While digital communication technologies and new media platforms empowered consumers and businesses to communicate quickly, freely, indirectly. They're also increased risks. The rise of programmatic buying, reduced brand manager's ability to plan, manage, and monitor where and how brands appear in advertisements. Companies also have very little control over how consumers would talk about the brand, products, and related entities on social media platforms. To add to these challenges, corporations are also increasingly investing in corporate social responsibility or CSR programs, and publicly engaging in environment, social, and governance or ESG issues. Although such activities can help a brand connect with consumers and build a good reputation, they also bring uncertainty and risks to brand reputation management. As these issues are fluid and changing quickly from one context to another, there's no playbook or checklist of solutions. Marketers need to be aware and vigilant and carefully include brand safety and risk management into their planning. In this lesson, I will briefly discuss three issues to help you identify these risks. When ads are sold, bought, and displayed automatically across different digital platforms, it has become challenging for advertisers to control the context in which an ad may be viewed. Although targeted digital advertising is more effective than broadcast advertising, the risk of having your brand appearing next to inappropriate content is also very high. An airline ad being shown next to a breaking news story about an airplane crash, or accompanies brand being displayed next to a YouTube video on a controversial political issue are just some of the examples of how a brand's reputation can be damaged. Just because intelligent computer algorithms optimize your marketing decisions based on sophisticated data analytics and statistical models, human intuition, Insights, and intervention cannot be ignored. Brand safety must be a core consideration in the digital advertising campaign. Steps should be taken to monitor and quickly react to any potential threats. Public relations and crisis communication teams should be consulted in the early stages of campaign planning, and a remediation plan should be created in anticipation of potential risks. Another threat to the brands reputation is social media. Social media users and online influencers can help drive a surge of positive attention to a brand. They can also generate waves of negative sentiment just as quickly and easily. Today, consumers are talking about companies brand all the time. Online review sites, directories, social networking sites, Wikipedia, blogs, and forums allow users to express their opinions about a brand, product, service, leaders, and employment practices, and anything else related to a company and its brand. This content can appear in so many places online, that it is impossible to monitor these conversations by visiting each site and sifting through the millions of comments left by web users. Companies should frequently, if not constantly, monitor their brands online so that they can actively manage the reputations. Online reputation management, or ORM, is the act of reviewing what is being said about a company or individual online. The company or the individual can engage in activities to improve the overall public perception. As a company monitors for mentions of its brand online, it may come across content that negatively reflects the brand. The content can surface in several different locations, and the proper response to this negative content depends on the site. The digital age has brought another risk to brands. Brands today are increasingly engaged in public discussions around polarizing issues. A company's stance on these issues not only can help build a good reputation, but also tarnish it quickly. For example, social activism is an intentional action to bring about social change. Historically, this could bring about positive societal results. Yet, social activism is also being used as a platform for disinformation sometimes. The traditional response to activism has been to ignore it. This is no longer an option in the world of socially conscious consumerism. Companies must be hypersensitive and have an understanding that positioning is more than just the brand identity. As each social issue to each company in each context might be drastically different. It is impossible to develop a playbook. However, a company must articulate an authentic and consistent brand identity, both internally and externally. Develop a rigorous communication plan around this Identity and maintain disciplined in content creation and delivery. The marketing, branding, and public relations team, and then the operations team have to work together through information sharing and effective communication.