Commentary

Viewability Standards Aren't Standardized

by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer, July 24, 2014

The first panelists at OMMA RTB in LA are talking viewability -- and none seem too thrilled with it.

Edwin Lee, VP of strategy account at MediaMath, pointed out that the Media Rating Council (MRC) viewability standards of 50% of a display ad being in-view for at least one second can be measured multiple different ways.

Lee shared an anecdote of one company that ran a banner campaign and used the various methodologies -- all of which are meant to measure the same “standard” defined by the MRC. However, one of the viewability vendors said 38% of the banners were viewable while another said they were 88% viewable. (Yes, both vendors were measuring the same campaign.)

“It’s all over the board,” Lee quipped.

mpomma, viewability

1 comment about "Viewability Standards Aren't Standardized".

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George Ivie from Media Rating Council, July 28, 2014 at 10:09 a.m.
Hi Tyler, thanks for continuing the dialogue on the incredibly important issue of viewability. I wanted to make a couple of things clear. First, here at the Media Rating Council, we’ve issued guidance on certain measurement processes that were contributing to measurement discrepancies and are working with vendors, publishers and technology providers to encourage adoption, eliminate confusion and increase clarity. This is helping to effectively standardize measurement practices. We’ve already seen significant progress on this front, and we’re confident that we’ll continue to see differences among counts narrow even more.

Second, our role is to oversee the implementation and adoption of the viewability standards, but it’s crucial to understand that vendors voluntarily seek MRC accreditation of their products. For those vendors that we do not audit, we have no insight into the measurement methods being used, or the source of the discrepancies in measurement. A seller or buyer interested in working with a vendor to measure viewable impressions should pursue a thorough understanding of the vendor’s processes, especially if this measurement is to be the basis of a transaction.

With the implementation of the Viewability standard, we strongly encourage parties to work with MRC-accredited vendors and ensure that their technologies are reporting against all three critical viewability metrics: viewable, not viewable, and not measureable.

The most current information on accredited vendors is available on our site, www.mediaratingcouncil.org.
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