The 4 most important changes within the Intrinsic In-Game Measurement Guidelines update

Last year the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB US) and the Media Rating Council (MRC) worked with businesses from across the gaming and advertising industries - including Anzu, Meta, Microsoft, Google and Zynga - to update the Intrinsic In-Game Measurement Guidelines, which are a set of guidelines for ads that appear within gaming environments.

The guidelines were updated and published in August 2022 and have helped to bring more confidence to advertisers when planning in-game investments, as well as firmly solidifying gaming as an established ad medium alongside social media, CTV, and other digital channels.

The guidelines are extensive, and to comply with them, many businesses have had to change how they work and build out or update their solutions to adhere to them.

To mark six months since the launch, we thought it was important to break down the most important changes to help you understand what you should look for when running your ad campaigns within gaming environments.
 

1. Separating impressions & viewable impressions

One of the most significant changes has been how viewable impressions are counted. According to the updated guidelines, the ad must be at least 1.5% of the screen size, showing at least 50% of its pixels, the angle must be less than 55 degrees, and it must be viewed consecutively for at least one second to be considered an impression. Simply having the ad load no longer counts because there is no guarantee that the player has seen it.
 

2. Re-examining exposure time

Secondly, the 10 second cumulative exposure duration was re-examined and eliminated. Previously, you had a 10 second window where data was stitched together to make a viewable impression. This means if a player saw an ad for 0.2 seconds five times during that 10 second gap, it would count as a viewable impression as technically the ad had been viewed for 1 second. However, it’s extremely unlikely that the player would have seen the ad, let alone taken any information in during such short busts.

Viewable impressions are now counted in consecutive one-second windows, meaning they are much more accurate as an impression is only counted if the player has seen the ad for a full second, all in one go.
 

3. Adding new formats

Thirdly, the guidelines were updated to incorporate new advertising formats beyond 2D and video regarding viewability within in-game environments. This brings viewability standards to gaming environments like VR and AR, where the ads are not as straightforward as in other environments.
 

4. Defining measurement terms

Finally, and arguably one of the most important changes, was the update of in-game measurement terms to align with broader cross-channel measurement efforts. This was crucial to creating standard terminology across the industry from both sides so that the terms remain the same no matter which partner, platform, or game you are advertising in.

The list, which can be found in full within the guidelines report, includes terms and clear definitions for a number of words used for measuring digital ads, including ad impressions, reach, frequency, and engagement. These were universally agreed upon by all parties involved and are now standard across the industry.

Hear more about these changes and watch how viewability is measured within the 3D gaming world during a live demo from Anzu’s CPO in our next webinar, which is taking place on Tuesday 28 February 2023. Experts from NBCUniversal, IAB, and IAS will join Anzu for the second half of the session to discuss the standards' impact over the past six months. Register here to secure your seat.