Two days ago, I had the pleasure of briefing the industry that interactive advertising revenue in 2011 once again broke records:
In the Q&A session that followed the revenue briefing, there was a question that instantly brought Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) to the forefront again. We all know that any conversation about ad revenue is inextricably tied to measurement and metrics. In the advertising business, metrics are as much a part of what we do as creative executions. Measurement and metrics provide the currency without which there can be no transactions.
Fortunately, 3MS is steadily moving forward. The 4A’s, ANA, and the IAB, along with senior executives from the associations’ respective memberships, have already brought change to measurement through 3MS. There is now a path forward and a framework that will ensure rational use of transactional metrics for brands in a cross-media platform world. Moreover, there is a place that has been and will be even more of a center of the measurement universe than ever before -- the Media Rating Council (MRC).
Going from the loftier descriptions to the nuts and bolts of 3MS, here are the key advancements already in place:
-- How well ad servers can ascertain what is viewable and what is not viewable
-- What proportion of total ads served cannot be determined as viewable or not
-- How the marketplace could handle the issue of ads that simply cannot be determined for the purposes of transactions
-- How much inventory can be affected by the proposed standard
-- How near or far we might be from the time that a consistent viewability standard will be the standard for transactions
All roads lead to 3MS. Very soon, all roads will lead to a bigger MRC, an MRC that will be taking on the needs of an ever increasingly complex ecosystem and managing change in measurement -- an MRC that will be the one place where industry leaders can gather to prioritize measurement standardization. If you’re not a member yet, join up now!
Do you think that cost per engagement could complement viewability without the ad-server compatibility issues? We've been successful with our own engagement model @cloudninemedia and it feels like another way to ensure advertisers get the value they pay for.