I-COM worldmeasurementnews

‘People meters’ for UAE move a step nearer reality

2010-03-21T16:44:58+01:00

Keach Hagey writes for TheNational: The push to bring electronic television audience measurement to the UAE has advanced a step, with the Ministerial Council for Services giving the green light to a plan by the National Media Council to introduce the technology to the local market.

The system, called “people meters”, uses set-top boxes to note what programmes audiences are watching, providing advertisers and broadcasters with real-time viewership data they can use to plan programming and advertisements. With this week’s approval, the system inches closer to reality here. Ibrahim al Abed the director general of the NMC, said that a few more meetings would be held this week with stakeholders to smooth out details but that action on the long-awaited project was imminent. More...

U.K. and U.S. Agencies at #icom Throw Cold Water on Standards for 'Black Box' Data

2010-03-19T17:12:04+01:00

Christopher Heine writes for ClickZ: LISBON, PORTUGAL-- The ongoing tension between brands and agencies about adopting industry-wide data standards was on display this week at the I-COM measurement event.

Among the many agency speakers, the only ones who clearly indicated support for standardization/common currency were from France and Germany. As was the case with John Donahue and Steve Simpson, reps from U.S. and U.K. agencies typically did not.

During one Q&A session, an attendee prefaced his question by poking fun at a director for a U.K. agency: "Isn't it ironic that the only person on the panel [who is against industry-wide standards] is from the country that wasn't in favor of common currency when it came to the Euro." Uncomfortable-sounding chuckles went through the room. More...

nma Gadfly covers #icom Casino Royale night

2010-03-18T15:14:37+01:00

Gadfly writes for new media age: Gaining consensus around online audience measurement takes skill, talent and an exceptionally cool head. So it was no surprise to see ABCE’s Richard Foan with a big pile of poker chips (left) at the I-COM Global Summit in Lisbon last week. The occasion was a casino night sponsored by ComScore. More...

UKOM appoints James Smythe as its new General Manager

2010-03-18T12:32:56+01:00

Thursday, 18 March 2010, UKOM – UK online measurement company - has appointed James Smythe as its new general manager.

The owner of market research consultancy Culture of Insight has been enlisted to ensure the day to day responsibilities of UKOM are fulfilled. These include marketing and industry communications as well as being responsible for working alongside Nielsen to ensure advertisers and agencies are satisfied.

Smythe began his career as Project Manager at the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), he then became Associate Director at Carat, moving onto filling the role as Head of Market Research at GCap. More recently he beame Head of Sports Research at BMRB and he now owns and runs his own consultancy alongside managing UKOM. More...

James had multiple speaking roles at last week's I-COM Global & Ibero-American Summits [picture].

nma @ #ICOM: Measuring online may be tricky but never give up trying

2010-03-18T11:46:23+01:00

Justin Pearse writes: Gather the best minds in online research in one sunny city for a week and what do you get? The answer seems to be lots of debate but little consensus. As our report this week discovers, last week’s I-COM summit in Lisbon threw a harsh spotlight on the lack of a coherent industry approach to measurement. Indeed, as Suzanne Bearne points out in her column on nma.co.uk, attendees were equally split on whether one cross-platform measurement was even needed. Mindshare’s global planning head went further to say a single online currency would never work. More...

Josh Adler at ICOM Conclusions

2010-03-17T17:02:36+01:00

Josh Adler, Head of Measurement at Online Publishers Association South Africa, writes: Day 3 of the conference got into some of the topics that were of most interest to me personally and the OPA. The big ones were a panel on the state and future of site-centric measurement (ie.web analytics), a panel on audience targeting and then a related panel on the future of ad-serving. The afternoon sessions were skipped as I spent it with the EMEA and Mobile reps from Nielsen over a very long and productive lunch. It was an opportunity to chart the rest of the year for the OPA’s measurement requirements and spend time with the regional and product heads on how I see things. More...

Se reclama transparencia en las mediciones online y mayor educación

2010-03-16T17:20:26+01:00

Jorge Martinez writes for Adlatina: Tal como se vino adelantando desde adlatina.com la última semana, los panelistas representantes de Iberoamérica en la I-COM en sus conclusiones reclaman: educación, estandarización de las mediciones de audiencia y, por supuesto, claridad y transparencia en ellas. Desde el evento, los expertos hacen un llamado a todos los integrantes de la industria para una toma de conciencia y posterior avance en una disciplina que atrasa entre 2 y 5 años con respecto a países con mejor desarrollo.

Guillermo Abud, de Starcom Mediavest México, se transformó en uno de los líderes en el momento de la reflexión: “Vamos a generar acciones a partir de esta summit, no hay más tiempo para sólo seguir hablando”. More...

Even experts meeting at I-COM aren't united on best way to measure online

2010-03-16T16:27:14+01:00

Suzanne Bearne writes for new media age: It’s clear there are still big issues surrounding online measurement but positive strides are being made across Europe.

As good as the speakers, from Google to Mindshare, were at last week’s International Conference on Online Media Measurement (I-COM) in Lisbon, it was disappointing the conference failed to attract many brands, in the audience or presenting.

Marketers who tend to overlook online in favour of more traditional channels have long called for standard online metrics. But if they really do want to learn about online measurement, then why aren’t they attending such conferences to talk about what they want? More...

