Mantis, a leading brand safety, suitability, and contextual advertising solutions provider for publishers and advertisers, has today (October 28th, 2024) released data highlighting brands that rely on outdated keyword blocklists will be blocking more than 41% of Halloween content and scary movie reviews this spooky season.

According to the findings gathered from Mantis’ network of publishers, words such as 'kill' 'blood' 'horror' 'scary' 'attack' 'death' 'terror' are amongst those on agency blocklists. While in theory, blocking ads from appearing next to articles containing these keywords avoids potentially unsafe brand environments, in reality it also cuts brands off from perfectly brand safe and suitable ad placements next to content that their target audience is actively seeking out.

For example, blocking the word “bloody” would inadvertently also block the London Dungeons Halloween “Bloody Mary” experience and all articles that have listed it as a must-see Halloween activity. Similarly, advertisers will fail to reach audiences looking to spook themselves by watching the latest Halloween blockbuster films. With a quarter of UK shoppers considering Halloween their favourite holiday and spend projected to reach £776 million in 2024, marketers risk reducing their advertising reach during this tentpole event. As a knock-on impact, this over-blocking also severely reduces advertising income for publishers. 

Mantis, which leverages advanced AI technology to understand the context in which these keywords are used, measured over 1100 articles to unveil these findings. In stark comparison to the standardised agency blocklists, only 12% of articles were categorised unsafe when using Mantis’ Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Contextual Targeting categorisation.  

Cath Waller, managing director, Advertising at Immediate, has experience of the negative impacts that blanket keyword blocklists can have on Halloween content. Immediate’s market leading brand Good Food has seen a number of its pages featuring Halloween cakes blocked due to phrases such as "garish bakes that ooze fake blood", or "for a spooky fake blood effect, use berry syrup" and "Halloween slash cake."  

"Our Halloween content is incredibly popular at this time of year, as millions of consumers turn to Good Food for trusted cake and bake recipes to create their perfect Halloween treats. Our super-engaged readers are searching for creative and inspiring Halloween ideas and also want to buy quality products that can help them achieve the best baking results. This incredible opportunity for advertisers to get their products in front of highly relevant, high-attention consumers is being missed by many on the buy-side who rely on outdated keyword blocking tech. It's time for more advertisers to look to utilise AI-powered safety solutions that more accurately assess the suitability of web pages, reaching more potential customers whilst supporting premium publishers."

Fiona Salmon, managing director at Mantis commented: "With thrill-seeking consumers on the lookout for content related to Halloween traditions, events, and deals, brands aren’t just sacrificing lucrative advertising opportunities, they’re directly harming publishers. The industry has been zombie-like in its reluctance to waver from keyword blocklists, despite their obvious negative impact. It’s time for advertisers to wake up and embrace brand safety solutions that prioritise suitability without impacting performance."