媒体偏见从何而来？--- 美国MRC（媒体评级委员会）为何而生？

每天当我们打开淘宝，京东，步入超市，逛街或者逛展会，各种广告铺天盖地而来。从原来的平面广告，到多媒体广告，到今天融合AR和VR技术的数字广告，还有元宇宙虚拟世界，还有大模型加持的智能内容生成.....未来，我们还能生活在真实的世界里面吗？您确定看到的事物会是真实的吗？媒体从一开始，就带有偏见 - 谁是我的金主，我为谁服务！哪怕当今最热的政治选举也好，支持和反对的声音都源于后面的金主的支持。于商业，更是如此。如今在百度和谷歌，只要你出钱，公司和公司的产品就可以排名放到搜索页面第一页的头部位置。而排在第一页的搜索结果（公司的产品或服务），往往可能并不是最佳的。对于一些小企业或者个人，由于没能给谷歌或者百度付费，大概率永远沉默在互联网的万里深渊，永无见天之日。这或许是媒体偏见最可恶的地方。当然，今天，我们暂时不讨论SEO和SEM的问题。

虽然博主对美国非赢利组织机构的运行和治理机制一直用心学习领悟，总觉得还有很多东西不是我想象的那么简单。

今天在我们尝试讨论媒体偏见从何而来之前，我们先学习一下美国媒体评级委员会（MRC）的历史，使命和主要服务及服务原理。我做了一个思维导读，供参考。

一、MRC的历史和使命

话说20世纪60年代，美国议会开始调查电视台和收音机传播的真实性和效率。为此美国要求媒体广播和电视节目公司自己制定各种媒体标准，并在政府的监督下进行审查。在此之前，美国公众了解媒体传播评价大都是通过一家名叫Harris Committee Hearing 机构关于广播评级调查报告而了解情况的。想象一下美帝多坏啊，哈哈，从收音机就开始控制老百姓的耳朵和眼睛了，不得不佩服。

因为政府参与，很快就形成行业自治为主，增加了对媒体机构的评估和认证工作，一开始这个机构叫做广播评级委员会，这是今天MRC媒体评价委员会的前身，成立于1963年。

MRC的使命是要确保媒体行业和用户们（投钱做广告的业主）的量测工作有效、可靠和有效。推动行业基本道德标准。通过对媒体行业机构进行稽核，评价他们的行为和产出是否符合行业自律性标准。当然这些稽核是聘请独立的第三方财务公司（CPA 公司）进行的。稽核结果会告知媒体行业和用户。

二、MRC采用会员制

MRC放开接受任何媒体机构和其他机构均可加入成为会员。到目前为止拥有170家会员，遍布于电视、广播、优先电视、印刷、互联网和广告代理公司。他们还和其他媒体组织有着你中有我，我中有你的关系。这些组织包括：

1. AAAA - the American Association of Advertising Agencies

2. ARF - the Advertising Research Foundation

3. ANA - the Association of National Advertisers

4. IAB - the Interactive Advertising Bureau

有些读者会发现，在美国的NGO通常有以下几个特点，MRC也不例外：

1. 通常会挂靠上一级机构，有时候也会上至至国家权力机关（说白了美国也有很多G-NGO）

2. 会联合行业同行类似等级的机构

3. 自己负责建立起技术委员会，建设标准，制定游戏规则（见下面标准部分）

4. 安排第三方（会计师事务所，律师或者其他独立机构）进行稽核评审。评估合格，发放证书或授权使用某些特权或者加盟权

5. 对会员进行能力建设，提供培训平台和培训所需的技术资料，课程和师资

6. 实际上这些NGO并非非赢利机构，而是实打实的暴力盈利机构，他们通过发证，培训，审核等管理工作长期收取大量金钱。美国这种NGO，尤其是行业协会大佬美金的大有人才。