German AGOF Makes Social Media Accessible for Online Media Planning

2010-03-11T19:00:01+01:00

AGOF introduces categorisation model for social media / Planning options on the basis of existing performance metrics / Published in “internet facts” and TOP

Frankfurt / Lisbon, 11 March 2010. With the growing significance of social media in online advertising, the call for performance and qualification metrics for social media is also becoming increasingly louder. The AGOF, Germany’s Online Research Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online Forschung) has given increasing consideration to its importance: As an independent authority for practice-oriented standards in Internet and online advertising media research, today from the I-COM Global Summit in Lisbon, the AGOF presents an initial model and corresponding qualification catalogue that makes it possible to evaluate and design social media for media planning on the basis of previously known performance metrics.

Categorisation model for social media
The AGOF model assists in qualifying contacts in the area of social media on the basis of four activity clusters. It differentiates the following categories:

Networking, which means all open links between users, also across platforms, including activities such as networking, inviting, adding contacts, etc.
Contributing, the active creation of contents by using forms of communication available on a specific platform. This includes activities such as uploading, evaluating, commenting, writing and designing.
Sharing, the recording of all activities related to the dissemination of platform content such as forwarding, recommending, linking and integrating.
The fourth category has just recently been added: Messaging, which refers to direct one-to-one or one-to-many communication via e-mails or messaging clients.

The naming of the categories and the definition of their contents was done in cooperation with the Social Media task force in the BVDW and the FOMA.

The model envisions supplementing the existing page code of the AGOF measurement with an activity code that falls into one of these four activity clusters. The expanded code will be stored on every website with activities. The actual activity will then be assigned to the contact, per contact so are multiple activities possible.
Existing performance metrics also for social media advertising planning
This model is especially easy and user-friendly because it requires no new currencies or performance metrics; instead, it makes social media available for the planning of display advertising with the existing performance metrics and planning fields. The acquired evaluation parameters on activity attributes will supplement the existing data set of information on unique users and booking units for “internet facts,” which will then be available as activity booking units in the AGOF planning tool TOP.

The model performed as expected in its initial test runs and should soon enter the first market-trial phase to test its market acceptance. Initial data should already be available for the dmexco 2010.

Thomas Duhr, managing director of AGOF: "Social media and especially the question of performance metrics are currently some of the most discussed topics in online marketing. With the introduction of a model that makes social media contacts available for high-quality online media planning on the basis of currently existing performance metrics, we are meeting one of the most urgent demands of the market. We are confident that we are providing important impulses to the market with this model."

AGOF
The Online Research Association AGOF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online Forschung) was founded in December 2002. The mission and purpose of the AGOF is to establish transparency and practice-oriented standards in Internet and online advertising media research, independent of individual interests. With “internet facts” and its included metric category of unique users, AGOF has established standardised online coverage currency as a basis for online media planning in the market.

Its members are: AOL Deutschland Medien GmbH, Axel Springer AG, BAUER MEDIA KG, eBay Advertising Group GmbH, freeXmedia GmbH, G+J Electronic Media Sales GmbH, Hi-media S.A., InteractiveMedia CCSP GmbH, IP Deutschland GmbH, iq digital media marketing GmbH, Microsoft Advertising, OMS Vermarktungs GmbH & Co. KG, Quality Channel GmbH, SevenOne Media GmbH, TOMORROW FOCUS Portal GmbH, United Internet Media AG und Yahoo! Deutschland GmbH.

Its licencees are: AdBerry Media GmbH, Adconion GmbH, adflames Media – A Division of Warner Music Group Germany Holding GmbH, AdImpulse Media GmbH, ad pepper media GmbH, ADselect GmbH, Andreae-Noris Zahn AG, arejo GmbH, artnet AG, Axel Springer Financial Media | wallstreet:online, Business Advertising GmbH, Celebrity News UG, Cinema Management Services GmbH, Codex Media GmbH, CommonMedia, GmbH, Fantastic Zero GmbH, Glam Media GmbH, GoYellow GmbH, guenstiger.de GmbH, IDG Business Media AG, imedo GmbH, intermedia advertising GmbH, Klassik Radio AG, krebomedia GmbH, macnews.de OnlineServices GmbH, MAIRDUMONT GmbH & Co. KG, mediaflite GmbH, mediaroute GmbH, MEDIENHAUS.de GmbH, Medienwirtschaft Verlags GmbH, Midas Players Vertriebs GmbH/king.com, mokono GmbH, MTV Networks Germany GmbH, MySpace/Fox Interactive Media GmbH, NetMediaEurope Deutschland GmbH, netpoint media GmbH, OnVista Media GmbH, QUARTER MEDIA GmbH, QWERTZ-Media GmbH, Reachnet DE Ltd., RealGames Europe B.V., RTL Radiovermarktung GmbH, SOMA 2 GmbH, Ströer Interactive GmbH, teligo GmbH, teltarif.de Onlineverlag GmbH, TG Publishing AG, TripAdvisor Ltd., TripleDoubleU GmbH, Unister GmbH, Urban Media GmbH, urbi AD orbi GmbH, Verlag Werben & Verkaufen GmbH, vertical network media GmbH, WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Deutschland GmbH, Weischer Online GmbH, WEKA MEDIA PUBLISHING GmbH, WORT & BILD VERLAG Konradshöhe GmbH & Co. KG, XING AG und xplosion media GmbH.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Nadja Elias
AGOF Press Officer
Phone: +49/ 89/14339-222
Fax: +49/ 89/14339-250
Mobile: +49/ 151/14264224
E-mail: nadja.elias@agof.de

Portugal's Secretary of State, Prof. João Gomes Cravinho, to open I-COM Ibero-American Summit

2010-03-09T13:38:00+01:00

The I-COM is pleased to announce that Portugal's Secretary of State, Prof. João Gomes Cravinho, will officially open the I-COM Ibero-American Summit, tomorrow, Wednesday March 10th at the conference venue, Hotel Palacio. More...