Attention is Officially Becoming The New Tradable Currency

The days of vague attention metrics are officially over. The Media Rating Council (MRC) and The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) are finally teaming up to standardize attention measurement, marking a significant milestone in the publishing industry. At this stage accreditation guidelines are expected to roll out in early 2025, this is huge news for publishers, and it’s happening just in time.

The decision by the MRC and IAB to unify their efforts toward standardization officially confirms that attention is about to take a much more dominant role in the industry.

For years, viewability was the main metric that mattered. If an ad was seen, great—mission accomplished. Publishers took note and worked hard to boost their viewability scores, making sure ads had a better shot at being noticed. But here’s the catch: just because an ad is technically visible doesn’t mean everyone is actually paying attention to it.

Now, with the MRC and IAB working together, things are finally shifting for the entire industry. For years, advertisers have relied on viewability metrics as the main indicator of success. As these metrics gained prominence, publishers optimized their platforms to improve viewability rates.

We’ve seen this play out at Browsi. Publishers optimized their sites to improve viewability rates for advertisers. Some publishers even found ways to ‘game’ this metric which came at a cost to user experience (ok not those working with Browsi as we help solve just that). Ads became more intrusive, and while the numbers showed better viewability, that didn’t always translate to actual engagement. Publishers saw advertisers asking for more meaningful metrics, and attention quickly became a focus.

As viewability rates went up, advertisers naturally began seeking deeper insights through more meaningful metrics, such as attention. Still, since attention isn’t defined as a standard yet, companies have come up with their own ideas of what attention means, and this has made it difficult for the market to gain momentum.

With the IAB and MRC now collaborating, the era of ambiguity around viewability and attention metrics is nearing its end. This partnership shows that the industry is finally ready to make attention the standardized metric it should’ve been all along.

Why Standardization Matters

Attention has long been seen as the next big thing in digital advertising, but its undefined and fragmented nature has left the market confused. That’s why the new collaboration between the MRC and IAB is crucial. This initiative sets a standardized framework for how attention should be measured and accredited, turning attention into an actionable and credible dataset for publishers.

The Future of Attention as a Tradable Currency

With standardized attention measurement guidelines in the making, attention is heading towards becoming a valuable digital currency. Publishers will soon be able to trade attention data, similar to how they currently exchange viewability data, but with greater accuracy and insight. Unlike viewability, attention is a more nuanced metric that reflects actual user engagement and provides a clearer understanding of ad performance in real-world scenarios.

Having both the MRC and the IAB come together shows that there is a real interest in pushing this forward. I truly believe that once we have a standard for attention, we’ll finally be ready for prime time to become a currency that can be traded between publishers and advertisers.

At Browsi, we’ve long seen the need for an attention metric, as a means to evaluate and maintain high-quality inventory. In fact, we’ve even developed our own metric, measuring user behavior against page layouts data points to analyze and predict attention.

Until there is a clear alignment in the industry, you’re welcome to reach out and we’ll help you measure attention to maximize eyeballs to optimal performance.