The IPA and ISBA are very disappointed that the JICIMS joint initiative with the AOP and IAB to produce an audience-centric planning currency for online has stalled.
During the past year, JICIMS, which is a cross-industry grouping representing all key stakeholders, had developed an agreed specification for such a currency. A Request For Proposals elicited seven responses from major research companies and helped fine-tune the specification and inform as to likely costs.
At the JICIMS summit, held in October 2008, all sides of the online industry — advertisers, agencies and media owners - agreed that an industry planning currency would benefit the online medium particularly in maintaining and attracting display advertising revenues.
However, the current economic climate has meant that the industry (primarily the media owners who would bear the majority of the funding) are unable to commit sufficient monies to move forwards to an Invitation To Tender for the production of a truly independent, industry-owned currency.
The media owners’ demurral means that JICIMS has no Joint Industry initiative to pursue. The IPA and ISBA have therefore regretfully had to withdraw despite having devoted a significant amount of resource to the project in its various incarnations over many years.
Since the withdrawal, there has been some misguided press comment, hence this joint statement from ISBA and IPA.
Looking forwards, the AOP and IAB have indicated that they will be investigating other less costly alternatives, details of which are not expected to be made known until 2009. They have announced today that JICIMS will be reincorporated as UKOM (UK Online Measurement) and will put out a tender in “early 2009”.
IPA and ISBA have warned of the possible adverse consequences to their revenues of not having credible audience data, especially in the current economic climate. We have also reminded them formally that the challenge they now face is to deliver a currency which closely matches the JICIMS specification in robustness, credibility and cost-effectiveness.
Critically, to have practical purpose and avoid merely adding greater cost than value, their proposals must undertake to deliver a solution which is clearly and tangibly superior to the several current commercial offerings in the marketplace.
To give the industry some comfort against the possible creation of a monopoly supplier in the field, the proposal should also signal clear intent to all parties to move towards a more formal joint industry governance structure as soon as it is appropriate. In the interim, most careful consideration should be given to how the four industry bodies can practically endorse the service in such as way that such endorsement can be withdrawn in the event of any significant disappointment against specification.
If IAB and AOP are successful with their plans then ISBA and IPA will be happy to work with them and join a pan-industry governance group to take this much-needed project forwards.
Explanatory notes
1. JICIMS — the Joint Industry Committee for Internet Audience Research - was incorporated in 2007 by the four stakeholders below, with the sole purpose of pursuing and delivering a Joint Industry-owned and -run audience measurement for online media.
2. Discussions between the four stakeholders described below about audience ‘pull’ measurement for online media have been ongoing in various forms for a number years.
3. AOP is The Association of Online Publishers, representing digital publishing companies that create original, branded, quality content.
4. IAB is The Internet Advertising Bureau, the marketing body for online media owners
5. IPA is The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, representing agencies
6. ISBA is The Voice of British Advertisers
7. ABC is The Audit bureau of Circulations. ABC audits paper publishers’ circulations and ABCelectronic audits online publishers’ server data.
8. ABCelectronic has audited and published ‘push’ for many web sites in parallel for a decade. All stakeholders are represented on its oversight group, the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS), and IPA, ISBA and many publishers are also represented on the Council which oversees and governs all ABC’s activities.
For further information:
Lynne Robinson, IPA Research Director 020 7201 8200