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The long-held advertising adage that "all media isn’t created equal" is facing a significant challenge within the programmatic ecosystem. While this sentiment has been a cornerstone of advertising strategy for decades, the prevailing current in programmatic ad technology often prioritizes audience targeting above all else, leading to a commoditization of media and creative. This approach, which posits that ad formats and creative elements can be standardized and that the audience is the sole determinant of value, is precisely what the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) aims to dismantle, particularly within the rapidly growing Connected TV (CTV) landscape.
CIMM is poised to release a comprehensive paper that not only demonstrates the measurability of media quality differences but also argues that the industry’s persistent focus on short-term outcomes has exacerbated long-standing challenges. These include the proliferation of made-for-advertising (MFA) sites that exploit programmatic loopholes, brands inadvertently overspending on low-quality CTV placements alongside premium inventory, and ad tech vendors who narrowly define value by audience metrics rather than the intrinsic quality of the media itself.
Erez Levin, founder of ad tech consultancy Emet Advisory and a co-author of the paper, articulated the paper’s core mission: "Quality has been a buzzword for a while in this industry, and no one’s really defined it, except, for the most part, in self-serving ways." He further explained that CIMM’s objective in publishing this guidance is to establish "an objective, industry-wide shared consensus and framework" to elevate discussions around media quality measurement, moving beyond the current state of ambiguity. The paper’s intent is not to introduce new measurement standards per se, but rather to catalyze a comprehensive industry-wide conversation, compelling agencies, tech platforms, and publishers to articulate a clear and coherent methodology for assessing media quality.
The Urgent Need for Consensus in a Fragmented Ecosystem
The impetus for CIMM’s paper stems from a burgeoning and increasingly complex ecosystem of media quality, curation, and programmatic verification services. A wave of startups, including Jounce Media, DeepSee, Sincera, Adalytics, and Gamera, are approaching these challenges from diverse angles. Furthermore, the re-emergence of established players like DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science has revitalized the dormant media quality measurement category. Recent trends in attention measurement and sophisticated deal curation have also introduced novel approaches to transacting on quality signals, further underscoring the need for a unified understanding.
This initiative is a direct outgrowth of CIMM’s collaboration with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on the Attention Measurement Playbook for Marketers, released late last year. During the development of these attention standards, the working group repeatedly encountered a fundamental lack of consensus regarding how to effectively measure the quality of ad impressions. While acknowledging that progress is being made, the CIMM paper seeks to highlight the array of new tools now available to advertisers to navigate this complex landscape.
Levin has been a vocal advocate for improved quality and attention measurement since at least 2017, when he served as a product specialist for Google Marketing Platform, engaging with both buy-side and sell-side stakeholders. The paper’s other co-author, Gabriel Dorosz, brings a wealth of experience from the publisher side as the global advertising initiative lead at the International News Media Association and formerly as head of audience strategy for The New York Times.
Dorosz shared his perspective, stating, "In the premium news publisher space, there’s a belief that the market is not serving those kinds of publishers well. My passion is that quality publishers ought to be getting more of their fair share of ad spend, and this paper is a way to advance that."
Dispelling Myths and Redefining Value
Beyond advocating for publishers’ need to demonstrate media quality, Dorosz emphasized that the paper also aims to equip buyers with the insights necessary to avoid wasteful spending on less effective advertising. The authors endeavor to dismantle entrenched myths that have taken root, partly due to buyers being "oversold on the value of certainty," as Dorosz put it.
A prime example is the industry’s heavy reliance on deterministic attribution as a proxy for audience value. The presence of a deterministic identifier in a bid request often elevates an impression’s perceived value significantly, with factors like time of day, contextual data, and device type often relegated to secondary importance. However, the CIMM paper contends that probabilistic modeling, rather than solely deterministic data, offers a more accurate reflection of the true value across a broader spectrum of ad impressions.
The paper provides actionable guidance on incorporating probabilistic metrics such as attention scoring and contextual relevance to assess an impression’s potential to advance a brand’s stated campaign objectives. It details how these metrics can fluctuate considerably based on temporal and contextual factors, a nuance often lost in a purely audience-centric approach.
For instance, the paper highlights the persistent high price points for premium CTV inventory. Levin points out that major streaming platforms often maintain these elevated CPMs even for ad placements during overnight hours, when audience receptivity is generally lower. This suggests that advertisers should critically question why their streaming campaigns might allocate significant budget to overnight slots and be wary if such allocations lack clear strategic justification.
A New Quality Model: The Quality Trifecta
To reorient the industry towards a stronger emphasis on media quality, the CIMM paper introduces a novel model that, according to its authors, harkens back to fundamental marketing principles. This new model is primarily anchored in "The Quality Trifecta," a concept that Levin has championed, proposing that media quality, creative quality, and audience quality should be measured independently.
Within this framework, media quality is further delineated into two key components: "attention," referring to the prominence and visibility of the ad placement, and "situational context," which gauges the likelihood that the surrounding media environment will foster a receptive mood in the viewer.
The paper advocates for a departure from binary quality assessment methods, such as simply checking for the presence of an ID in a bid request or confirming minimum viewability standards. Instead, it encourages the adoption of "non-binary, relative, and probabilistic" measurements, like attention scoring, which evaluate media quality on a spectrum of effectiveness. These nuanced approaches, the authors argue, are superior for cross-media comparisons and more adept at capturing variations influenced by audience demographics and contextual elements like the time of day.
Furthermore, the paper underscores the importance of balancing short-term performance with long-term brand-building opportunities. While acknowledging that smaller brands heavily reliant on immediate returns may need to prioritize short-term outcomes, the broader principle of integrated strategy is emphasized.
CTV as the Proving Ground and the Buy-Side Imperative
While CIMM’s paper is intended as a guide for the entire open web, the authors specifically identify streaming media and CTV supply as the critical proving ground. This is due to CTV’s status as a high-stakes market characterized by elevated CPMs, intense demand competition, and expansive creative canvases.
Dorosz further elaborates that CTV’s relative nascency compared to the two-decade-long dependency on third-party cookies means its players are not as entrenched in existing paradigms. Moreover, many traditional pixel-based measurement approaches that function well on other platforms are ill-suited for the unique environment of CTV.
For example, the paper advocates for a complete re-evaluation of viewability measurement for CTV. Given that CTV ads typically auto-play with sound and occupy the full screen, the traditional definition of viewability becomes largely irrelevant.
Ultimately, while the overarching goal is industry-wide adoption of these principles, the authors concur that the buy side must take the lead in driving change. Dorosz concluded, "These theories only matter if the buy side demonstrates success and drives repeatability." This buy-side-led adoption is crucial for validating the efficacy of new quality assessment models and fostering broader industry acceptance and implementation. The implications of this shift are profound, potentially leading to more efficient ad spend, a healthier digital ecosystem that better rewards quality content creators, and ultimately, more impactful advertising for brands.
