This concept has been considered to be impossible by virtually everybody, until now, with a promise by Millennial Media.
A leading mobile ad marketplace, Millennial Media, has recently announced that it will soon be offering a guarantee for 100 percent viewability for in-app advertising campaigns, which is certain to cause a stir.
This type of promise has never before been both made and kept, but it is still likely to hold significant appeal to mobile marketers.
The issue that this mobile ad promise is attempting to address is that marketers are beginning to become highly frustrated with the amount of money that they are spending on advertising that isn’t being seen by anyone. They are seeking to find ways to spend their money on advertising that won’t result in simply paying a fraudulent company, that will receive poor data on impressions that are actually being achieved, or that simply result in un-viewability.
A viewable mobile ad results in improved accountability for digital advertising that is more comparable with other channels.
At the moment, the mobile advertising environment is lacking in solid viewability standards and best practices. According to the CEO and president of Millennial Media, Michael Barrett, who is also an IAB Board Member, “The mobile ad ecosystem is desperately seeking guidelines around viewability.” He added that “Today, we are choosing the highest standard possible by offering a 100 percent in-app viewability guarantee.”
In this effort, the firm will be working alongside partner company Integral Ad Science (IAS). Barrett explained that “We have selected Integral Ad Science as our measurement partner because they are the only at-scale vendor that can currently measure in-app viewability.” He also stated that “We will continue to partner closely with the MRC, IAB, and the mobile ad ecosystem to define industry-wide standards around viewability. We are committed to becoming the largest mobile marketplace that provides 100 percent viewable, brand safe, and fraud free impressions.”
IAS has already conducted a deep investigation into the Millennial Media mobile ad network to be certain that the capabilities are all in place. Moreover, both companies have been working alongside publishers in order to implement certain viewability boosting technical changes.
By the time this article was written, the blog posts from Sega stated only that “It is important for us to ensure that all of our fans, regardless of platform or operating system, have a great playing experience and after evaluating our complete list of titles, we have determined that a number of them no longer meet our standards,” without saying exactly which of the mobile apps fit that description.