• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, May 16, 2017

The Media Rating Council (MRC) on Tuesday issued a draft version of its new Digital Audience-Based Measurement Standardsdocument for a 60-day public comment period.

The standards are expected to build on MRC’s prior work to establish viewable impression measurement and the effective filtration of invalid traffic, and provide a set of recommended practices for the collection and processing of information used in assigning audience characteristics to impression-level data.

Standards are expected to set benchmarks for digital measurement based on in-target audiences rather than based solely on gross impression counts, and will also set the stage for the creation of additional standards to allow for the comparable measurement of audiences across media types.

The document was developed in a working group comprised of representatives from a wide range of media companies, advertising agencies, brand marketers, measurement vendors, and ad tech companies.

Once they’re issued, the standards will serve as a linchpin in MRC’s Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative, a joint industry effort supported by the Association of National Advertisers, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Industry stakeholders can comment on the draft until July 17. Some of the issues involved are:

--The use of viewable impressions as the basic measurement required for the inclusion of a digital ad exposure into an audience-based metric calculation, such as a gross rating point (GRP).

--Guidance for attributing audience characteristics to impression-level data using a variety of approaches, including panels, census data collection techniques, and third-party large data sets, etc.

--Specifications on internal and quality controls needed to prepare  digital audience data, including requirements for the application of sophisticated invalid traffic processes when measuring ad impressions to be used as input to audience measurements.

--Guidance on projection, calculation, and weighting processes, including a requirement that digital video ad impressions intended for cross-platform measurements apply duration weighting techniques when reported across platforms.