As part of its ongoing effort to improve ad industry trading currencies, the Media Rating Council is looking at raising the bar on video ad impressions to “100%” viewable, and
has issued an RFP for research to support it, as well as its push to “duration weighting.”
Characterizing it as a call for “research and input,” the MRC said
it is weighing a “possible move to 100% pixels as a viewability criteria.” That would be a significant shift from the previous standard -- for both video and static digital ads -- that a
minimum of 50% of their pixels must be in view for a minimum duration of time (two seconds for video and one second for static ads) to be counted as “viewable.”
The shift
to duration weighting is potentially an equally significant industry shift, because it seeks to create a level playing field for valuing time-based exposure to video ads across platforms.
When the MRC first outlined the concept of duration weighting late last year as part of its proposed standards for digital audience measurement, it got some pushback from the Interactive
Advertising Bureau, which followed up with a statement calling on both the buy and the sell sides to “refrain” from using duration weighting until an industry standard is ratified.
At that time, the MRC acknowledged it needed to research how duration-weighted audience metrics should be applied, and today’s call is intended to accelerate that.
“Specifically, MRC is posing questions such as whether different segments of a video ad may contribute differentially to the effectiveness of that ad,” the MRC said in a
statement, adding that would include “what role the presence of especially strong branding elements may play; and other questions that can shed new insight into determining what time-related
elements can contribute to an effective exposure in the video ad environment.”
The MRC said development of the cross-media audience measurement standards is targeted for
completion in late 2018.
To submit research
or data in response to the MRC's request, contact Ron Pinelli of MRC at rpinelli@mediaratingcouncil.org.