• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 26, 2012

Actually, Monahan, the opening keynoter at OMMA RTB, explained what’s really going on with the movement toward redefining the meaning of ad impressions. You know, the whole push toward things like “viewable impressions” and “attentiveness.”

From Monahan’s point of view, it’s all about technology giving consumers the ability to avoid things they don’t want to be exposed to, and defining the value of the things they are exposed to.

“In a fully mediated world ,we’re getting our head around ad avoidance,” Monahan explained, noting that Madison Avenue’s historical value standard of “opportunity to see” an ad impression just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Hence the push for defining “viewable impressions,” which he described as an effort to “scrub out the ads we know are not getting noticed.’

Monahan suggested that even Nielsen’s new Online Campaign Ratings data is an effort to do the same thing, but coming up with a method to “scrub out the gross impressions” that aren’t relevant for a brand.

“To me, it just sounds like we’re trying to get smarter about the impressions we know we are about,” Brian said, leaving an impression on the audience at OMMA RTB.