The Media Ratings Council says it started tackling the question of whether online ads are truly viewed by consumers or not in order that online ads can be priced similar to analog ones.
“We see it as a stepping stone to a means to another end – an audience based currency on GRPs (gross rating points, the metric television has used for years),” MRC SVP and associate director David Gunzareth tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“A prerequisite to having ad impressions that could be input in to a GRP is that it has to be viewable. For digital to operate on the same playing field as media like TV, it needs to be viewable.”
The MRC in mid-2014 issued guidelines as to what constitutes a genuinely “viewable” online ad. Since then, Gunzareth says the situation has improved.
The WSJ last week calls the MRC “the most powerful player in media you’ve never heard of”.
He was interviewed by Beet.TV at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.
Beet.TV coverage of the IAB meeting was sponsored by SpotXchange. Please find Beet.TV’s coverage of the event here.