Dive Brief:

• ComScore announced in a press release that it is now accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for mobile viewable impressions and related viewability metrics for display, video, mobile and in-app advertisements.
• With MRC accreditation, the measurement firm aims to foster greater transparency and accuracy with its advertising partners in their cross-platform campaign planning.
• "We're working hard to help our clients and the industry bridge the gaps that divide devices and platforms. Cross-platform ad verification —including mobile viewability — helps close one such gap," Dan Hess, executive vice president of products at comScore, said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

News of comScore receiving the Media Rating Council's stamp of approval for mobile viewability comes less than a week after Facebook, the world’s second largest digital advertising platform, agreed to an audit by the MRC following a number of metrics-related controversies last year. Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser, has suggested that it will no longer work with advertising partners who do not show proper media verification, with MRC accreditation serving as a baseline standard.

ComScore is one of Facebook’s third-party measurement partners, and recently expanded commitments to providing video viewability metrics through the social platform's Audience ad network. As video becomes a more dominant content type for marketers, especially on mobile, viewability has been earning more mindshare, and accreditation for comScore might come as a boon for brands looking to more accurately measure engagement through the medium. 

P&G, for its part, is aiming to clean up the media supply chain and ensure greater efficiency and transparency among digital advertising partners. To date, many digital ad platforms, including Facebook, have provided their own metrics, claiming that their first-party data sets and methods of measurements are unique to their services. But this mindset may start changing as major players like P&G demand more standardized accreditation.

"The days of giving digital a pass are over – it’s time to grow up," said P&G’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Annual Leadership Meeting last month. Pritchard added that a widespread lack of any sort of verification is “ridiculous,” similar to letting a fox guard a henhouse.