Big changes are happening in the advertising world. Recently, Netflix said it might start showing ads, politicians introduced new laws to control Google's dominance in digital advertising, and Facebook made changes to help advertisers target people more accurately. With these big players getting ready, advertisers have a chance to handle these changes in a smart way that makes their ads more effective and deals with the problem of unfairness in advertising technology.
Unfairness is a known problem in the advertising world. The fancy technologies companies use to make their ads better might actually be making things worse. About $1 trillion worth of digital ads are handled by these technologies, which aim to show ads to specific groups of people but sometimes miss out on reaching other important groups. This not only makes bias worse but also wastes money on advertising.
That's why, as an industry, we need to use AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its powerful tools to help fix the bias problem. AI is becoming a big part of how we find the right people to show ads to. So, instead of letting AI make bias worse, we should use it to be part of the solution. This means making sure AI helps us reach a more diverse group of people when buying ads. By adding fairness checks and AI to the core of our advertising methods, we can create a better relationship between consumers and brands and possibly get more value out of the money spent on ads.
Making Things Fair
The technology to make ads fairer already exists, and companies in finance, human resources, healthcare, education, and other industries are trying out open-source toolkits that include fairness measures in their marketing methods. It's time for the advertising industry to also make a serious effort to include fairness in our advertising technology.
AI bias happens when the computer systems that create AI models give certain groups of people an advantage while putting other groups at a disadvantage. This bias could affect how a bank decides on credit scores or mortgages, or how an insurance company predicts medical costs for different customers.
In advertising, bias can stop people from seeing certain brands or information because of flawed computer analysis. This hurts both consumers and brands. If we put fairness checks and AI tools into our advertising methods, the technology could automatically detect and report any unusual issues with data when we're running ad campaigns.
If we integrate fairness into how we do advertising today, we might not only reduce bias but also help brands get more value for their advertising money.
Open to All Businesses
Solving this problem is a big task that no single company can handle alone. We need the brightest minds and the best resources in the marketing industry to come together and deal with the unfairness in advertising. If our industry ignores this issue and doesn't make an effort to include fairness in our core marketing methods and tools, we might end up with a future where a few big advertising platforms dominate, and things like ad performance measurements are unclear, and automation makes bias worse. To avoid this, we should have an open and transparent approach to governing, using AI, and sharing data. This way, brands can regain control over how they talk to their audiences.
Honestly, I can't understand how anyone in our industry can know about the bias problem and not want to fix it. It's the right thing to do for society because it means giving information about products and services to people who might miss out because of bias. It's also the right thing to do for brands because it helps them connect with a wider group of customers, which can boost their business.
I'm asking for everyone in the industry to come together, including all teams, roles, brands, agencies, and tech companies. Leaders in our field must commit to working together to tackle bias if we want to make our industry better, more fair, and ready for the future.