The most important question is that of the viewability of the digital ads which requires measurement and metrics. Such measurement should be transparent and could be independent third-party verification. Many advertisers are not satisfied with the ad metrics being used in the digital space.

Media measurement has been a part of advertising for a long time. In the 1930s, we witnessed the emergence of the Audit Bureau of Circulation ( ABC ). Later came the readership surveys called NRS in the late 1970, followed by IRS under the aegis of a joint industry body MRUC — Media Research Users Council. These efforts have been collaborative efforts of the print media itself.

TV has been measured right from the beginning by an independent, third-party commercial entity. TV audience measurement is now in this decade done by a joint industry body BARC.

MRUC and BARC are looking at measuring the digital media ads. As soon as this happens, all media will be measured agnostically.

In the USA, the Media Rating Council (  MRC ) operates. It provides essential inputs — setting standards, providing oversight, conducting audits and correcting infirmities As in India now the measurement rests in the hands of joint industry bodies, these inputs are integral to their work. Maybe, it is time to bring the various bodies together.

Abroad, Google and Facebook have agreed to Media Rating Council’s audits. Advertisers are pushing for greater transparency. There were inaccuracies in the measuring tools of the social media. Another cross-platform measurement is provided by Interactive Advertising Bureau ( IAB ).

Advertisers are right in asking the RoI while putting digital ads. These days the effectiveness of the campaigns are decided by how viral they go on line.

Abroad, there are viewability targets for a campaign. The other standard could be the time spent on site. This can happen here if there is third party technology, but it comes at a cost. Publishers must be willing to allow for it, but they are reluctant because the CPM ( cost per thousand ) returns are the lowest for publishers. Thus there is little incentive for them to invest in the technology.

Display buys are performance-based, i.e. CPC, CPI etc. In video format, measurement systems are not as advanced. As mobile video advertising has grown, there is a demand for viewability-related metrics. As mobile videos are immersive they are better in arresting attention and are effective in ensuring better viewability.

Viewability is an online advertising metric. It keeps track of those impressions that are actually viewed by customers.

A viewable impression should be defined. A served ad impression becomes a viewable impression if its content is available in viewable space of the browser window, on an in-focus browser tab, fulfilling the basic criteria for an ad to be considered viewable.

Every leading broadcaster has a separate OTT platform which airs the traditional TV shows and at the same time some original content. There are independent OTT platforms too, not tied up to a broadcaster. Advertisers are flocking to these platforms. Advertising spend on these platforms is constantly going up. Similarly, print has entered into video content and keeps on updating it. It increases the reach of the print media.

So far broadcasters, publishers and digital platforms put out their own online viewership numbers but these lack credibility.It is thus self-measurement.

ABC has started doing the digital ratings of publications. It requires big data and currently both ABC and BARC are examining the sources of big data. BARC plans to measure online video. Ultimately, it is expected that a common metric would emerge.