T AT&T Inc

By Jack Marshall and Suzanne Vranica 

Marketers and advertising agencies are seizing on the uproar over Google's placement of ads on unsavory sites, using it as a chance to press the tech giant for changes they've long sought, as the controversy extends beyond the U.K to other countries.

A host of brands cut their U.K. ad spending with Google after learning that their ads had run alongside content such as videos by terrorist sympathizers. Google has pledged to provide more control and visibility over where ads appear.

In the past several days, executives at the biggest media-buying agencies have been fielding calls from marketers eager to find out more about whether their own ads have landed alongside undesirable content, not just in the U.K. but worldwide, and have been pressing Google for answers.

Marketers outside the U.K. are starting to take action. Telecom giant AT&T Inc., one of the largest U.S. advertisers, said Wednesday it is pulling its ad spending from YouTube and Google Display Network, which shows ads on third-party sites.

Meanwhile, a global beverage company has pulled most of its ads from the same Google services in about 30 countries including the U.S., according to a person familiar with the situation. The pullback does not include search ads, and in a few smaller markets the beverage giant will continue to buy inventory from "Google Preferred," which is considered to have YouTube's most brand-friendly content, the person said.

"We don't comment on individual customers but as announced, we've begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear," Google said in a statement. "We're also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers' brands."

Agency executives and advertisers have been in talks with Google to press for more details on the new tools it will provide. Industry executives have long called on Google to enact better brand-safety features, but the high-profile nature of the current flare-up has given them an opportunity to make that case aggressively.

"We've been talking about brand safety for 20 years. It's not a new phenomenon," said David Cohen, president of Interpublic Group of Cos ad buying group Magna Global North America. "We have had a couple conversations with Google over the past couple days. We're exerting pressure to do more."

Mr. Cohen said his company is asking for more specifics about the brand safety measures Google said it would implement, and that it wants Google to be more accessible to third party companies that verify the safety of web ad inventory on behalf of brands.

Given the increasing market dominance of Google and Facebook -- who together collected nearly 47% of digital ad dollars spent worldwide in 2016, according to eMarketer -- some ad experts say marketers and ad holding companies have an incentive to push back on the companies whenever possible.

"When two companies control such a large majority of the advertising, it undermines the legitimacy of the holding companies and the leverage they have in the marketplace," said Ian Schafer, chief executive officer of digital agency Deep Focus.

Ad executives acknowledge that is hard for Google to police and quality-check the huge volume of content on YouTube and across its network of third-party websites. They also point to Google's obvious incentives -- to sell ad space alongside as much content as possible, with no unnecessary limitations.

Rob Norman, chief digital officer at GroupM, an ad buying unit of WPP Plc, said it remains to be seen how effective and practical Google's new tools will be for marketers.

"[Google] has recognized that it has to provide greater protection to the public and greater protection to advertisers," Mr. Norman said.

The person familiar with the beverage giant's move said the company must see "real hard evidence that they are fixing the problem."

The U.K. unit of France's Havas SA last week pulled ads for its clients in the U.K. off Google Display Network and YouTube. Havas SA's Chief Executive Yannick Bolloré said his firm is working with some marketers to explore if they should be removing ads everywhere in the world, not just in the U.K.

"Right now it is only discussions. I will know more in a couple of days, " he said.

As for why Havas hasn't already suspended advertising on Google properties in other countries, Mr. Bolloré said, "we had proof that it happened in the U.K. and I haven't received any proof that it happened in other markets."

The fight over ad placements adds to widening tensions between Madison Avenue and Google, as well as fellow advertising behemoth Facebook. Advertisers routinely raise concerns about other matters such as the inability to get reliable, independently verified data from the companies.

Mr. Bolloré said the increased anxiety of marketers lately on a range of issues in the digital sphere underscores the value of agencies.

"I think the more there's complexity in the space around measurement, fake news or the more recent problem with Google, the more our clients will have to rely on media agencies to drive trust and help them invest wisely," he said.

Write to Jack Marshall at Jack.Marshall@wsj.com and Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2017 18:14 ET (22:14 GMT)

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