MRC Updates Viewable Ad Impression Guidelines

In New York, the Media Rating Council (MRC) has upgraded its 'Viewable Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines' to address specific issues identified since the original guidelines were released last summer.

In March last year, the MRC gave a green light to the ad industry to begin using 'viewable impressions' as a metric for measuring display advertising; and its first set of 'Viewable Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines' were released at the end of June 2014. The new version specifies that the guidelines are intended for desktop ad measurement, and that the MRC has issued separate interim guidance for mobile viewability measurement. It also notes that desktop viewable impressions counts should be reported separately from mobile viewable impression counts.

Issues have since been identified through a series of projects, designed to pinpoint the causes for discrepancies in viewable impression counts among MRC-accredited vendors. However, while this revision to the guidelines includes several updates, the baseline standards for desktop viewable ad impressions remain the same, with a viewable impression counted as such if, and only if, at least 50 percent of the pixels are in view for a minimum of one continuous second for display, and two continuous seconds for video ads.

MRC Executive Director George Ivie comments: 'Viewable impressions are the foundational element for ultimately defining an audience-based currency that will allow the industry to better measure digital ad efficacy and engagement. Therefore, it's critical that the Guidelines for measuring viewable impressions address those technical nuances, and the discrepancies they can cause, that the buy and sell side of the industry have encountered'.

The new guidelines can be found at: http://mediaratingcouncil.org/081815%20Viewable%20Ad%20Impression%20Guideline_v2.0_Final.pdf .