Metrics, Viewcounts, Impressions and Bears! (ok, no bears…)
There’s a little post over on SAI that is part of a trend of posts examining or calling for a better method of measuring the viewership of web videos so that advertisers can figure out what they’re paying for:
“In the end, of course, with ad supported media, none of these stats are truly what matters. What matters is ad delivery, and whether the viewer saw the message. When you combine an ad serving engine with streamed video, consumed via a web browser, ad delivery metrics are simple to uncover. When shows are downloaded and viewed offline, they’re a bit harder. How do you know if the downloaded show was actually watched?”
While I don’t necessarily disagree that some sort of reliable, standardized metrics will help matters it is a little silly to think that the internet can provide so sort of proof of impression for advertisers.
There is no guarantee that a magazine reader will flip to the page your ad is on and there is no promise that a TV viewer will stay tuned for your commercial. Advertisers don’t seem to have any problem with a general idea of how popular something is as a vehicle to their desired demo but all the vehicle can do is deliver the message – it can’t promise anyone will look.
The same is true for online video. No matter how you integrate your branding it is always something of a crapshoot in terms of the impact on your audience. Often, the skill of integration will determine this impact. However, it isn’t hard to get a good idea of what is doing “well” online and what is going completely unnoticed.
Print circulation numbers and Neilson TV Ratings are just good estimates – and many argue they aren’t even that. So, eventually, there will be a standard for web video “views” but it won’t really mean much.
Tags: impressions, metrics, neilsen, neilson, viewcount, views
Uncategorized | admin | 
April 16, 2008 8:28 pm
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