NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the Media Rating Council (MRC) announced interim guidance for Mobile Viewable Impression measurement. This initiative provides the digital marketing industry with direction as the MRC and Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) – a collaborative effort between the ANA, IAB and 4As – facilitate industry discussion and conduct additional, necessary research to create permanent guidelines that account for the specific nuances of mobile web environments.
No organization has been accredited as yet by MRC for mobile viewable impression measurement. This interim guidance provides a path for organizations that desire to become accredited to do so. MRC has committed to prepare draft Mobile Viewable Impression Measurement Guidelines and issue this for public circulation and comment by year-end 2015.
“After the issuance of the desktop and video viewability guidelines last year, it became clear that technical characteristics of the mobile ad serving environment require the development of new or enhanced methods for determining the viewability of mobile-delivered ads,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the MRC. “Furthermore, the ways in which users interact with content and ads in mobile environments are inherently different from those observed in the desktop environment, possibly creating differences in where the moment of ‘opportunity-to-see’ occurs. As such, we will need to conduct extensive study, testing, and industry discussion to develop more permanent guidance. In the meantime, we have issued a set of interim approaches to mobile viewable impression measurement and reporting to allow the industry to transact in as seamless a manner as possible.”
As of today, all previous MRC guidance on the measurement of viewable impressions of display and video advertising that appears in mobile environments is superseded by the Interim Guidance available here.
The Interim Guidance follows the same criteria currently used to determine viewability in desktop environments. Viewable impression measurement of ads in both mobile web browser and mobile in application environments should follow the existing guidance for viewability in desktop (50% of pixels in the viewable space of the browser for a minimum of one second for display and two seconds for video ads). In addition, the Interim Guidance introduces a new metric, a “Loaded Ad,” which recognizes that measurement of both pixels in view and time in view may be particularly challenging in mobile at present. A Loaded Ad is a measure, explicitly designed as an interim metric specific for mobile in application measurement until such time that the state of that measurement fully matures, that provides users with some assurance that the ad did load on the screen, although it does not meet the requirements for qualifying as a viewable impression.
On March 31, 2014, the MRC lifted its advisory on the use of Viewable Impressions for display ads, and the advisory on Viewable Video Impressions was lifted on June 30, 2014. These foundational metrics will serve as the basis for the future development of an audience-based digital currency and have increased the comparability between digital media and television, and soon, mobile.
To view the Interim Guidance on Mobile Viewable Impression Measurement, please visit: http://mediaratingcouncil.org/050415_Mobile%20Viewability%20Interim%20Guidance_final.pdf.
For more information on the MRC and 3MS, please visit http://measurementnow.net/.
About the Media Rating Council (MRC)
The MRC is a non-profit industry association established in 1963 composed of leading television, radio, print and Internet companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective. Measurement services desiring MRC Accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research and other standards MRC produces; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures. In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace. Currently approximately 100 research products are audited by the MRC.
About Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS)
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies) launched the Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative in 2011, a major collaboration to lead the industry in developing digital metrics and cross platform measurement solutions. The goal of 3MS is to enhance marketing and media management decision-making. The three organizations represent the entire value chain in marketing and advertising and work closely with the MRC to ensure the success of the initiative. The MRC is a non-profit industry association whose goal is to confirm measurement services are valid, reliable and effective. To learn more about the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative, go to http://measurementnow.net.