At last week’s IBO Spring 2024 conference, Place Exchange CEO Ari Buchalter talked about the importance of impression measurement and the pending release of out of home measurement standards by the MRC. We’ve excerpted his comments here.
Why impressions are important.
If we look at the advertising market – almost $400 billion in the US…the vast majority of that spend transacts on impressions. Out of home is only about 2% of that ad spend… if we want to grow our share by capturing spend from other channels…it’s important that we’re talking the same language and able to transact on the same currency as most of the other 98%.
Why measurement standards are important
We’re the only major advertising channel that doesn’t yet have an MRC standard and accredited measurement solutions against that…. It really boils down to trust for buyers…They need to know what they’re getting… and having measurement that conforms to transparent standards and are vetted by independent auditors helps to build that trust with both buyers and sellers.
MRC standards may be issued this month
The MRC OOH standards are hopefully coming out soon. There were drafts that were put out for public comment. Like many others, we had the chance to review them and give feedback, so we have an idea of what the standards will look like. To follow the standards and go through the process to become accredited takes a lot of time and expense but it’s important for buyers to know that the impression metrics they use have been looked at by an independent third party auditor…
Having audited measurement is a growth opportunity
Out of home revenues have grown at cost of living rates. I think we have the potential to move budgets over from online, social media and traditional television as those channels face issues like bot fraud, brand safety and the loss of cookies. Moving only a few percent of those budgets over could double or triple our industry over five years.
How the online world does it
In online you don’t have one measurement provider. You have a standard that different solutions are accredited against, and a marketplace of options for buyers and sellers to choose from. The same thing is happening with TV. Having a healthy marketplace helps to encourage innovation and lower costs, while ensuring that all solutions adhere to a common standard.
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