SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Could an IAB Tech Lab measurement initiative herald the future of video ad measurement?
Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) is designed to facilitate third party viewability and verification measurement for ads served to web video and mobile app environments.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, James Wilhite, VP of Product at Publica by IAS, said he believes it will have significant application in connected TV (CTV).
True CTV Attention
Despite its availability for over a year, some players have yet to adopt the OM SDK fully, though IAB announced Samsung and LG adoption in May.
“It’s going to enable true attention on CTV, not panel-based,” Wilhite explained. “We’re not talking 5,000 households, 10,000 households, we’re saying full attention for everybody that’s watching television that integrates OM SDK.”
The adoption of the OM SDK will provide transparency, helping to combat fraud in CTV and ultimately leading to increased CPMs and publisher revenue over time. By tracking user actions such as changing channels, opening menus, and responding to “are you still watching” prompts, the OM SDK will offer valuable insights into viewer engagement and attention.
Ad Format Flexibility
On CTV, Wilhite believes the future is about formats.
“You can always insert ads into the content, even if it is video on demand,” he said. “You can have home screen ads. So if you do curate everything into a nice storefront, you can have ads that look like they’re part of the content themselves, which are actually sponsored shows and movies and other things like that.”
While in-stream ad formats like squeeze backs, picture-in-picture, and overlays are possible, their scalability is currently limited due to the need for agencies to develop assets and the reliance on server-side ad insertion (SSAI) to properly stitch the ads with the content, Wilhite said.
However, home screen ads offer immediate scalability, as manufacturers can adapt traditional display ad units to CTV and incorporate them into their user interfaces.
You’re watching coverage of Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2024. This series and event is sponsored by OpenX, Publica by IAS, Snowflake & Spotter. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
