We enter the digital advertising space for the first time, with a new proprietary tool and services for digital and non-linear campaigns.
Although we’re best known for pre-clearing TV & VOD advertising, we’ve now announced our move into digital advertising with the launch of our AI pre-screening tool and services for non-broadcast ads and non-linear campaigns, iClear and allClear. The expansion will provide advertisers, brands and agencies who advertise across all kinds of platforms, beyond only TV and VOD, with access to compliance support from Clearcast for the first time.
This will be provided via the AI-powered assessment tool iClear and the expert human review service, allClear by Clearcast. The launch comes as brands and agencies face growing pressure to create digital content at an increasingly rapid pace, while navigating complex advertising regulatory categories like LHF (Less Healthy Food and Drink). Unlike broadcast advertising, where pre-clearance is embedded in the process, digital compliance is often assessed inconsistently or late in campaign development.
iClear: AI assessment tool
iClear is a proprietary tool designed to help advertisers, agencies, digital publishers and non-broadcast platforms assess online content against the CAP Code. As the only AI ad compliance software endorsed and co-created by us, iClear supports advertising compliance by reviewing campaigns earlier in the creative process, helping creative teams pre-screen content and identify potential issues before campaigns reach formal review or go live.
iClear allows users to upload scripts, images and video assets for rapid assessment against The CAP Code. The platform highlights potential areas of concern, explains why content may be at risk and provides practical guidance to help resolve issues before publishing.
Powered by and developed with Northell and built with our decades of advertising compliance expertise, iClear gives advertisers a faster way to assess risk and make informed media planning decisions. It will launch with the complex compliance areas of food & beverage, alcohol, gambling, harm & offence, and misleading advertising. More sectors will be added regularly.
allClear: expert human clearance
allClear offers specialist human review from our trust and compliance experts, who will work with advertisers to outline potential compliance risks before publication. If possible, we’ll even clear the asset, giving you ultimate confidence in your campaign before it goes live. Where clearance is provided, we’ll also support your defence, if the ad was to be investigated by the ASA.
The new offering combines our decades of extensive advertising compliance expertise with AI to help businesses advertising in non-broadcast spaces to identify potential compliance issues earlier, reduce risk and plan campaigns with greater certainty.
Sam Smith, Managing Director at Clearcast, said:
“Brand reputation and safety matter as much in digital advertising as they do in broadcast, and it’s just as important for digital to hold itself to the same compliance standards we see in broadcast.Delivering clear, expert guidance is crucial, as the speed, scale and fragmentation of digital advertising becomes increasingly complex. By bringing more than 60 years of trusted expertise into this space, we’re expanding to help more advertisers turn complexity into confident decisions. iClear and allClear give teams the clarity and support to move faster without compromising honesty or creativity.”
Peter Verster, CEO at Northell, said:
“Generative AI is transforming how organisations create and distribute marketing content, but increased speed and volume risk eroding hard-won trust. iClear combines explainable AI with deep compliance expertise and institutional knowledge from Clearcast, helping teams identify potential risks earlier, make better-informed decisions and apply compliance consistently across far greater volumes of content. By making that expertise both accessible and scalable, iClear brings meaningful compliance checks to more organisations and more content at earlier stages of the creative process, including areas where traditional compliance models have simply not been practical.”
Michael Haydon, Head of New Product Development at Clearcast, said:
“Advertising rules create as real a challenge for digital ads as they do for broadcast ads. Although they don’t have to be cleared before they’re released, they can be banned just as easily. Marketers need to determine whether their ad is within the scope of complex ASA rulings and evolving code rules which continue to show how nuanced those decisions must be. iClear provides practical, early-stage guidance, helping brands and ad teams identify potential issues before launch, reduce the chances of costly reworking and bans, and make faster, more confident decisions about their campaigns. allClear is the human review element of that, with our team’s 60+ years of experience in applying advertising rules against real-world precedents.”