Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines

In a continued effort to lend efficiency to the online ad creation and media buying communities and to foster an environment of open dialogue on outstanding issues and concerns, the IAB’s Broadband Committee and Measurement Task Force have developed a set of Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines. As broadband proliferates, the interactive industry recognizes the importance of delivering a standardized set of measurement guidelines earlier rather than later so that infrastructure development and business practices can be informed at the earliest stage.

These Guidelines are intended to further supplement the Ad Campaign Measurement and Audit Guidelines released in 2004, which details the standard for counting an online ad impression. Specifically, broadband video commercial measurement guidelines will determine at what point a broadband video commercial is counted. A “Broadband Video Commercial” is defined as a commercial that may appear before, during, and after a variety of content including streaming video, animation, gaming, and music video content in a player environment. This definition includes Broadband Video Commercials that appear in live, archived, and downloadable streaming content.

With the steady and aggressive growth of broadband, a need for measurement guidelines for video commercials within a broadband content experience has become clear. These guidelines have been reviewed by the AAAA’s Digital Video Innovation and Interactive Marketing and New Media Committees.

The guidelines state that “a valid broadband ad impression may only be counted when an ad counter (logging server) receives and responds to an HTTP request for a tracking asset from a client. The count must happen after the initiation of the stream, post-buffering, as opposed to the linked broadband content itself. Specifically, measurement should not occur when the buffer is initiated, rather measurement should occur when the ad itself begins to appear on the user’s browser, closest to the opportunity to see.”

These guidelines address on-line browser or browser-equivalent based Internet activity that involves streaming video and audio advertising content and are principally applicable to Internet media companies and ad-serving organizations.

Planners and buyers can use these Guidelines to assist in determining the quality of broadband measurements. For companies who have already been audited against the current Guidelines, it is recommended that inclusion of Broadband Video Commercial Measurement be made upon the next regularly scheduled auditing and certification cycle. These broadband-specific guidelines are intended to be supplemental to the auditing and certification process. For a list of companies who have already been certified or have committed to a “certified-by” date, please click here.

For a complete copy of the guidelines, please click here.

Guideline Overview