IAB launches hunt for preferred currency of online audience
The Interactive Advertising Bureau – which represents Australia’s major digital publishers – has confirmed it is to run a tender for an online audience measure.
The move could potentially see one of the existing measurement services become the preferred supplier for a three year period. Or it could lead to the arrival of yet another new metric within the market.
The IAB has appointed Ian Muir – who most recently helped oversee the introduction of outdoor audience measurement MOVE – to chair its technical review group.
However, unlike, the outdoor, industry, IAB members will not be funding the online metric, instead relying on the winning vendor to set a price to use its service within the market.
And while the announcement does not directly address the issue of autorefresh – where sites refresh pages every few minutes and serve new ads even if a user is not active on the page – it is likely to move down the IAB’s agenda while the tender process takes place.
The process sees measurement companies with a fortnight to register their interest and a deadline of December 17 to submit proposals.
IAB boss Paul Fisher told Mumbrella: “We will go through a very rigorous process.”
He added: “We have liaised extensively with our IAB cousins in the US, UK and EU to learn from their experiences regarding online audience measurement technology, models and partnerships. It is clear that a standard OAM currency is one of the most significant contributors to the growth of online advertising and we have been working hard to assist industry to arrive at such a result.”
It may also be possible to integrate the new currency with other metrics such as MOVE.
Fisher said: ““While the primary aim of this process is to standardise online audience measurement in Australia, it will also be a significant step towards cross-platform measurement.”
The ambition was reiterated by the Australian Association of National Advertisers. Scott McClellan, CEO of the AANA, said: ““The online space currently uses a variety of measurement tools, which makes it difficult for advertisers to understand the value of audience data. The move to a single standardised currency will allow advertisers, in concert with their agencies, to better determine where to spend their media budget.
“Online has the opportunity to become the first medium that can deliver true cross-platform metrics, and we should take this opportunity to do so. I believe what is needed is a set of criteria that are accepted by advertisers, agencies and media, to guide audience measurement in digital media, developed with an eye toward the cross-platform metrics everyone seeks.”
However, it is unlikely that the appointment of a preferred supplier will bring an end to competing measurement standards. Last week Newspaper Works signalled its ambitions to measure its members’ online audiences.
The IAB has been vague about the timespan for the launch of the currency, saying that “the tender process will be finalised in the first half of 2011”.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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