Viewability Counts In Europe

Media buyers and sellers discussed issues around viewability at an industry conference in Europe. While the region seems to be ahead in the area, there were still some questions raised. Here are the answers.

Last week, I was fortunate to attend dmexco, one of Europe’s largest internet advertising conference. The show encompasses three massive exhibition halls, giving attendees the feeling of the size and scale of CES. With attendance exceeding 30,000, there is massive opportunity to meet new people, conduct business or connect with friends and colleagues from a faraway land.

The producers do a solid job of preparing programming that is timely but also forward-looking. Many say that Europe is six-to-12 months behind on technology innovations and issues being addressed in the US. However, given the global nature of the Internet and the size of players now operating in multiple countries such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, GroupM and others, we are seeing an acceleration and in some cases, a leapfrog effect.

Viewability was a hot topic on most panels, which is interesting given that the clients in Europe seem less sensitive to the concerns surrounding it. But the vendors, sellers and agency buyers are taking a page out of the U.S. playbook and getting way ahead of the issue in Europe.

A few big questions were answered for the masses attending the event:

1. If an impression is not seen by a consumer does it have value? A resounding NO was heard reverberating around the hall.

2. How important is viewability in video compared to display? Most agree that video needs to be initiated by the consumer and in-view, but be held to the same measurement standards applied to TV. Display, however, needs validation of time in-view and shouldn’t be charged for otherwise.

3. Who is responsible for viewability? The publishers should be actively working on redesigning sites to limit the number of ads on the page, embed the ads within the content such that maximum viewability is achieved, and make guarantees to buyers on the percent of ads in-view.

These measures apply neatly to desktop but there was still active debate over the standards for mobile viewability. The general sentiment from folks I spoke with was that we have an opportunity to retrain consumers on mobile by focusing on fewer, more engaging, full screen experiences that lead to better brand recall and lift. However, many publishers are taking the same path as desktop leading them to troubled waters. It’s possible that this time next year, we will see more full-screen experiences within mobile content in Europe with the U.S. content providers following their lead.

What do you think?

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