Are you OVAB compliant? Nope …

February 14, 2009 by Dave Haynes

My colleague Nurlan Urazbaev sent a note around recently about some of the noise starting to build out there about media distribution and reporting platforms and network operators in this industry being “OVAB Compliant” — in other words, lined up with the audience measurement guidelines released last fall by the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau.

The guidelines are very heavy going, so for an easier version done for lowest common denominator-types like me, try this.  

Nurlan is quite active with OVAB and the people who put the metrics together, and said quite succinctly, “At this point compliance is impossible to verify, so it does not exist.”

He said OVAB recommends using the words “follows” or “consistent with” the guidelines, and that’s only if a network works with a recognized 3rd-party research firm to establish their “average unit audience” – the brain-melting term for a harmonized, standardized means of comparing actual audiences across the wide spectrum that is digital signage.

The guidelines are meant to try to herd the entire industry, not just OVAB members, so anyone can try to adhere to the guidelines. But Nurlan stressed there is no mechanism in place to certify if what a network or supplier does is compliant with the guidelines.

Naturally, he said, there will be companies who will start claiming “compliance” for PR reasons, without even reading the guidelines requirements.