16th April 2013: IAB Australia has extended its deed with Nielsen as the sole and exclusive preferred supplier for the provision of online audience measurement in Australia. The deed has been extended for a further eighteen months, which coincides with Nielsen Online Ratings hybrid data being in market for three years. Mobile volume traffic data is included within the deed; however mobile audience data will remain outside the deed while the IAB carries out a thorough review of available options and vendors.
The new deed includes an additional layer of KPIs to ensure Nielsen continues to improve its product delivery times, adoption, education and training. Nielsen will also be releasing more detailed mobile device volume data for Market Intelligence on May 1st 2013. This data will combine the current Market Intelligence and Mobile Market Intelligence to allow clients to drill into the distribution of devices where a site is consumed.
IAB Australia has also announced that Tony Prentice has stepped down from his interim CEO role. Prentice was engaged in January by IAB Australia in a part time capacity to manage the review and resulting extension of the deed with Nielsen. Samantha Yorke, IAB Australia’s Director of Regulatory Affairs has now been appointed Acting CEO and assumed responsibility for all aspects of IAB Australia’s operations, as well as maintaining her Regulatory Affairs portfolio.
Gai Le Roy, Director of Research at IAB Australia said “IAB Australia’s Measurement Council has conducted a thorough review and come to the conclusion that Nielsen is still best placed to provide online audience measurement services in Australia.
“With the explosion of mobile usage, one of the IAB’s key priorities is to identify a mobile audience measurement offering or offerings that are affordable, nimble and can be integrated into other media measurement systems to provide true, unduplicated cross platform and cross media audience data ,” said Le Roy.
Nielsen’s original contract with IAB Australia was for a two-year term, following an eight-month tender and review process which was strongly supported by the MFA and AANA.
Nielsen Online Ratings identifies people-based metrics, as opposed to browser-based for the Australian online advertising industry. This allows online to be measured comparably with other media, in addition to providing online reach and frequency analyses comparable with traditional media schedules.
Editors Note
Australia was amongst the first countries to complete a formal tender and technical review process of hybrid measurement methodology and was the first to formally announce, through this process, an endorsed supplier of this methodology.
IAB Australia announced the tender process in late September 2010 and five online audience measurement submissions were received from Colmar Brunton with Gemius, ComScore, Nielsen, Roy Morgan Research with Effective Measure and Vizisense. A specially convened Technical Review Group reviewed the submissions against detailed and extensive technical and business requirements, before making its recommendation to the IAB Australia Board.
The IAB Technical Review Group found that Nielsen best met the technical criteria of the tender and offered the most accurate, robust and credible measurement data for Australian online audiences and websites.
The entire tender and review process was robust, extensive, rigorous and transparent and conducted with the upmost probity with TressCox Lawyers overseeing the process.
/Ends
About the Interactive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Limited is the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia and was incorporated in July 2010. As one of over 40 IAB offices globally, and with a rapidly growing membership, IAB Australia’s principal objective is to increase the share of advertising and marketing dollars that interactive media captures in the marketplace.
IAB Australia’s board includes representatives of AIMIA, Carsales.com, Fairfax Media, Google, Mi9, Network Ten, News Australia, REA Group, SBS, Telstra Advertising Network, TressCox Lawyers and Yahoo!7. It has four objectives:
• To develop, coordinate and promote industry standards and guidelines that make interactive advertising a simpler and more attractive medium for agencies, advertisers and marketers
• To prove and promote the effectiveness of interactive advertising to advertisers, agencies, marketers, and the press
• To be the primary advocate for the interactive marketing and advertising industry
• To expand the breadth and depth of IAB membership while increasing direct value to members
For further information about IAB Australia please visit: www.iabaustralia.com.au
For more editorial information please contact:
Pru Quinlan
Einsteinz Communications
T: (02) 8905 0995
E: pru@einsteinz.com.au
