LONDON — When buyers can successfully identify which ad impressions are really viewable, how will ad pricing change? For one thing, publishers are going to work a lot harder, according to one measurement exec.

“Viewability has become the conduit for identifying, at least, some really good quality traffic that does the work,” says comScore advertising SVP Duncan Trigg in this video interview with Beet.TV. “The next 12 to 18 months is going to be a very interesting time for the market as it learns to understand what value the quality end of the market is worth.”

As “views” plays a bigger role in the pricing of online ad spots, that will lead to some fundamental changes, Trigg reckons.

“The currency for buying  been the gross impression, power by the ad server number,” he says. “The moment you start to walk away from that, start to look at quality and want to pay only for the traffic that’s being viewed, metrics have to change.

“From the sell side, they have to double their inventory costs if they’re only going to sell the stuff that’s viewable, in order to stand still. That battle, over the next 12 to 18 months, is going to shape the market.”

comScore is currently working with Kantar to deliver cross-screen media audience and campaign measurement capabilities. Its validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) is used to help advertisers measure truly viewable ad impressions.

This interview is part of our series “The Road to Cannes”, presented by FreeWheel. Please visit this page for additional segments.