It is “critical” for the future of digital advertising that the industry agrees a standard definition for viewability on mobile, says Millennial Media’s Andrew Bradway.

Bradway, senior director, brand advertising, at Millennial Media, said that while it remains “extremely early days” for mobile ad viewability, the situation is expected to develop quickly.

Viewability in the wider sense is in the initial stages of debate. Last year, the Media Ratings Council (MRC) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) ventured that, in the case of video, an ad should be considered ‘viewable’ if 50% of the ad is visible on screen for two consecutive seconds or more.

Earlier this month, the MRC produced an interim set of guidelines for mobile viewability, suggesting that with display, 50% of the ad being visible for one second constitutes a viewable impression.

However, many advertisers are pushing for a reworking of those definitions, arguing the MRC’s guidelines are “unacceptable”.

“I think it’s certainly early days, across all forms of digital, and extremely early days for mobile viewability,” said ex-AOL, Metacafe and Lotame executive Bradway.

“Looking across the landscape, there are a number of governing bodies that are starting to do analysis to determine what a viewable impression is across the different mediums. That is a direct request from advertisers, to see whether ads are actually being seen by end users.

“It is critical to the future of digital advertising.”

Viewability definitions

To respond to this groundswell of opinion, Millennial Media last week introduced its own “100% viewability guarantee” for in-app mobile advertising. In tandem with technology provider Integral Ad Science, the company claims advertisers can be assured that 100% of their ads will be seen in-app for more than one second.

Bradway said Millennial Media will amend that definition as and when the MRC firms up its own mobile ad viewability guidelines. “I would cache this with the fact it is coming before the MRC has created its guidelines,” he said.

“We’ll start running our campaigns using our definition but, as the market evolves, we will work to do what is right, and share with the MRC and the IAB all the data we are generating, creating that long-term definition.”

Given the “complex” landscape, and the need to factor in video, in-feed, banners and interstitial formats, Bradway is loath to predict the likely outcome of the MRC’s mobile viewability research. However, he is adamant that all future viewability definitions will be based on mobile experiences.

And he hopes Millennial Media will be at the forefront of that discussion: “Advertisers we talk to are fully engaged with this, leaning into this conversation, and wanting to start bringing it into a mobile environment. The marketplace is responding really well.

“This is an initial step towards where the market will be. We are looking to lead the charge and bring trust into the ecosystem.”