In a move it says will strengthen the effectiveness of the Canadian digital marketplace for its clients, GroupM is introducing new viewability standards for digital display and video ads.
The new standards stipulate that for digital display, 100% of an ad must now be viewable for one second in order to be counted as an impression (surpassing current IAB Canada standards requiring 50% of pixels to be viewable), while video ads must be user initiated (as opposed to auto-played) and run with sound.
The new standards also require reconciliation of viewed ad impressions verified by third-party specialists such as Integral Ad Science, Moat or Doubleverify to ensure all ad views are human.
The agreement spans several publishing partners including TheGlobeAndMail.com, Quebecor, Rogers and Yahoo, as well as specialist web destinations like AutoTrader.ca and digital sales houses such as Crucial Interactive.
“Clients can be confident that when they invest money in digital, humans are going to see all of the ad,” said GroupM Canada chief trading officer Neil Johnston. He said about 25% of the impressions paid for using prior standards would no longer be classified as viewable using the new standards.
GroupM first introduced the viewability standards in the U.S. market late in 2014, and Johnston said they are being introduced in Canada as digital plays an increasingly significant role in clients’ marketing plans.
The company is predicting $5.1 billion of the total Canadian ad investment of $12.8 billion – approximately 39.8% – will go towards digital in 2016, while it will account for about 35% of GroupM’s total client investment (GroupM’s client roster is filled with CPG clients that continue to rely heavily on TV).
Clients’ digital investment grew 18% last year, with Johnston predicting further growth of approximately 15% in 2016. “[Digital is] soon to be the most significant proportion of our investment and we want to bring the standards of accountability in digital to be as strong as they would be in TV or print, for example,” said Johnston.
All deals being inked for the year ahead will include the new standards, said Johnston.
He said publisher partners are redesigning their websites – and how they serve ads – in order to meet the new standards. For example, a modern-day homepage takeover might serve ads dynamically as the reader scrolls down through the site as opposed to serving them when the page is first loaded
“There’s a lot of work [taking place] on the media vendor side to make our clients’ advertising more visible,” said Johnston. “It’s an ongoing piece of work.”
Donald Lizotte, executive vice-president of advertising sales and marketing for Quebecor and VP sales and marketing for TVA Group, called the new standards “excellent news and a promise of added value for advertisers.”
Lizotte said his company introduced viewability and new standards two years ago, a move that has resulted in increased advertiser confidence and a renewed commitment to the digital marketplace.
A growing number of publishers have begun offering 100% viewability guarantees in the past year including Google and Juice Mobile.
A study issued this week by IPG Media Lab, Cadreon and Integral Ad Science found the time an ad is in view contributes to recall more than how much of an ad is visible.
The study follows a 2015 report which found less than half of ads (43%) are considered technically “viewable,” according to the Media Ratings Council’s minimum viewability standards.
