media quality measurement

What does it take to sell “media quality” in 2026, when AI is making the content and placing the ads? That’s what new IAS CEO Lidiane Jones has to figure out.

An upcoming paper from CIMM doesn’t just demonstrate that differences in media quality can be measured. It also argues that tying media value to short-term outcomes has perpetuated longstanding industry challenges.

Ad verification used to be mostly about keeping brands away from the bad stuff. Now, verification providers have to prove that quality actually moves the needle, says Integral Ad Science CEO Lisa Utzschneider.

Gamera, a media quality measurement startup for publishers, announced on Tuesday it raised $1.6 million to promote its service that combines data about a site’s ad experience with data about how its ads perform.

As brand safety standards evolve and oversight shifts from platforms to third-party vendors, Brittany Scott, SVP of global partnerships at Zefr, explains what the rise of generative AI – and Meta’s decision to step away from MRC brand safety audits – means for the future of media quality.

Online advertising’s privacy problem isn’t just about bad actors; it’s about bad metrics, says Marc Guldimann, CEO and founder of attention startup Adelaide. “I think a lot of the invasive behaviors in the ad tech space can be traced back to a lack of a shared understanding of quality,” he says.

The Brand Safety Institute is expanding its publisher transparency initiative to include new media quality assessments, including data compliance.

Buyers could solve many of the issues they have with the open web by focusing less on viewability and clicks and more on driving performance outcomes, says Goodway Group director of strategic partnerships Andrea Kwiatek.

Given the deprecation of third-party cookies and the reemergence of contextual targeting, 2024 could be a big year for in-game ads – so long as game publishers position themselves as a source of premium inventory.