The Resource Center / Viewability

Overview

The move towards viewability is a significant and important change for our industry. The digital advertising ecosystem is certainly shifting towards valuing viewable rather than served impressions. This DCN Resource Center aims to provide a comprehensive view of the issue for our members, non-members and the press.

Some facts from our perspective:

FACT: The viewable standard is absolutely critical to moving to cross-platform metrics.
FACT: Publishers who are in the business of having people actually consume their product will benefit from an ad marketplace that recognizes an advertising impression needs to be able to be seen.
FACT: The viewable impression standard set at one second for 50% of a display ad and two seconds for 50% of a video ad only represent the minimum opportunity to see an ad. This doesn’t mean the ads were actually viewed.
FACT: The viewable standard from MRC is non-negotiable. Yes, anyone can use it as a basis to negotiate on time spent with ads but that’s something different; something better defined as engagement.
FACT: The same exact set of ad impressions that are measured on Viewability have to be worth more, particularly if they are guaranteed to be viewable.

Committee Members

Steve Ahlberg, Co-Chair

Vice President, Digital. Head of New Product Development

Gannett

Joe Alicata

VP, Revenue Product & Operations

Vox Media

Nick Ascheim

SVP, Digital - NBCU News & MSNBC

NBCUniversal News Group

Erik Flannigan

EVP of Music, Talent & Multi-Platform Strategy

Viacom Media Networks

Jed Hartman, Co-Chair

Chief Revenue Officer

The Washington Post

Daniel Rothman

Director of Insight

Financial Times

Michael Silberman

General Manager, Digital Media

New York Media

Get the Facts Straight on Viewability

By Jason Kint, CEO – DCN

Viewability remains top of mind in part, this is because marketplace confusion persists, despite efforts from the MRC such as George Ivie’s crystal clear statement last week in MediaPost. Listening to the ongoing Viewability discussion, combined with the concerns and issues raised last week at Digiday’s event, has crystalized a number of key aspects of Viewability for me. So in the interest of clarity, here are some facts about Viewability that are frequently overlooked and which the industry needs to be clear on before we can move forward