Australian Digital Audience Measurement 

Audience Measurement and Industry Ratings 

Nielsen currently provides IAB endorsed volumetric data released daily until April 2022. Nielsen continue to conduct the industry’s ongoing enumeration study and hybrid measurement to size the digital population in Australia and provide digital usage data by device and content category, such as data contained in the IAB Consumer and Device Digital Report. Nielsen also continue to release monthly digital audience ratings data, however the IAB is unable to support the tagged monthly audience data being provided in Nielsen’s Digital Media Ratings. Further guidance is available here.

IAB AUSTRALIA APPOINTS IPSOS AS PREFERRED SUPPLIER FOR DIGITAL AUDIENCE DATA FROM 2022

After a 6-month tender process during 2021, IAB Australia have appointed Ipsos as the industry’s exclusive and preferred supplier for the planning, buying, and reporting of digital audience measurement data in Australia from 2022. Ipsos iris, a digital content measurement system, is being built from the ground up in collaboration with the IAB and will commence in Q2 2022. Further information on the announcement is available here.

THE ROLE OF INDUSTRY DIGITAL AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT CURRENCY

For nearly 10 years the IAB has endorsed a preferred supplier. Nielsen was first endorsed by the IAB in 2011.

The endorsement of a preferred supplier provided a level playing field for comparison of audience size and characteristics and greater confidence to advertisers for media planning decisions. It has also helped media owners to demonstrate the unique attributes of their properties and help commercialisation of their content.

The appointment of Ipsos as the preferred supplier from 2022 is the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council, commencing in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. This strategic review, conducted by Venture Consulting, found that most buy and sell side respondents indicated independent audience measurement provides value as a single source of truth and believe that it will remain relevant over forthcoming years despite the ongoing shift towards programmatic trading. This review formed the basis for the standards and specifications of a tender that was issued in May 2021, inviting measurement vendors to submit their services for evaluation.

The IAB’s objective with the tender process was to endorse new standards aligned to the evolving needs of the industry. The retirement of third-party cookies and the increasing emphasis on digital privacy also required a reassessment of how digital audiences are measured into the future.

Key things our currency needs to deliver:

• An audience focused measurement system which tracks all digital behaviour on browsers and apps, along with text, video and audio content, across desktop/laptop, smartphone, tablet and CTV.
• Inclusive reporting on all properties in a fair and equal manner, regardless of their involvement with the IAB, to provide the industry with comparable ratings data on all players.
• High levels of credibility and transparency in methodology and data output from an independent system with the oversight by the digital industry, the IAB and IAB Measurement Council made up of 14 media owners, agency, and MFA representation.
• A privacy compliant measurement system now and into the future.
• Respondent level data that allows for duplication analysis of digital properties for media planning and interoperability with other media currencies other third-party measurement, ingested into agencies own systems and working within programmatic systems.
• Flexibility to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

IAB Australia appointed Ipsos as the industry’s exclusive and preferred supplier for the planning, buying, and reporting of digital audience measurement data in Australia from 2022. Ipsos iris is currently being built from the ground up in collaboration with the IAB to meet the needs of the Australian market.

You can find out more about what Ipsos iris will deliver to the market,  the roll out of products and features and how media owners can get involved and participate in the measurement system, including key requirements for site and app tagging by watching this video, Building The Future: Ipsos iris, IAB Australia Endorsed Audience Measurement Information Session

Ipsos iris will launch in Q2 2022 and continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2022/2023. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years. 

In summary, the Ipsos iris solution will deliver:

• Inclusive measurement of both large and niche media owner content across text, video and audio streaming accessed on desktop/laptop, smartphones, tablets, and CTV. This includes the audience measurement of media owner content distributed on platforms such as Google AMP, Facebook, YouTube and Apple News. 
• A hybrid methodology combining metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with census site-centric measurement.
• Accuracy in solving the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences – cross-device deduplication – by using a single-source panel to capture behaviour across all devices of each panellist.
• Daily overnight traffic volume leveraging media owner tagging and first-party data.
• CTV audience measurement delivered from a data partnership with OzTam and integrated with digital currency data from desktop/laptop, smartphones, tablets.
• Respondent level data providing capability for media planning analysis and a fully interoperable and transportable data set ready for integration into other third-party measurement, planning systems, buying platforms, trading platforms or other data management platforms (e.g. DMP, CDP).
• In addition to broad core demographic coverage the iris solution goes beyond to report interest-based segmentation derived from content consumed as well as several other built-in segments such as psychographic segments.
• Along with 42 standard metrics available, Ipsos will work with the IAB to develop new metrics and partner with other data suppliers to provide additional ways for media owners to demonstrate the unique attributes of their properties and help commercialisation of their content.
• Fully privacy compliant solution at GDPR standards.
• A pathway to cross-platform and cross-media measurement solutions for the industry. The fully cross-media ready panel has potential to transition to a single source, cross-media passive measurement panel including TV viewing and Radio listening useful for the fusion of other media currency data.

Tag up and be counted

Tagging ensures that media owner assets, including websites and apps along with text, video or audio content, are measured across all devices and represented completely to the marketplace. Along with independent and unified measurement, there are key benefits for media owners to implement Ipsos iris tagging:

• full measurement of audience reach and reporting of all metrics including active time spent

• reporting data for smaller web properties that may be under-represented by the panel
• accurate measurement of off-platform audiences (Google AMP, FBIA, Apple News etc)

Tags are available for implementation now. Technical workshops and support are currently available to developers on how to set up tags within their media owner environments.

Ipsos will work with media owners to agree how they wish their brands to be structured within Ipsos iris. Once this structure has been agreed tags and technical documentation will be provided to media owners through an administrative interface.

For more information on getting involved in the Ipsos iris measurement system and to ensure being reported in Ipsos iris from launch please email Heather White Director of Digital Measurement at Ipsos, Heather.White@ipsos.com

CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION

Natalie Stanbury
Research Director
natalie@iabaustralia.com.au