IAB insists new Nielsen audience measurement is ‘on track’ despite non launch
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has insisted that the introduction of its approved system for measuring Australian online audiences is “well on track and on time” despite four months having passed since the deal with Nielsen was revealed.
At the announcement of the decision – which saw The Nielsen Company appointed for an initial two years – the briefing was told that the launch would be immediate.
But a spokeswoman for the IAB today told Mumbrella that this actually referred only to beta testing, which she claimed was “on track”. She said: ‘We will hit the milestones we’ve set out.” She said that a further announcement would be made soon.
She insisted that industry specualation heard by Mumbrella regarding issues over the data was untrue.
The new Nielsen system sees a mixture of its existing system based on tags sitting on websites – which on its own can overcount users dramatically – combined with a panel of consumers.
When Nielsen was announced as the winner it beat submissions from Colmar Brunton with Gemius; ComScore; Nielsen Online; Roy Morgan Research with Effective Measure and Vizisense.
The initial contract now has about 20 months left to run.
In August 2008, not long after IAB boss Paul Fisher joined the organisation, he said that reforming audience measurement was his priority and he wanted it in place by the end of the 2009 financial year.
Last year he told Mumbrella: “The level of detail that was required to actually get a tender ready to go to market was more complex than I had envisaged. The enormity of what a measurement standardisation project does to the market, or can do potentially, is very daunting as well.”
http://youtu.be/Rk61HYep-G8
The formal tender process for the business began a year ago.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
It’s difficult to accept that the product being unavailable 4 months after commencement of a 2 year contact is “on track”. Do we know why?
User ID not verified.