficient and frees up our teams to focus on the higher-value strategic work that really helps our clients.
Relevance, efficiency and ethics are no longer trade-offs - they’re prerequisites
Brands are under increased pressure to deliver measurable outcomes without compromising their values. Unfortunately, balancing purpose with performance isn’t always straightforward. Brands face trade-offs between reaching the largest possible audience and staying true to what they stand for. Channel Factory’s approach shows that, with the right tools and data, it’s possible to do both effectively.
Purpose-driven media dates back to traditional media planning in the 1960s, when media planners would review upcoming episodes of TV shows to ensure ads were placed in the right context. Today’s fragmented media ecosystems mean that kind of manual review isn’t feasible, but AI can help significantly, allowing us to evaluate digital content at scale and classify it accurately. Doing so means advertisers can then ensure their ads are not only safe but also contextually aligned.
By aligning ads with high-value content – and avoiding placements alongside fake or detrimental news, for instance – we incentivise creators to produce more high-quality content and help reduce the monetisation of harmful material.
AI is bridging the gap between awareness and performance
According to recent marketing industry research from OMG and Annalect, online video (OLV) now drives 64% of sales, underscoring just how crucial effective media placement has become for brand performance. Channel Factory has gained a reputation as the best performing OLV partner, outperforming competition by 80%. YouTube in particular is a high-intent platform that’s fantastic for brand-building and performance.
Because of its reach and scale, brands can use YouTube to reach large audiences and drive broad awareness at the beginning of the customer journey. This has given the platform a stellar reputation as a top-of-funnel awareness tool. However, by combining intent data from Google with contextual targeting AI from Channel Factory, we’re seeing more brands than ever effectively turning YouTube into a full-funnel engine. The proof is in the numbers: our research results show that Channel Factory delivered a 6x return on ad spend on YouTube.
Contextual targeting doesn’t always need to align with a consumer’s intent. However, understanding that intent means we can go beyond just placing ads in relevant environments. Instead, we can target audiences based on the actual objectives of the campaign. When ads appear in places that are meaningful, relevant and aligned, you get better performance and better brand outcomes.
Value alignment in advertising
All too often, ethical media is positioned as a corporate-social-responsibility side note. We believe it should be a core driver of sustainable brand success. We should remember that AI has the power to exclude as easily as it includes, especially when it’s trained on biased inputs or narrow assumptions.
That’s why we take care when we build and train our models. We actively manage for bias and have built tools that re-surface diverse creators who may otherwise be unfairly filtered out by traditional brand-safety algorithms.
Here’s an example: a long-form YouTube interview with Barack Obama about racial prejudice was being excluded from ad inventory because the word “prejudice” triggered brand safety filters. But the content was actually thoughtful, constructive and well within the bounds of suitability. It’s typically the kind of content that brands who are engaged with fighting racism want to be associated with. We helped get that video monetised again.
Using AI to build more inclusive and trustworthy media environments
It’s vital to educate brands on where their audiences really are, not just where they assume they are. Fashion brands, for instance, often focus all their efforts on premium publishers, when their buyers may actually be engaging with very different content.
Our company culture prioritises inclusion, and Channel Factory’s Conscious Advertising Program aims to tackle bias head-on, enhancing brand trust by addressing the lack of inclusion in media. It helps brands re-evaluate blocklists to ensure diverse creators aren’t unjustly included. This means they can guide their budgets accordingly to champion diversity throughout their campaigns.
The truth is, when you combine AI with human intention, media gets smarter, safer and more interesting. Perhaps most important of all, it becomes more representative of society. Advertising shapes culture – and we have a big responsibility as an industry to build something better.
For more information please visit Channel Factory
In the rush to adopt AI across the media industry, it can be easy to forget that just because you can automate something, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
AI enables us to move faster, but speed alone isn’t the only goal. We’re using AI to make media more contextual, more relevant and more inclusive for today’s fragmented attention economy.
