IAB Issues Final Guidelines For Rich Media Ad Measurement

For the last year I have been one of about 70 members that make up the the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) committee for Rich Media core metrics. I partook in helping establish core metrics for online video. It was/is a wonderful collaborative experience to see the top 100 sites come together and agree on metrics: eg. what constitutes an ad impression? how do you count it? when do you count it? how many seconds in the video? upon load? upon complete? what are standard video sizes?

When you consider that the IAB representation comprises: Publishers, Advertising Agencies, Software conglomerates, Search Engines, in-game Advertisers, broadcasters, etc.. -- it is no small feat to see everyone agree on anything and you can probably guess we all want it counted ever-so-slightly in our favor...and depending on what part of the playing field you come from - this varies.

The IAB and their members did a fantastic job and we now are beginning to see some of the friuts of our labor. In the end this benefits the Internet as a whole and helps anyone placing an ad on the web know what the playing field is, period. I have been heavily involved in online ads for four years now and know that even within one advertising sector, media buyers need help determining what to tell their clients and how to convert their clients' ad dollars into reliable metrics. This is great step towards a one-stop shop for this knowledge.

Full article here. Snippet below:
THE INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU ON Thursday issued final guidelines for the measurement of rich media advertising, following a 30-day public comment period. The guidelines define when a rich media ad impression can be counted by Web publishers, rich media vendors, and ad-serving companies.

The new rules cover interstitial and newer interactive ad formats such as floating ads, page take-overs, and tear-backs, as well as standard banners and buttons. They also apply to ads that employ audio, video and Flash animation technologies and programming languages including Java, Javascript and DHTML.