IAB Metrics Blog Welcome Edition
As we close out the year, take stock of accomplishments and prepare for better days ahead, one of the few constants in the rapidly evolving interactive media world remains measurement troubles. Quite recently (Monday, December 7th), Ad Age featured a piece about a proposed change to Nielsen’s @Plan service and the vast data inconsistencies that change is causing compared to the old methodology.
The @Plan methodology change, now in beta, should be heralded as an improvement. It is fairly common knowledge that unobtrusive measures of behavior are more accurate than recall based measures. However, the reported inconsistencies tell us that something is really wrong here. Most likely, the current method is completely wrong in which case 10 years of data use and decisions based on that data are questionable. Maybe the new methodology is wrong or maybe it is actually right. Or, the beta is so full of bugs that the new data cannot be relied upon to provide an indication of what the numbers will look like. The uncertainty points to fundamentally flawed business approaches.
Buggy business, you say? Yes. One of the two syndicated measurement services introduces a beta of a new methodology and its clients are already leaking results to the press. The proposed @Plan change is sowing negativity even before it is released. What resonates is not the beta and not that it is likely an effort to improve measurements and not that the @Plan clients are leaking data from a test. What resonates is that interactive measurement sucks. Once again, as an industry, we are showing the advertising community that we are our own worst enemy.
The IAB represents the entire industry and advocates transparency among all parties. Clearly, some of the old rules of media measurement simply do not apply in a transparent world. Research vendors and their clients are accountable to all of the many sites that are not purchasing data when they change methodologies and talk to the press.
It is time that IAB members took advantage of the power of a community of business people who truly want to make interactive media live up to its promise of being most measurable and most accountable. We are that community. We, at the IAB, are who we serve and until the members, publishers and vendors alike, avail themselves of the leadership and power of community, we likely will continue to see public relations fiascos about flawed measurement well into 2010 and beyond.
This inaugural edition of IAB Metrics Blog invites you to dialogue with us, to praise or critique, to propose solutions. Most of all, we invite you to make the IAB the standard bearer in metrics that it is for many other areas of interactive advertising.
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Perhaps worth noting that comScore's PlanMetrix has been behaviorally based-- tracking web visitation through direct passive (metered) measurement-- since it's inception. These recent efforts by Nielsen to bring @Plan up to date suggest that perhaps we've been on to something all along...
Earlier this year Nielsen revamped the NetViews methodology to "RDD/online," essentially copying comScore's long-standing technique of online recruitment of a large "master" panel, calibrated against a smaller, random offline-recruited panel. Meanwhile comScore has answered the IAB's April 2007 call to arms by launching Media Metrix 360, introducing panel-centric hybrid measurement to US online metrics, finally bridging the gap between person-centric and census site-centric measurement. I've no doubt Nielsen is hastily assembling their own attempt at hybrid.
Audience measurement is tough. Continued innovation tougher still. At comScore we aren't shying away from either challenge.
As they say the only thing permanent in life is change. This goes especially true for the rapidly evolving interactive media world.
According to research papers regarding media measurement, it states that it is important to improve measurements and to continue innovation in a challenging environment for one to succeed.
Good thing there is IAB who is standard bearer in metrics especially for the other areas of interactive advertising.
According to research papers regarding media measurement, it states that it is important to improve measurements and to continue innovation in a challenging environment for one to succeed.
Good thing there is IAB who is standard bearer in metrics especially for the other areas of interactive advertising.
The year 2010 is happening and right now we are in it. Yet we can see there have not been much changes made to the old methodologies despite the fact that those large inconsistencies in those data still seems to be pretty much there! However one thing which also stands out true is the fact that IAB has proved that this entire industry supports translucency from the beginning to the end which is certainly an extraordinary feat to be accomplished!
Wendy | wendy's hours
We should expect changes everytime especially in business world. This will be my next scope for my freelance writing job.
Yeah, right. We are right into the era of year 2010 and observing and looking what's happening.
Old techniques and methods, which are proven to be wrong are still there. But fortunately, once in, I think in university dissertation uk, I read that IAB has improved much and certainly it is an extraordinary change.
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One of the two syndicated measurement services introduces a beta of a new methodology and its clients are already leaking results to the press
It is time that IAB members took advantage of the power of a community of business people who truly want to make interactive media live up to its promise of being most measurable and most accountable. We are that community. We, at the IAB, are who we serve and until the members, publishers and vendors alike.
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