comScore introduces validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) in Canada

vCE enables a holistic view of campaign delivery and a verified assessment of ad-exposed audiences via a single, third-party source. Unlike existing single-point solutions, it provides an unduplicated accounting of impressions delivered across a variety of dimensions, such as ads delivered in-view, in the right geography, in a brand safe environment, absent of fraudulent delivery and to a particular target audience.

"The introduction of validated Campaign Essentials in Canada benefits both buyers and sellers of digital advertising by increasing transparency and accountability for campaigns and improving cross-media comparability with TV," said Brent Bernie, president of comScore Media Metrix Canada. "Current digital ad economics feature an overabundance of supply that has often translated into poor quality placements for advertisers and weaker monetisation for publishers. Validation presents a new paradigm that introduces the element of scarcity into the supply-and-demand equation and promises to improve the underlying economics of the ecosystem. Publishers will be able to better monetise their content by unearthing the 'gold below the fold,' while giving advertisers greater confidence that their ads will not only be seen but be delivered to the right audience in the right environment."

vCE provides a holistic view of validated impressions, which can be expressed as 'validated gross rating points', or vGRPs. This new metric excludes the measurement of ads that were not in-view (i.e. did not deliver an opportunity to see), delivered in the wrong geography, delivered on brand unsafe sites, or subject to fraudulent delivery. In addition, campaign reporting also includes the vTRP, which accounts for validated impressions that were delivered to the intended demographic or behavioural target audience.

vCE Canada Charter Study findings

To understand the quality of ad delivery in Canada today and to facilitate an informed discussion across markets, comScore conducted a Canadian-based vCE Charter Study. The study sought to measure the incidence of impressions that do not meet the various validation criteria.

The Study included campaigns from leading Canadian advertisers, such as Kraft Canada, Kellogg Canada, Rogers, and Volkswagen, and analysed 125 million impressions across 475 000 publisher sites without requiring publisher site pixels. Impressions across all delivery methods, including iframes, were measured.

The following results are highlights from the study:

• Across all Canadian campaigns measured, 65% of ad impressions were classified as being 'in-view.'* These results were similar to the US and U.K. Charter Study results. In-view percentages varied by site and ranged from as low as 27% to as high as 94%.
  
• An average of 2% of ad impressions were delivered outside the desired geography, but individual campaigns ran as high as 4.6%.
  
• On average, the validated proportion of the campaigns' reach (vReach ratio) of the primary target audience was 71%, with individual campaigns running as high as 74%. In comparison to the US Charter Study, Canada has a 15% higher proportion of validated reach of the primary target (US vReach Ratio being 56%).

The above is part of a global initiative to support industry discussions on validated impressions. The full results from the US-based vCE Charter Study involving online advertising campaigns for 12 premium advertisers are available for download here: http://www.comscore.com/vce-charter-study.

*In Canada, a standard for 'in-view' hasn't been defined yet. For this charter study the parameters recommended by the US initiative, 'Making Measurement Make Sense', consisting of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of National Advertisers (4A's) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB.) have been used as a guideline. These parameters say that at least 50% of the advertisement must be viewable for at least 1 second in order to be considered in-view.

"Understanding how our clients' campaigns performed, and creating an accountable marketplace, are critical to Volkswagen's success and continued growth in digital. These valid insights are helping us improve our relationships with clients and better leverage our relationship with publishers." - Jeff Thibodeau, vice-president Digital Media, MediaCom Canada

"We are very pleased that comScore has launched vCE in Canada. This type of third-party, holistic validation of ad delivery will allow us to assess where our online investments are successful and reveal the areas with the greatest potential for growth and optimisation. We are glad to have been a partner of the Charter Study and look forward to these critical standards being set for the industry." - Jennifer Holgate, SVP, Digital, Starcom MediaVest Group.