Sour apples for publishers

What I don't know won't make me hot, as the saying goes - and so until now, the question of whether online advertising was being displayed on users' screens at all was not an issue, or rather a certain amount of wastage was accepted as an unavoidable fact. No longer: manufacturers of ad servers and analytics solutions are upgrading and offering additional modules to measure the visibility of delivered advertising media. And apparently the time is ripe for this and a hype is developing around it, so that all providers are jumping on the bandwagon and of course forcing their customers to do so. It is therefore not surprising that in a survey conducted by Werbewoche among publishers, marketers, agencies and clients, all of them (if they responded...) addressed the topic. However, different levels of maturity became clear. Agencies are the most advanced (as already shown in the article in Werbewoche from April 13, 2012, p. 31). "This is standard for us," says Philipp Semmler, Head of Interactive at Mediaschneider, who sees visibility evaluations as a market advantage: "We thus achieve guaranteed and independently verified visibility - even in the otherwise very critical performance area." Hans-Georg Bardohl, Head of Digital Buying at OmnicomMediaGroup, also talks about pushing new opportunities and technology solutions and thus proactively approaching customers. Demand is "very good" because, after all, the bottom line is "to guarantee the customer maximum efficiency, however this is defined in individual cases".

The assessments of marketers are noticeably less enthusiastic. At Admazing, Leonardo Kopp says that they have "already been able to measure the visibility of display ads for some time". "However, we don't do this as standard - but advertisers can book this at any time. So far, however, we haven't had many concrete applications." Alexander Horrolt, Managing Director Goldbach Audience (Switzerland) AG, talks about being able to offer "comprehensive proof of performance regarding the delivery of ads" with the company's own ad server providers. However, for "individual areas such as visibility", he can currently only refer to "discussions with specialist providers".

And Ueli Weber, COO of Publimedia, also states: "We will now start with campaigns in which we measure the visibility values." As the publishers are limited to the three large media houses in Zurich, one gets the impression that the issue of guaranteed visibility is not yet a compelling strategic issue. "We are currently examining various instruments," reports Remo Baumeler, Head of Advertising Market NZZ Network. And at Ringier, media spokesperson Edi Estermann does not specifically address the topic of visibility, but does report: "We are monitoring the technical possibilities of measuring advertising impact and have already carried out tests, but we are not yet using any tool to its full extent." Christoph Zimmer, company spokesperson for Tamedia, can provide more concrete information: "This year, we carried out the first tests to measure the visibility of various advertising formats." Both the pure visibility rate and other qualitative indicators such as the duration of viewing were measured. However: "A standard introduction is not yet planned." Nevertheless, the internal tests have resulted in "very high viewability rates", which shows "that display advertising is being noticed".

No Swiss standards

When it comes to the standardization of visibility measurement, many of the interviewees for this article emphasize that uniform standards are important for the development of the market in order to ensure comparability. But there are also other voices. Philipp Semmler, for example: "Standards are not necessary, why should they be? If I buy above-the-fold on System X and my independent ad server does the check and my result is 95-97 percent, I don't need any new standards. Visibility can simply be expressed as a percentage of the total impressions delivered." And Hans-Georg Bardohl points out that you don't have the same parameters and objectives for all campaigns and are therefore rather limited by standards. In terms of comparability, he would find it helpful if certain key figures were agreed upon in Europe or internationally. On behalf of the IAB Switzerland, President Ueli Weber pointed out that such a de facto standard had already been established in Germany: An advertising title must be visible for at least one second, and at least 60 percent of the advertising space must be displayed. And he emphasizes: "It is not the task of the IAB Switzerland to define a different standard if it is used abroad."

Kick-backs for clients

"He who pays, commands": if this adage is to apply, all market participants will have to adapt to new rules of the game. David Burst from the Migros Cooperative Federation, for example, promises: "In future, visibility measurement will be an integral part of our post evaluation of campaigns. The results will also be incorporated into the evaluation of the price/performance of individual offers." Boris Jacklowsky, Head Digital Business at AXA Winterthur, is a client who speaks plainly on the subject of visibility. For him, it is important that "clarity is created as quickly as possible in the Swiss online advertising market as to how high the loss rates of undelivered or invisible ads actually are". He does not want to accept statements such as "It has always been like this", "Not all advertising media can be seen equally well" or "There is always some wastage". As a client, he not only wants "an authority that is independent of marketers and agencies to be able to show these efficiency losses", but also that "advertisers receive a corresponding kick-back on this loss value after a campaign has been completed".

Measurement results from the Federation of Migros Cooperatives also show that visibility losses are significant in the Swiss market (see box 71%) and indicate that publishers will not be able to avoid price adjustments. For Leonardo Kopp, corresponding price or billing adjustments are "conceivable". However, he points out that there are already often placement-dependent prices that anticipate and factor in reduced visibility. And Edi Estermann points out where the publishers' line of argument is likely to run: "The qualitative improvement of the products naturally serves to improve the price-performance ratio, for both partners." Christoph J. Walther