Dive Brief:
- The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC) unveiled a proposed set of guidelines to give advertisers more clear and consistent metrics for their augmented reality (AR) efforts, according to the organizations.
- The guidelines, which are open for public comment through March 9, set a framework for clear and consistent definitions for AR ad delivery, viewability, audience, engagement and performance.
- The guidelines also account for AR’s ability to enable users to interact with products both virtually and in the real world while pointing to the enduring relevance of the technology for advertisers.
Dive Insight:
AR has generated notable use cases for brands on platforms like Snapchat, where virtual lenses and filters remain popular. Thanks to devices like Apple Vision Pro, which is already attracting the attention of marketers like E.l.f. Cosmetics, and Meta’s new Ray-Ban Stories glasses and Quest 3 VR headset with full visual passthrough, the technology could be on the precipice of greater mainstream use. The AR advertising market is projected to generate $1.2 billion in revenue in the U.S. in 2024, per details in the release.
As such, it’s probably time for some industry guidelines that marketers, agencies and platforms can agree upon to have a common language around metrics, ROI and general campaign goals for their AR activations. Outlined in the 35-page guidelines are definitions and baselines for general impression counting, viewability, invalid traffic, user attribution and performance.
The proposed guidelines are intended to cover AR formats including ads, virtual try-ons, dynamic experience masks, interactive world views, interactive 3D objects, portals and gateways, and static filters. They are not intended to cover fully immersive virtual reality experiences or non-digital ad activity related to packaging, such as QR codes.
“As an industry, we need to establish a greater consistency on how we define and measure AR advertising to foster fairness and transparency for buyers and sellers,” said Zoe Soon, vice president of the IAB’s experience center, in a statement.
Recent AR brand use cases include Super Bowl-related activations from a number of marketers.
