Advertisers face tough choices balancing brand safety and campaign reach. Teads' Scherief Hegazy explains why context and AI matter more than blanket blocks. He also details how quality journalism delivers measurable performance.
Digital advertisers are under pressure to protect their brands while maximizing campaign reach and efficiency. Scherief Hegazy, Head of Account Management at Teads, says that while brand safety is now a baseline requirement, overreliance on broad exclusion lists and excessive blocking can undermine both reach and results.
Hegazy describes how Teads has evolved its approach, emphasizing contextual targeting and brand suitability over one-size-fits-all solutions. He notes that the company works closely with both agencies and direct clients, offering self-service tools and creative optimization through its Studio. The Studio, he clarifies, is not a creative agency but a resource for refining existing ad assets to perform better on Teads' platform.
Artificial intelligence already plays a role in Teads' internal processes. Hegazy points to the use of simulated eyetracking analyses via Neurons to optimize ad creatives. While generative AI is still in testing, some partners are eager to experiment, while others remain cautious. Hegazy says all AI-driven changes are made transparently and in close coordination with clients, given the varied expectations around generative content.
On the topic of brand safety, Hegazy calls it a hygiene factor-essential for any campaign. However, he stresses that the conversation has shifted toward brand suitability, tailoring safety measures to each advertiser's needs. He warns against "overblocking," which can reduce reach and revenue for both advertisers and publishers without guaranteeing better outcomes. Instead, Teads relies on contextual AI, custom suitability frameworks, and partnerships with firms like IAS, DoubleVerify, and NewsGuard to ensure ads appear in appropriate environments without unnecessary exclusions.
Transparency is central to building client trust, Hegazy says. Teads offers around 400 contextual segments for precise targeting and combines technology with detailed reporting and consultation. Before onboarding, all publishers undergo a rigorous pre-screening to ensure quality. The extended partnership with NewsGuard, he adds, helps keep unreliable environments out of Teads' network, supporting the goal of directing ad spend toward quality journalism.
Advertisers' definitions of "premium" or "quality journalism" vary, Hegazy notes, and some prefer to use classic sitelists to focus only on select environments. Campaign settings can be adjusted at any time, especially with self-service tools, but Hegazy cautions that manual changes may impact optimization algorithms and campaign goals.
Even among premium publishers, issues like invalid traffic or low viewability can arise. Teads addresses this by working with DoubleVerify and IAS, achieving about 99.9% valid traffic in awareness campaigns, according to internal measurements. Hegazy says that any publisher with persistent traffic quality issues would not remain in the network.
While highly specific exclusions are rare, Teads can accommodate advertisers who want to include or exclude particular publishers, provided campaign objectives are still met. Hegazy expects that upcoming requirements to label AI-generated content will affect both advertisers and publishers, making transparency around content origins a market-wide concern.
Some advertisers argue that brand safety measures have become costly and complex, especially compared to broad social media campaigns. Hegazy acknowledges that social platforms may offer lower CPMs, but he points to studies showing that ads in high-quality news environments drive higher engagement-sometimes up to 35% more-without evidence that negative news automatically harms brand perception. He argues that overall campaign efficiency, not just price, should guide decisions.
For clients new to brand safety, Hegazy reassures that Teads integrates solutions from IAS and DoubleVerify by default, filtering out unsuitable environments automatically. He recommends further customization based on brand and campaign goals to ensure optimal alignment.
For additional perspective on how German publishers are responding to AI and content access, see this analysis of how leading news sites are restricting AI crawlers.