实行会员制有个常人经常会忽视的的原则。那就是MRC只在内部讨论一些核心的原则问题，包括技术研发趋势，他们不会和非会员分享并秉承一定的保密制度。尤其上文提到的第三方审计公司，他们在审计的时候可能会发现会员违规不达标的情况甚至是行业丑闻，第三方审计公司必须坚守秘密，除非被审核机构或者用户主动要求公开。最早担任MR C的第三方审核机构是一家名叫MMI的公司，MMI与MRC签订和保密协议。

MMI等第三方公司针对研究机构包括媒体行业和用户审计和深挖以下商业实践：

1. 政策

2. 过程

3. 内部控制

4. 质量保证

5. 超越现有行业规范（标准的）行为

当然，所有这些调查，必须是媒体行业或者用户自愿的。MMI离不开他们的支持，否则将无法完成。

三、MRC主导发表的行业标准/量测标准和研究标准

四、MRC提供的教育培训。

必须肯定的是，通过专业培训，保证行业人才的积极发展和自身的专业性进步。这一点毋庸置疑。值得我们学习。中国媒体或者广告行业协会，要是能够学习他们，制定各种标准，坚持独立审核，培养各种专业人才，也是必有之路。这也是一个行业协会的使命。

五、推荐阅读 - 外文评价MRC出台的数字广告评价标准（中英文对照阅读，该标准收入于文末）

阅读时间：5分钟

大约十年前，媒体评级委员会（MRC）推出了新标准，并开始进行审计，以确保数字广告既可靠又有效。

MRC是广告技术界一个著名的独立组织，它的出现是为了让整个行业对广告商和出版商都更好。这意味着广告技术界的每个人都必须同意并遵循MRC的广告可观看性标准——这基本上是一个旨在确定广告印象是否可见的标准。

广告可观看性本质上是广告技术世界中每个人的痛点。然而，直到出版商和广告商开始了解可观看性对他们的底线的影响，才发现有必要制定一个标准，让他们能够衡量印象的可观看性。

在这篇文章中，我们将告诉您关于MRC可视性标准需要了解和理解的一切，以便您能够确保遵循这些标准并确保它们是可查看的。

Reading time: 5 minutes

Almost a decade ago, the Media Rating Council (MRC) rolled out new standards and began conducting audits to ensure that digital advertising was both reliable and effective.

The MRC is a well-known independent organization in the ad tech world that emerged out of the need to make the entire industry better for advertisers and publishers alike. That means everyone within the ad tech world must agree upon and follow the MRC’s ad viewability standard—which is essentially a standard designed to determine whether an ad impression is viewable or not viewable.

Ad viewability is essentially a pain point for everyone within the ad tech world. However, it wasn’t until the publishers and advertisers started to understand the impact of viewability in regards to their bottom lines that it became obvious that there was a need for a standard to be created that would allow them to measure an impression’s viewability.

In this article, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know and understand about the MRC viewability standards so you can ensure you’re following them and ensure that they’re viewable.

什么是MRC广告可视性？

因此，MRC通过定义某些阈值来帮助广告技术界确定有问题的广告印象是否可以被视为可视的。当然，在定义这些阈值时，MRC必须考虑两个非常重要的概念：

一般来说，欺诈和无效印象都被视为非法广告印象。这些印象通常是由僵尸网络、人为操纵的页面加载等产生的。它们的整个存在取决于从获得无效流量的买家那里消耗广告资金。

可观看的广告印象，当广告被放置在网络浏览器窗口的可观看空间中时被认为是可观看的。如果有问题的广告显示在浏览器的视口之外，那么用户就没有机会看到这个印象。因此，你可以说，可观看性实际上取决于广告印象的位置。

还有两种类型的广告可视性——显示广告可视性和视频广告可视性。

What Is MRC Ad Viewability?

So, MRC set forth by defining certain thresholds to help the ad tech world determine whether or not an ad impression in question could be considered viewable. Of course, in defining those thresholds, the MRC has to take into account two very important concepts:

· Fraudulent and invalid impressions which are both considered illegitimate ad impressions, generally speaking. These impressions are usually generated by botnets, artificially manipulated page loads, and so on. Their entire existence is contingent on draining ad dollars from buyers garnering invalid traffic.

