WFA and strategic partner Digital Decisions release Digital Media Benchmark

Ahead of Global Marketer Week 2019, the World Federation of Advertisers sent out an RFP to the industry calling for initiatives to put the Global Media Charter into action. Out of 60 submissions, 12 were presented at the Media Forum in Lisbon, where WFA members selected Digital Decisions’ Digital Media Benchmark as one of the most promising and valuable initiatives.

Six months later, Digital Decisions together with the WFA and key industry partners Adloox, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, Meetrics and MOAT (from Q4 2019), have released the Digital Media Benchmark - a live repository of reported viewability, brand safety and detected ad fraud data. 

Over 1 trillion measured impressions have been submitted by the leading verification companies in H1 2019 to be processed by Digital Decisions in an anonymised benchmark that breaks down performance by country, region and channel. The benchmark will be updated every quarter to serve as a dynamic benchmark resource to the whole industry that will create a new level of accountability in digital media.

The initiative is of unprecedented scale and shows the commitment of all participating data suppliers to drive progress in the industry. There is no financial reimbursement to any of the participants, making this a fully voluntary commitment by all parties.

“Many advertisers struggle with setting realistic yet ambitious targets when it comes to digital quality metrics, especially across a large number of markets. What we looked to achieve with the Digital Media Benchmark is to provide the whole industry with an up-to-date baseline that can serve as a dynamic resource to refer to in agency performance SLAs, for example. We are overwhelmed by the commitment of the industry partners, and take our role in processing and delivering this data every quarter going forward very seriously,” says Ruben Schreurs, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Decisions.

The Digital Media Benchmark is available to anyone that wishes to use it, on a public page that can be found here: www.wfanet.org/dmb 

“It’s encouraging that the industry is collaborating to help engineer a better, more sustainable environment for all stakeholders. We’ve seen this with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, and now we are pleased to see that the leading verification companies are jointly participating in this Digital Media Benchmark initiative, designed to introduce more visibility into some of the key focus areas with WFA’s Global Media Charter. The Media Charter calls for change in the digital media industry. These data, provided to the entire industry on a quarterly basis, are a welcome and significant step towards that change,” says Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA.

DISCLAIMER: The viewability/fraud/brand safety data reported here does not represent the entire market. The benchmark reflects the level of digital quality as reported by the participating vendors, and this includes only impressions from advertisers that have deployed ad verification technology and are, as such, arguably more advanced. Actual issues with fraud and brand safety go beyond the reported figures, and advertisers should be - and remain - vigilant to combat this, both individually and as an industry.

The Digital Media Benchmark will evolve over time, increasing the number of markets and channels when minimum data thresholds have been met. The data suppliers are currently unavailable to submit social quality data due to agreements with media owners. We are working to hopefully release social benchmark data in the near future. For any questions, please reach out to wfa@digitaldecisions.com.