TORONTO – Quebecor, Rogers, the Globe and Mail, and Yahoo are among the digital media companies that have signed on to adhere to new standards developed by GroupM that measure viewability for digital advertising in Canada.
The media agency group said Tuesday that it is contracting viewability terms that far exceed Canadian industry standards into all trading deals for its clients. The agreements establish the duration and percentage of a display or video ad that must be visible before it will be counted as an impression and paid for by the clients of GroupM's agencies.
For display advertising, GroupM insists that 100% of an ad must be viewable for at least one second, surpassing industry standards which call for 50% of pixels to be in view. For video ads, GroupM additionally requires that video plays must be user initiated (not auto-played) and run with the sound on. GroupM also now requires that reconciliation of viewed ad impressions be verified by third-party specialists, which also ensures all ad views are by humans. Third party verification of advertising delivery is standard practice in other media like TV, print and radio.
“Online viewability standards have been debated in Canada for a number of years. While we will continue to advocate for meaningful standards industry-wide, we are acting now with our media partners to deliver the performance and accountability we believe our clients deserve," said GroupM Canada chief trading officer Neil Johnston, in the news release. "We have pushed our partners and are grateful for the support we have received to deliver the absolute highest quality of digital advertising to our shared clients. This will help bolster the confidence of advertisers in the digital medium."
GroupM is the global media investment management company serving as the parent to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom, Maxus, and Essence, as well as the programmatic digital media platform Xaxis.
