SEA on par with global viewability standards: IAB

Southeast Asia as a region is operating in line with global standards for viewability in desktop display advertising, according to IAB Singapore’s inaugural study examining the issue.

In conjunction with three measurement partners—ComScore, Integral Ad Science (IAS) and Moat—the IAB’s report found Southeast Asia’s average viewability rate is 53 percent, which is almost the same as the rates for the US market as provided by the three measurement partners. Their findings regarding Southeast Asia deviated by less than 4 percent.

The study measured more than 424 million impressions across six Southeast Asian markets between mid-August and mid-October 2016: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.

Viewability as defined by the Media Rating Council is having 50 percent of ad pixels loaded in the viewport for one second.

Vietnam was the lowest-ranked country in the region, with viewability at 41.4 percent, with Singapore towards the top at 59.07 percent. Indonesia towered over the others at 70 percent, but IAB’s viewability working group, which worked on the report, found the result inconclusive due to the significant deviation.

“There is a need to test inventory in order to improve transparency, to ensure that ads are being viewed and acted upon by real people within an increasingly automated industry,” said Miranda Dimopoulos, CEO of IAB Singapore. “The long-term aim of this study is to establish a norm and to encourage viewability adoption amongst IAB Singapore members.”

Jonah Goodhart, senior vice-president of Oracle Data Cloud and co-founder of Moat, said clarity over viewability in Southeast Asia is crucial to digital growth.

“Consumers in Southeast Asia are spending more and more time online. Those in Singapore, for instance, spent 401 minutes a day on the internet in 2016, according to ZenithOptimedia—that’s staggering, especially compared to the worldwide average of about 120 minutes,” he said.

“With such high activity levels, transparency into advertising is a must for online marketers. Moat is proud to be a part of this regional study, and we remain committed to ensuring the successful execution of the next three phases planned.”

The next phase of the report, focusing on video, is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.