Teaching The Next Media Currency

AU combines the probability of attention and the probability of outcomes into a single 0100 placement quality score across 19 media channels Media buyers and sellers increasingly use AU as a media quality metric informing planning valuation buying and campaign measurementWhen buyers and sellers in a market begin to rely on a new currency to value what they trade everyone in the market including those training to join it must study and understand its dynamicsWhy education on a new metric is necessaryAs media quality metrics grow in importance across the advertising industry future media marketing and economics professionals should learn to understand question and apply them before starting their first jobs Media industry practitioners often learn to use new data and metrics on the job one client and one campaign at a time An undergraduate or graduatelevel class setting introduces AU earlier with the expectation that students will graduate into industry employment already versed in its fundamentals and able to apply what they have learnedAcademic engagement isn39t only about educating future industry practitioners Academic researchers are always looking for new ideas and topics to investigate and their work moves industry forward We are excited to be exploring the questions and interests of a wide range of academic professionals We expect these collaborations to provide independent scrutiny new applications and opportunities to challenge our assumptionsAdelaide treats academics as a new constituency with unique requirements and our team is working to meet their needs by making our data and perspectives available for explorationWhat our own research taught usIn 2026 my colleagues and I published an article titled Commercializing New Predictive Metrics in B2B Markets A Longitudinal Case in the International Journal of Market Research which examined how AU was commercialized between 2019 and 2025 doiorg10117714707853261493195The article explains that AUamp8217s predictive accuracy was necessary but not sufficient for market adoption as a media quality metric Much of its adoption came from educational work explaining AU segment by segment to planners buyers and publishers who hadnamp8217t been trained to evaluate media placement qualityAs Everett Rogers notes in Diffusion of Innovations 2003 innovations diffuse through a social system over time For a new media metric the undergraduate and graduatelevel programs that train future planners and analysts are a key part of that systemAU University curriculum structureA Cornell University faculty member described curriculum development to us as follows quotA curriculum begins with the learning objectives We first identify the main questions the course should address organize them into a coherent sequence and then build each section with the concepts evidence cases and exercises while continuing to incorporate new developments that keep the course timely and usefulquotAdelaideamp8217s AU University our training curriculum for employees and the industry at large follows the same framework AU University describes four conditions we think a new metric must meet before it can function as a currencyThe metric must be validated by independent third partiesIt must correlate with outcomesIt must not simply track price since a metric that rises with cost adds no informationIt must be available wherever buyers and sellers transactThese conditions apply to any metric that seeks to anchor a market including AU and they translate directly into learning objectives A welldesigned academic course should equip students to test AU against them and reach independent conclusions about the metricamp8217s usefulness and applicabilityOur university class programOur academic program has three componentsCurriculum support We work with faculty to develop lessons on topics including how attention is measured and the limits of each method why price and placement quality diverge how DSPs and SSPs operate why optimizing to a single KPI distorts campaigns and how to incorporate placement quality into marketing mix models and other analytics frameworksData AU norms and an accompanying data dictionary are provided at no cost for teaching and noncommercial academic research Norms are aggregated from placementlevel measurement to a level agreed to with each instructorA semesterlength class project Supported by a written brief a data file an Adelaide coach and guest lecturer a midterm review and feedback on final presentationsApplications in marketing and economicsAU data can be examined in the classroom at several levels Undergraduate media planning courses can examine how AU varies across channels and why or how a plan changes when every placement must meet a minimum AU Graduatelevel marketing and business courses can test whether and how qualityadjusted impressions improve econometric modelsFor economics media quality is a standard information problem Historically media placement quality has been difficult to assess before purchase and sometimes afterward making it what Darby and Karni termed a credence quality Akerlof39s 1970 analysis of the market for quotlemonsquot describes the consequence when buyers cannot distinguish quality price ceases to signal it Media markets show this pattern In an analysis of more than 80000 placements we found no correlation between AU and CPM overpriced lowquality placements exist alongside a larger number of underpriced highquality ones Students can study mispricing directly along with the arbitrage that becomes possible once quality is observable and extend the analysis to how quality thresholds affect price the cost of a plan under a qualityadjusted CPM or the relationship between ad load quality and pricing in adsupported mediaThe same Cornell faculty member I mentioned above raised a question that shows where this can lead as advertisers have shifted video budgets toward digital platforms over time which channels gave up that budget and does the quality of the media bought explain the shift better than price alone Budget shareshift is a classic subject in media economics and placementquality data adds a dimension earlier studies could not observeInternational markets offer further research opportunities One project brief asks student teams to research and document media markets outside the US including advertising regulation ad load permitted formats and consumption patterns so that we can study media quality contexts Work like this gives students a substantive project to present to prospective employers and the findings fill gaps in our own knowledge of those marketsPreparing the next cohortMedia courses cover the basics of media planning reach frequency and cost Media placement quality receives far less focus Our objective is for graduates entering planning buying and analytics roles to arrive able to understand an AU score question it and apply itAcademic work with AU data can contribute further scrutiny from other angles including findings that challenge our own Researchers with no stake in the outcome should always test a candidate currencyWe welcome faculty in media marketing analytics and economics to explore how AU data can support their teaching and research Educators interested in bringing AU into the classroom can contact Adelaide to discuss their academic needs Students and faculty can also explore AU University our free training and certification program to start building a foundation in attention and media quality measurement and its applicationsPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Teaching The Next Media Currency

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Claire Browne

Tim Spengler Read Your Third Brain. Here’s What He Wanted to Ask Jack Myers. - By Jack Myers

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