2. European Viewable Impressions Initiative
Background and context
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• Need to improve the overall quality of digital ad inventory
• Requirement to develop more robust digital measurement techniques
• Vital step towards delivering ‘realistic’ brand exposure levels
• Support the drive for transparent measurement of ‘viewability’ of digital ads
• Drive for comparability withTV
• Establish digital ‘opportunity-to-see’
• Progress towards digital ‘gross rating points’
• Individual markets: varied viewability trading practices and market characteristics,
different stages of development
• Continue to demonstrate European market can deliver best practice, value and
quality to the development of the global digital market
3. European Viewable Impressions
Initiative
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Overall challenge
• Inconsistent methodologies used to measure the “viewability” of online ad impressions -
commercial issue for all parties
• Impacts on many stakeholder groups across the industry - including advertisers, agencies and
publishers
Towards a solution
• Created European cross-industry SteeringGroup to collaboratively develop an effective solution
• Identified primary and “urgent” need:
• to ensure greater consistency of methods used to measure viewable digital advertising in
Europe (global outlook)
• Agreed overall purpose:
• develop structured, harmonised best practice for measuring viewable digital advertising across
Europe (& beyond)
4. European Viewable Impressions
Initiative
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Phase 1 Phase 2
1. Set of principles to reduce measurement
discrepancies between viewability measurement
providers across Europe
2. Develop a pan-European viewability
certification framework to ensure viewability
measurement providers are meeting the agreed
set of European principles (see point 1) in terms of
their measurement tools used
3. Evolve guidelines for defining a viewable
impression based on space / time for which ads
will be considered ‘viewable’
Core Objectives - At a macro level:
• enhance minimum quality standards for all stakeholders across Europe
• measure digital ad exposure which is deemed a key step to increasing confidence in digital ad
trading
• improve advertiser confidence in the digital ad environment
N.B. Input from local IABs, EACA andWFA members and
other stakeholders around the globe (e.g. testing and
auditing companies along with other industry
associations) – is an important part of this process.
5. European Viewable Impressions
Initiative
Benefits for all stakeholders
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1. Significant reduction in viewability measurement discrepancies:
• ensure all measurement providers use a consistent methodology (based upon a standard and robust set of principles) to
ensure results are comparable across providers
2. Towards a fully viewable digital advertising environment:
• standardised process and certification framework will help significantly reduce payment for non-viewable impressions
3. Improved transparency and value for all stakeholders (e.g. advertisers, agencies, publishers, measurement
vendors):
• deliberately designed to have a positive impact upon the whole industry - irrespective of business model or size
4. Harmonised multi-national approach:
• generates significant benefits (efficiencies and effectiveness) to all multi-national businesses in the advertising ecosystem
• alternative is a series of disparate and costly national initiatives - in mid to long-term, would cause ongoing challenges for
all major stake-holder groups
6. European Viewable Impressions
Initiative
Modular approach
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2
Measured
Items
1
Environments
3
Measure-
ment
4
Transparency
& reporting
6
Invalid Traffic
(basic)
5
User
experience
7
Invalid
Traffic
(extended)
8
Brand Safety
9
In target
Standard
certification
Extended
certification
(phase 2)
7. Measurement Priorities
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• Brand safety, invalid traffic and viewability key priorities for the
industry
• Brand advertising metrics for digital campaigns sought by the industry
• TV and online compatibility remains high on the agenda
• Understanding audience behaviour and advertising effectiveness
across mobile devices is very important
• The industry wants to see a move towards real-time data
8. Quality of the Advertising
Environment
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More than half of the respondents state that brand
safety and invalid traffic are most important to
to defining the quality of the ad environment
9. Quality of a ‘contact’
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In-target verification and the length of time
and proportion of display and video ads that
view are rated as the most important criteria
to define a quality ‘contact’ or ‘impression’
10. Brand advertising and
performance campaign KPIs
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Brand awareness and purchase intent still come
out on top in terms of brand campaign KPIs
For performance campaigns, uplift in search
and direct site visits are most important
11. Cross-platform / device
measurement
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TV and online still prevails as the most important
multi-platform combination for audience and
measurement
For devices it is clear that understanding audience
and advertising effectiveness across mobile devices
is important as the following combinations come
• Smartphone and TV
• Smartphone and desktop and TV
12. Real-time data is key in today’s
programmatic world
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Programmatic trading is becoming mainstream and is
driving the need for real-time metrics. Half of the
respondents want to see ad impression and reach data
updated in real-time
Editor's Notes
Q: How important are the following criteria to help define what constitutes the quality of the environment? Please rate them on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is least important and 4 is most important
Brand safety and invalid traffic are key to defining the quality of the ad environment:
Measuring how ‘brand safe’ the environment is - average rating of 3.39 and 55% of respondents rated this as most important
Measuring the levels of invalid traffic (IVT) on the environment – average rating of 3.34 and 49% of respondents rated this as most important
Q: How important are the following criteria to help define what constitutes the quality of a ‘contact’, ‘exposure’ or ‘impression’? Please rate them on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is least important and 4 is most important
In-target verification and viewability come out on top with the following average rankings:
In-target verification of the contact – 3.29
Measuring the length of time an in-stream video ad is in view – 3.27
Measuring the length of time an in-page display ad is in view – 3.11
Measuring the proportion of an in-stream video ad that is in view – 3.06
Measuring the proportion of an in-page display ad that is in view – 2.99
Reach is also of great importance:
Measuring the number of contacts reached by the campaign – 3.36
Q: Thinking in terms of brand advertising and performance objectives (rather than sales), which key performance indicators would you like to see? Please rate them on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is least important and 4 is most important
Brand awareness and purchase intent still top priorities for brand metrics which is the same as the 2014 survey.
Brand awareness – average rating of 3.45 and 57% of respondents rated this as most important
Purchase intent – average rating of 3.45 and 60% of respondents rated this as most important
For performance uplift in search behaviours and direct site visits most important:
Uplift in direct site visits – 3.33 and 50% of respondents rated this as most important
Uplift in search behaviours – 3.26 and 46% of respondents rated this as most important
Q: If online audience or effectiveness studies were designed to become more compatible with other studies, how important are the following multi-platform combinations? Please rate them on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is least important and 4 is most important
TV and online is the current priority – 3.77 – this was also the top priority in the 2014 survey.
Q: If online audience or effectiveness studies were designed to become more compatible across devices, how important are the following combinations? Please rate them on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is least important and 4 is most important
Understanding audience behaviour across mobile devices is important:
Smartphone and TV (average rating of 3.54 and 65% of respondents rated this as most important)
Smartphone and desktop and TV (average rating of 3.55 and 68% of respondents rated this as most important) are the current priorities
Q: Ideally how frequently should ad impression and reach data for key audiences be updated?
Real-time is the current priority – 46% of respondents chose this compared to 42% of respondents choosing daily in the 2014 survey