Scrolling back through two years of posts
A family-friendly food brand wants six creators. Their brand safety guidelines rule out certain topics, language, competitor partnerships and alcohol content. An account executive opens each creator's Instagram and TikTok and scrolls back, reading captions and watching videos. They spend an afternoon on two creators. Comments under posts are not checked at all. YouTube is skipped because the videos are long.
The client approves the creators. Two weeks into the campaign, a journalist finds an old post from one of them that the client would never have accepted. The client asks whether the agency checked. The executive did, but there is no record of what was looked at or how far back.
Why brand safety checks are thin
A thorough check is slow and tedious, so it is done quickly, and it is not written down.
- Creators post often across several platforms, and video is slow to review.
- Each client has different criteria, and they are not always written down.
- Captions, on-screen text, spoken words and comments all carry risk.
- Past brand partnerships, including competitors, are not easy to spot by scrolling.
- The result of the check is a thumbs-up in a chat, not a record.
What a missed post costs
The obvious cost is a client relationship damaged by a creator the agency put forward. Campaigns may be paused, content taken down, and fees argued over. Less obviously, over-cautious checking has a cost too: creators ruled out because of a vague worry, when a proper look would have shown nothing wrong.
Without a record, the agency cannot show it acted carefully, and the next check starts from zero even for a creator reviewed last month for another client.
A recorded brand safety review
- Each client's criteria are written into a checklist: topics, language, competitor brands, categories such as alcohol or gambling, and anything specific to them.
- For a creator, the review gathers public posts from the platforms and period you choose, using the platforms' permitted access or data the creator shares, with captions, hashtags and on-screen or spoken text where it can be transcribed.
- A language model reads the gathered text against the checklist and flags posts that might be relevant, with the reason.
- An executive looks at every flagged post and a sample of unflagged ones, and marks each flag as a concern or not.
- Past brand partnerships found in captions and tags are listed, with competitors highlighted.
- The decision, the period covered, the criteria used and the reviewer's notes are saved on the creator's record.
- Before a later campaign, the previous review is shown with its date, so only the new period needs checking.
| Check | Source | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Topics and language | Captions, transcripts | Executive reviews flags |
| Competitor partnerships | Tags, captions, paid partnership labels | Executive confirms |
| Restricted categories | Captions, hashtags, transcripts | Executive, with client criteria |
| Period covered | Set per review | Recorded on the record |
Automated flags are a way to focus a person's attention, not a verdict. Some risks are only visible in images or tone, and a person still looks.
How a check runs now
The executive starts a review for the six creators, choosing the food brand's checklist and the period. The flags come back with reasons. They spend their time on the flagged posts and a sample of the rest, and write a short note for each creator. The client gets a summary with the period covered and anything worth discussing. If a question comes up later, the record shows exactly what was checked.
When the same creator is proposed to a different client next quarter, the earlier review is there, and only new posts need looking at against the new client's criteria.
Does this describe your vetting?
- Brand safety checks mean scrolling through feeds.
- Video content and comments are skipped.
- Client criteria are not written down as a checklist.
- There is no record of what was checked and how far back.
- The same creator is rechecked from scratch for each client.