GroupM’s Interaction 2016 Report, out this week, offers some revealing,
highly relevant findings. The global report, a survey of 19 markets, called for industry-wide collaboration on "integrity issues" like ad fraud, viewability, ad-blocking and measurement.
The
question is: What will the collaboration look like?
The report surveys the integrity of the digital media supply chain from soup to nuts. Among the issues it raises are ad avoidance and video
measurement; the rise of apps; ecommerce; the economics of TV creation and distribution and the role of the advertisers; and the challenges for data-driven advertising and data security.
That’s a tall order.
But the GroupM report doesn’t stray too far from a core challenge: viewability in “feed-” or “stream”-based environments, including
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with the vast majority of mobile applications.
GroupM notes that most mobile use is scrolling -- in which advertising is “inherently ephemeral" --
and points out three factors of concern:
First, the speed of the scroll means that advertising may pass through the viewable window yet be seen only fleetingly.
Second, the notion that
“autoplay” video with a charging event after three seconds “in window” may not represent a reasonable period for advertising effect. Still, GroupM says that this type of video
is not necessarily without impact.
Third, the propensity for individuals to consume their feeds without sound is a behavior exaggerated by the autoplay factor.
The message to video
advertisers would appear to be simple: If creative assets do not deliver their goals within three seconds and without sound, the value of in-feed video must at least be questioned.
Given the
pervasiveness of these platforms, new creative forms would seem to be imperative. Here, GroupM suggests it may be time to remove the zero from the 30-second standard that has characterized video
advertising for generations.
Now that’s surprising — a video only three seconds long? Yes, our attention span really has taken a hit.
Jumping off news of the report, RTBlog called for an independent third party to gather,
track and report on ad-blocking data on a monthly basis. This entity would gather data and look for patterns pertaining to usage, downloads and behaviors among ad-blocking consumers globally.
It might also look at cross-device installation of ad-blockers and whether consumers are lifting the block at a certain point. Your comments on this are welcome.