On 11th June, the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) have published another milestone standard for online video. This time it is about measuring in-stream video ads. The document focuses around the four most commonly used in-stream advertising formats:

• Linear Video Ad With or Without Companion Ad
• Linear Video Interactive Ad 
• Non-linear Overlay Ad 
• Non-linear Non-Overlay Ad

The document is interesting since it summarises the state of art in video in-stream metrics - metrics that we are also preparing to graph in the Vquence metrics mix. While it specifically addresses ads, the metrics are really about measuring a user's interaction with a linearly playing video.

The following default metrics for in-stream video ads have been defined and are prescribed as the basis of every reporting:

• video impression (or view)
• companion ad impression (or view)
• video click-through
• completed video play at normal playback speed
• time spent viewing at normal speed in sec
• percent of un-duplicated video viewed at normal speed

The following additional events may be reported:

• audio mute / un-mute
• video window collape / expand
• video pause /resume
• video rewind

Further, for non-linear ads that run in parallel to the video, the following metrics are defined:

• ad impression
• click-through on ad
• accept invitation to view additional ad aread
• minimise ad
• close ad
• overlay view duration

It seems to me that we are really only at the beginning of understanding what we need to measure around video and video advertising. It is good to see that the IAB have summarised the current state of the art. These metrics provide first standards towards calculating a CPM-type value for a video advertising campaign. Yet, it also states taht the value of watching a video ad is not just defined by the number of impressions, but also by a complex set of duration and event measures. I expect we will see a new kind of standard measure emerge over time for estimating the value of a video ad from these metrics - a measure that includes impression, event and duration measures.