· Viewable ad impressions which are considered viewable when the ad is placed in the viewable space of a web browser’s window. If the ad in question gets displayed outside of the browser’s viewport, then the impression won’t get the chance to be seen by the user. Therefore you could say that viewability really depends on the placement of an ad impression.

There are also two types of ad viewability—display ad viewability and video ad viewability.

MRC显示广告可视性

根据MRC指南，只有当至少50%的广告创意在浏览器的可视空间内至少一秒钟内清晰可见时，才认为显示广告是可视的。此外，广告印象只能在以下要求下被视为可见：

用户和广告之间必须有显著的互动，才能将广告视为可观看的——即使它不符合时间或像素要求。当我们说一次重要的互动时，我们指的是用户有目的地点击广告。例如，将鼠标光标悬停在广告上不会被视为印象。

从技术上讲，可观看性有两种计算方式——可观看性供应商将使用JS标签代码根据单个广告计算可观看的印象数量。其他供应商通过测量广告将出现在其中的广告容器（iFrame）来计算印象。只要广告以适当的格式出现，基于iFrame容器的测量就被认为是可以接受的。

译者注：将 JS Tag(JavaScript)插入网页就像插入任何其他HTML内容一样。用于在HTML中添加JavaScript的标记是＜script＞和</script＞。被＜script＞和＜/script＞标记包围的代码称为脚本博客<script>标记可以放在<head>和</head>标记之间，或者放在<body>和</body>标记之间。

对于大型广告显示大小，例如242000像素（970×250显示广告）或更大，广告中至少30%的像素必须在页面的视口上可见一秒钟以上。否则，它将不会被视为可查看的。

对于通常以较小尺寸出现并基于用户动作展开的富媒体显示广告，可观看性是基于广告的较小格式或广告的展开格式的像素计数来测量的。当基于像素计数时，可观看度是通过广告在展开前状态和展开状态期间的观看时间来测量的。如果广告在其展开状态下被视为可观看，则观看时间只计算一次。

如果网站页面是预提取或预呈现的，那么在广告出现在浏览器的可视部分内并继续遵循上述要求之前，向这些页面传递的广告将不会被视为可视广告。

MRC Display Ad Viewability

According to the MRC guidelines, a display ad is only considered to be viewable if at least 50% of the ad creative is clearly visible for at least one second within a browser’s viewable space. Additionally, an ad impression can only be counted as viewable under the following requirements:

· There must be a significant interaction between the user and the ad for the ad to be considered viewable—even if it doesn’t meet the time or pixel requirements. When we say a significant interaction, we’re talking about a purposeful click on the ad by the user. For example, hovering the mouse cursor over the ad wouldn’t count as an impression.

· Viewability is technically counted in two ways—viewability vendors will calculate the number of viewable impressions based on a single ad using a JS tag code. Other vendors calculate the impressions by measuring the ad container (iFrame) in which the ad is set to appear. As measurement based on iFrame containers is considered acceptable as long as the ad appears in the appropriate format.

· For large ad display sizing, for example, 242,000 pixels (970×250 display ads) or greater, a minimum of 30% of the pixels within the ad must be visible on the viewport of the page for longer than one second. Otherwise, it won’t be counted as viewable.

· For rich media display ads which typically appear in smaller sizes and expand based on users’ actions, viewability is measured based on the pixel count of a smaller format of the ad or the expanded format of the ad. When based on pixel count, viewability is measured by both the ad view time in its pre-expansion state as well as during its expanded state. If the ad is regarded as viewable in its expanded state, then the view time only counts once.

If the website pages are pre-fetched or pre-rendered, then the delivered ads to those pages won’t be considered as viewable ads until the ad appears within the viewable portion of the browser and proceeds to follow the requirements listed above.

