Havas Media North America and Adelaide, a platform focused on attention-based media measurement have announced the launch of the “Meaningful Ad Unit” (MAU), a proprietary metric to be utilized for U.S. clients.
Havas Media will integrate the MAU into its Meaningful Media Marketplace. Adelaide’s AU metric predicts a media placement’s probability of attention and subsequent impact using a machine-learning model trained with full-funnel outcome data.
According to Havas, high-AU exposures deliver up to 132% lift in upper-funnel KPIs compared to low-AU placements.
As part of this partnership, Havas Media North America’s programmatic trading desk will leverage the MAU within custom algorithms, pre-bid segments, and through custom private marketplaces.
Havas Media North America clients will also have access to AU audits, which offer a transparent baseline of media quality and meaningfulness across display, online video, walled gardens, podcasts, CTV, and linear channels.
Mike Bregman, Chief Activation Officer, Havas Media Network North America said, “The media and advertising ecosystem faces a number of increasingly complex challenges, including a reliance on binary metrics that fail to take into account consumers’ perceptions and brands’ objectives.”
The network’s long-term strategy, he added, “is to create the largest global attention database, a proprietary platform that enables our teams to deliver better media experiences for our clients.”
Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, said “This reminds me of BBDO’s “Rated Exposure Unit” or REU which I came up with as a way of comparing each media “impression for the agency’s ill-advised and ill-fated attempt to computerize media planning way back in the 1960s. In addition to what the so-called “audience” surveys gave us we factored in an estimate of actual ad exposure as well as a highly subjective and often unfounded estimate of the impact that an ad would have upon its audience.
He said. “I assume that this initiative by Havas applies mainly to digital media buying, where it might offer a major improvement in targeting and impact—providing that the sellers’ CPMs don’t adjust upward to reflect heightened demand for certain websites. As for how it works for TV that isn’t very clear to me but perhaps, over time, that somewhat blurry picture will clear up.
Overall I commend Havas for moving in this direction.”
