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IAB Reports Progress, Adds Another Committee
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has this week issued an update on progress with the auditing and accreditation of online measurement firms comScore and NetRatings, as promised after its Audience Measurement Summit on May 16. It also launched another advisory group.
The association says Nielsen//NetRatings has completed its pre-audit with the MRC and is now in the process of a full audit, as per its commitment at the meeting; while comScore has also completed its pre-audit but is reviewing the MRC's report and proposal for a full audit before it will commit to a timeline for full accreditation.
'The entire marketing-media value chain wants and needs clarity and transparency in interactive audience measurement, so we're very pleased that Nielsen//NetRatings has begun its full audit and that comScore is preparing to launch one', said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.
The May 16 summit also saw the IAB agreeing to help lead an industry-wide education initiative about best practices and trends in online measurement, and to continue pushing development of measurement guidelines. An Audience Measurement Leadership Forum will be held on November 29 and is planned as an annual event. A working group has also committed to producing Audience Measurement Guidelines defining unique visitors, page views and time spent, and reviewing the impact of cookie deletion, international traffic, spiders and bots and other factors.
Today the IAN announced another body, the Research Advisory Board, whose role will be 'to define the cross-industry efforts necessary to educate the industry about critical issues in audience measurement.' Initial members are:- Keith Berkelhamer, CNN.com
- Dr. Thomas Evans, ESPN.com
- Betsy Frank, Time Inc.
- Jonathan Gibs, Weather.com
- Corey Jeffrey, MTV Networks
- Stephen Kim, MSN
- Scott McDonald, Condé Nast
- Dan Murphy, Univision Online
- Bruce Rogers, Forbes.com
- Barbara Rice, ex-officio.
The process began with an open letter from the IAB in April calling for the major providers to submit to an independent audit.
The IAB, online at www.iab.net , represents over 300 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising, and responsible for selling over 86% of US online ads. The MRC is a non-profit industry association established in 1964 comprised of leading television, radio, print and Internet companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations. Measurement services wanting its Accreditation must disclose all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the Minimum Standards; and submit to audits. Around 50 syndicated research products are currently audited by the MRC.
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