• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 6, 2009

Consumer hunger for online video soars and advertisers are eager to shift spending to follow the viewers. But how to compare the relative value of buying traditional 30-second spots on NBC with 15-second pre-roll ads on, say, Hulu?

MindShare has inked a deal with online video ad network YuMe to deploy what is tabbed an Internet Gross Rating Point, or iGRP, which allows for an apples-to-apples comparison between the new metric and the traditional GRPs used for TV.

YuMe said determining an iGRP will "ideally" take into account more than reach and frequency. It includes the benefits of an online video ad, such as interactivity and heightened targeting not found on TV.

YuMe also said it would collaborate with MindShare in R&D to determine the run of "variables" that ultimately could be factored into an iGRP calculation. That may include format of the video ad, its duration and the content type.

"Working with YuMe to develop an online audience measurement metric that more closely matches the same metric we use in buying television is critical to compare, contrast and analyze online video," said Bethany Mach, a senior vice president at MindShare. "We need a standard approach we can all apply to measure audience and reach across any screen."

Northern California-based YuMe, backed by private-equity investors, said it would calculate iGRPs on a monthly basis for its ad networks for now. It would also "make (an iGRP) comparable to a television GRP by using total population and/or household numbers."

Jayant Kadambi, president of YuMe, said: "We've taken an important step in beginning to understand online ratings measurements by introducing an online video GRP metric that we hope the industry will standardize around."

YuMe says it serves video ads on 500+ sites that lead to an aggregate of more than 500 million streams a month.

An iGRP could allow for comparing value in online and on-air ads, as well as how to engineer campaigns that employ both platforms.