MRC视频广告可观看性

根据MRC指南，只有当广告中50%的像素在浏览器的可视空间中至少两秒可见时，才会计算视频广告印象。然而，这两秒只会被计入广告的前两秒，这意味着用户必须从一开始就看到视频广告。

视频广告的可观看性也有一些其他考虑因素，例如满足MRC广告可观看性要求的条件。除了以下例外，它们与显示广告指南非常相似：

对于点击播放视频广告，一旦点击启动视频，则必须在前200毫秒内观看50%的广告，才能将视频广告视为可观看的。

对于自动播放视频广告，由第三方供应商适当测量和报告可观看性，因为一旦启动自动播放广告，就很难确定是否可观看。

MRC Video Ad Viewability

According to the MRC guidelines, video ad impressions will only be counted if 50% of the pixels in the ad are visible in the viewable space of the browser for a minimum of two seconds. However, those two seconds will only be counted for the first two seconds of the ad, which means that the user would have to have seen the video ad from the beginning.

There are also a few other considerations for the viewability of video ads, such as the conditions that meet the MRC ad viewability requirements. They’re very similar to the display ad guidelines, with the following exceptions:

· For Click-to-Play video ads, once a video is initiated by a click, 50% of the ad must be in view for the first 200 milliseconds for the video ad to be considered viewable.

· For Auto-Play video ads, it is up to the third-party vendors to measure and report the viewability appropriately as it’s difficult to determine whether auto-play ads are viewable once they start.

使用量测指标定义MRC可视性

MRC定义了三种不同的指标，以帮助衡量合作伙伴、广告商和出版商衡量他们的可观看性和广告印象数。这些指标的计算如下：

测量率：测量率=可视印象+不可视印象/服务的总印象

可观看率：可观看率=可观看印象/可观看印象+不可观看印象

印象分布：印象分布表示所有可见、不可见和未确定广告印象的百分比

这些指标的目的是衡量广告印象的整体组织和表现。目标是确定有多少广告印象实际上是可见的，有多少是不可见的。

Using Metrics to Define the MRC Viewability

The MRC has defined three different metrics to help measurement partners, advertisers, and publishers measure their viewability and ad impressions count. These metrics are calculated as follows:

· Measured rate: Measured rate = viewable impressions + non-viewable impressions / total impressions served

· Viewable rate: Viewable rate = viewable impressions / viewable impressions + non-viewable impressions

· Impression distribution: Impression distribution represents the percentage of all viewable, non-viewable, and undetermined ad impressions

The purpose of these metrics is to measure the overall organization and performance of the ad impressions. The goal is to determine how many ad impressions are, in fact, viewable and how many are not.

关于广告可观看性的最后思考

尽管有MRC的指导方针和指标，但衡量有效的广告印象仍然非常困难。可观看性仍然是广告技术界的一个主要挑战，这就是为什么建议根据上述指南争取70%的可观看性，以确保最佳CPM。

Final Thoughts on Ad Viewability

Despite the MRC guidelines and metrics, measuring valid ad impressions is still very difficult. Viewability remains a major challenge in the ad tech world, which is why it’s recommended to strive for 70% viewability as per the above guidelines to ensure optimal CPMs.

资料来源

1. 原文发表于2022年1月25日

MRC Viewability Standards: A Quick Reference Guide - HeaderBidding.comMRC is a well-known independent organization in the ad tech world that emerged out of the need to make the entire industry better.https://headerbidding.com/optimizations/mrc-viewability-standards-a-quick-reference-guide/

2. MRC 广告可见性标准原文下载地址

https://www.mediaratingcouncil.org/sites/default/files/Standards/081815%20Viewable%20Ad%20Impression%20Guideline_v2.0_Final.pdfhttps://www.mediaratingcouncil.org/sites/default/files/Standards/081815%20Viewable%20Ad%20Impression%20Guideline_v2.0_Final.pdf

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