Viewability Matters

We tend to overestimate the impact of a technology in the short-term and underestimate its impact in the longterm. This maxim, conceived by Roy Amara, an American scientist and futurist, neatly describes the “hype cycle” of new technology and especially that of online advertising.

The promise of online advertising was to deliver more relevant, timely and targeted communications for the mutual benefit of consumers and advertisers.

People would only be exposed to ads appropriate to their desires and at the moments when they were most receptive, while advertisers would cut waste and deliver hyper-efficient campaigns through laser-guided audience targeting and personalised messages.

It hasn’t turned out like that. Yet.

Success comes from making great creative that is optimised to the platform on which it will run and from making evidence-based buying decisions that bring together viewability, audience and survey data to tell the full story.