Another Day, Another Interactive Ad Group

Just when you thought there were enough interactive advertising task forces, councils, and advisory groups, here’s the latest.

Break Media, an online community for men and an ad network, has decided there’s more to life — and business — than hot women, gear, and gossip. That includes the all mighty dollar and figuring out how to calculate online video advertising’s return on investment.

The company, which operates sites such as Chickipedia (a wiki of hot women) and Cage Potato (Mixed Martial Arts news), announced today it’s taking the lead to form a council to examine the effectiveness of online video ads.

Online Video Advertising ROI Council is represented by some high-profile brands, agencies, and technology vendors. (The new media company made the announcement today at the historic 21 Club in midtown Manhattan. Jacket required.)

Break chief executive Keith Richman, in an interview, said traditional advertisers want assurances that money spent on online video ads is beneficial. Before that can occur, advertisers must reach some agreement on what metrics to use to help with that assessment.

The advertising ROI council members include Ogilvy One, truTV, National Geographic Channel, AT&T, Starcom, eMarketer , Panache, Lotame, Visible Measures, Horizon Media, and Initiative Media. It also brought in Visible Measures, to help establish metrics to determine ROI and intends to meet every three months to share information among its membership.

The council’s formation comes just as the IAB is updating digital video ad format guidelines for in-stream, overlay, and video companion ads. That undertaking is intended to simplify ad specs plus other goals.