Demands Third-Party Audit of Methods That Count the Size of Web Audiences
NEW YORK, NY (Friday, April 20, 2007) – The Interactive Advertising Bureau announced today that it has sent a letter to the two major Internet audience measurement services, comScore, Inc. and Nielsen//NetRatings (NNR), to submit to a third-party audit of their measurement processes.
The goal of the IAB and the entire Interactive industry is simple: to achieve transparency in audience counts and to revise out-of-date methodologies.
For the Interactive industry, one that is committed to delivering accountability, integrity in audience measurement is a fundamental necessity. But, despite a multiplicity of reported discrepancies in audience measurements, comScore and NNR have resisted numerous requests for audits by the IAB and the Media Rating Council, some dating back to 1999.
In order to establish the source of these discrepancies, and to find the potential solutions, the IAB is asking that both comScore and NNR obtain audits of their technologies and processes by the Media Rating Council (MRC).
The discrepancies exist between the audience measurements of comScore and NNR and those of the server logs of the IAB’s own members. Further compounding these differences are the disparities between comScore’s and NNR’s own measurement results. All measurement companies that report audience metrics have a material impact on interactive marketing and decision-making. Therefore, transparency into these methodologies is critical to maintaining advertisers confidence in interactive, particularly now, as marketers allocate more budget to the platform.
Without these audits, the industry has no way of knowing whether these deviations in measurement result from inconsistent counting or from outdated measurement methodologies, such as the panels developed in the 1930s and still relied on today.
“To persist in using panels that potentially undercount or ignore the diverse populations that are the future of consumer marketing is to deny marketers the insights they need to build their businesses,” writes IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg in an open letter to Magid M. Abraham, the President and CEO of comScore, Inc., and William Pulver, the President and CEO Nielsen//NetRatings. “And it certainly appears to us as if these audiences are being undercounted or disregarded.”
The IAB is the trade association representing Interactive media companies in the United States. Its 332 members account for 86 percent of the nation’s interactive advertising spend, according to research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Other industry voices are also adding their concern. “I applaud the interactive industry’s commitment to transparency,” says Bob Liodice, President & CEO, Association of National Advertisers. “And I support any initiative that moves us closer to the real answers marketers need.”
In recent months the audience rating services have come under increasing scrutiny, as major consumer and business-to-business marketers allocate more attention and budget to interactive media, only to find discrepancies between the estimates offered by and between comScore and NNR, and the counts provided by the interactive media companies, based on the traffic tallied by their server logs.
The MRC was established by Congress in the early 1960s to oversee the establishment and administration of minimum standards for rating operations; the accreditation of rating services on the basis of information submitted by such services; and auditing, through independent CPA firms, of the activities of the rating services. Together the MRC and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have developed guidelines for counting ad impressions which can be used in the auditing of advertising technologies and processes used by interactive media companies, agencies and third parties.
Independently audited methodologies and numbers, Mr. Rothenberg writes, “would let marketers eliminate waste, media companies realize a fair price, and advertising agencies target audiences and analyze their campaigns more effectively.”
About the IAB:
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) represents over 300 leading interactive companies that are actively engaged in, and support the sale of Interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields Interactive effectiveness research and educates the advertising industry regarding the use of interactive advertising. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.
IAB Contact
Marla Nitke
Director, Marketing Communications
