Woo Hoo newspaper sites will have to stop auto refresh
A classic example of what the UK had in 2000.
We're only 10 years behind
A standard measure for internet traffic to boost ad market
THE internet industry is moving towards a standard measure for internet traffic.
THE online media market is set to finally settle on a standardised measure for internet traffic in a big shake-up of the industry.
The move comes as online advertising in Australia is on the cusp of breaking the $2 billion mark.
An announcement is expected in the next three weeks and a tender has been called for research companies to provide a single standardised currency for measuring internet traffic.
In traditional media such as television, radio, outdoor and print, contracts worth millions of dollars are awarded to the company selected to supply the ratings, readership and audience data on which advertisers base their media buying decisions.
Until now, there have been several sets of competing audience numbers in online media, produced by companies including Nielsen, ComScore, Experian Hitwise, Omniture and Google Analytics, among others.
Finally, after years of pressure from advertisers and media buyers complaining about the lack of transparency, accountability and ability to compare publishers' audiences that this situation has created, digital publishers are cleaning up their act
According to a source close to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, whose board includes every major digital publisher except Google, the decision to appoint a preferred audience measurement company is being billed as the most critical in the five-year existence of the IAB.
It represents a shift for the organisation, which has for several years favoured the appointment of a number of "accredited" audience measurement suppliers, any number of which could receive the IAB's tick of approval if their research methodology was approved by the IAB's auditor.
Media Federation of Australia chairman Gary Hardwick said advertisers and media buyers had pushed for a single set of figures the industry could adopt as standard. "Ultimately we would like to get to one approved or preferred supplier and have that as the currency we'd like to be used," Mr Hardwick said. "We want greater frequency of the data and insight into the way people read and spend time on the internet."
The Australian Association of National Advertisers confirmed it had been consulted about the process. "I'm not in a position to comment on the tender proposal, but I'm aware of it having been floated," AANA chief executive Scott McClellan said.
"What we have been seeing in the digital space is a proliferation of metrics and it's starting to become a real problem for advertisers to understand the value they're getting for their media spend online.
"Any move to bring greater clarity to the picture is going to be welcomed by advertisers."
At least three suppliers are expected to participate in an initial request for information or request for tender process, including the dominant Australian audience measurement player Nielsen Online, US-based ComScore, and Indian company Komli Media, which is about to launch its ViziSense audience measurement product in Australia.
Komli Media co-founder and vice-president of international development Akshay Garg, who will be based in Sydney as the company launches a number of services in Australia in the next year, said he had been informed about the tender. "Definitely: we're cognisant of it," Mr Garg said. "We're just trying to formulate a strategy around it."
The IAB is expected to endorse a so-called hybrid system that combines data from a representative panel of internet users with site-centric data collected from cookies, or code, placed on publishers' websites.
Nielsen Online was the first supplier to have its NetView user panel audited by the IAB, which made 16 recommendations in order for it to be accredited.
After some delay, Nielsen is expected to resend its preliminary hybrid data to the IAB in the next month or so.
Nielsen Online managing director Matt Bruce, who is overseas, could not be reached late last week for comment.
ComScore and ViziSense are both understood to have a hybrid product.
Media understands the IAB, which was constituted in 2005 as an industry body representing digital publishers, will become an independent, incorporated body, removing legal obstacles to the appointment of a preferred supplier.
"We would have had a concern about the IAB appointing a preferred supplier in terms of the risk to which it would expose us regarding restraint of trade," a publisher source said. "Other bodies have been individually incorporated and they have done it."
IAB chief executive Paul Fisher would not comment on the tender process on Friday. He refused to say if the IAB was planning to subsidise or co-fund its preferred audience measurement service, or if it would be funded by the media buyers and advertisers who used the system adopted as the standard.
"It's no secret that the MFA and the IAB have been working towards a standardised online audience measurement system in this market," Mr Fisher said.
"It's no secret that the IAB is incorporating at the present time."
Media reported two years ago that publishers were under pressure to spend up to $10 million to fund a new ratings system that would allow advertisers to compare online audiences with those for TV, radio and other media.
- obviously numerals earn negative demerit points (cannot be negative demerit otherwise it would be merit).
