YuMe Leaps Back into comScore’s Top 10 Ad Networks

Remember all the Yume - comScore drama going on in regard to YuMe’s ranking in the ad networks top? It all seems to have been resolved for YuMe and they’re now right back at number 8. Still, some thorny questions are left unanswered.

Quite a quick investigation and resolution from comScore… but let’s have a recap into the whole story:

- a relatively obscure video network, YuMe, found itself ranked #8 in June’s Ad Focus rankings, with a reported audience of 134 million unique visitors and 71% reach among U.S. Internet users - all this as a result of their recent deal with Microsoft to monetize their remnant video inventory;

- raised voices in the industry led to a brief investigation, when comScore decided to demote YuMe to the 35th place and discount the Microsoft traffic as it was ‘inappropriately assigned’;

- YuMe protests and demands more uniform measurement procedures across ad networks, or a split between traditional display ad networks and video ad networks;

- comScore responds in just a couple of days and reinstates YuMe, saying ‘ComScore has verified that a legitimate business relationship exists between YuMe and Microsoft through documentation provided.’

While YuMe can rejoice now for the second time, there are major question marks in regard to comScore’s transparency:

- how’s their justification standing, since the initial issue wasn’t the ‘legitimacy’ of the YuMe - Microsoft deal, but the way impressions were counted (the whole Microsoft traffic was counted into YuMe’s network, and not only the one actually monetized by YuMe);

- what are the implication of comScore’s recent statement that ‘YuMe meets all current rules for inclusion as a custom entity in the Ad Focus category’ - if this is a custom entry in the rankings, how is it measurable and comparable with the other entries?