A couple of months ago I remember talking to an up and coming marketing manager about branding.  We were knee deep in ironing out a media buy when he says to me, "....why don't I just slap this up on Google Media?"  Of course, for a struggling brand, this is not a bad option.  But the one part that always amazes me is when larger companies do this without a care in the world as to who they are sharing the bed with.

A key part to branding on the web is having some control over where your ads are placed.  This is the first part (think closed network, above the fold).  The second question every major brand should be asking is, "...great, I'm on board.  Now who else will be running in my rotation?"

Not an issue for print.  You get your slot.  Not so with digital media.  Unless you buy enough impressions, someone ELSE is rotating in your position.  So what happens if you are a cutting edge brand ( think Patagonia ) and you are sharing your space with a media buy from GM.....or BP.....or Pizza Hut.  You get the point.  If you are serious about your brand, you should be serious about who you are rolling with online.  Here is an example I pulled off of BNQT:

So here on the main landing page for a "lifestyle video and young male portal" you have three players.  Converse holds down the skin, Mountain Dew grabs the leaderboard and PlanetEarth hangs out in the ATF Square.  All of these players get "it"  I could easily see a guy, aged 16, drinking a Dew, wearing his PlanetEarth Hoodie and rockin' Converse shoes.  All three play well together and its obvious that the team behind the BNQT also gets how important it is to preserve brand identity on their content ( speaking of which, I need to give these guys a call, I like their style).

So the next time someone tells you to buy on an open network, Google or some rag that is just scraping by, remember that because its cheap you may be sharing your branding "Joe's Tasty Chicken".  And that my friend is something to be avoided.