Don’t get soap in your eyes: Insights from 10 years of running UKOM
Opinion
In theory, all the online audience data now available allows us to optimise the way we work. But does it truly improve efficiency and effectiveness? This is fiercely debated.
We all know what handwash is. It’s there on most sinks. We use it every day. It took on a new urgency during our pandemic era. But be honest: we don’t really know what’s in it.
Well, the active ingredients include surfactants like sodium laureth sulfate and cocamidopropyl betaine, with humectants like glycerin and preservatives like tetrasodium EDTA. Plus, of course, all the fancy additives, fragrances and colours.
But if you buy a bottle, how do you know if it’s any good?
Simple. Because in the UK everything labelled “handwash” is governed by The Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013. So even if you don’t know what’s in it, you can be sure it’s going to do what handwash is supposed to do.
Murky data blend
This isn’t always true in our business.
In theory, the terabytes of online audience data now available in media planning and buying allow us to understand and optimise the way we work. But does it truly improve efficiency and effectiveness? This is fiercely debated.
On one side, you will find any number of companies, platforms, media agencies and intermediaries extolling the virtues of applying data in real time to the placement of digital advertising to drive business for all: media owner, advertiser and consumer.
Far on the other side, you will find Bob Hoffman, the self-proclaimed Ad Contrarian, whose opinion of the wizardry of adtech and its value is simply expressed as: “It’s horse shit.”
Regardless of which side of this complex argument one sits, it is hard to disagree that data and technology now sit at the heart of commercial digital media.
Technology is often referred to as being stacked. Assessing the quality of each layer of technology is not necessarily easy but, sticking with the bathroom analogy and rather like in a multi-razor, it helps when you can see each blade separately.
This can make it easier than judging the quality of data — which is rarely stacked and more often blended, like a silky but homemade handwash.
What if there was an undetectable trace of what Hoffman finds least palatable? Even if you could not smell it, if you knew it was there I’m guessing you wouldn’t wash your hands with it.
Governance and scrutiny
There are some organisations that simply cannot afford to risk the quality of datasets.
At the launch in December 2024 of its latest Online Nation, Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes said of the online audience data used in the report: “It is in Ofcom’s DNA to start with the evidence as a regulator. We have to stand up in court every decision that we take and we can’t do that unless we’re really clear and sure of our ground and why we’ve made the decisions that we’ve made.”
UKOM-endorsed data from Ipsos iris formed a significant foundation of that report. The governance and oversight that UKOM provides ensures that the iris data is robust and that the methodology by which it is collected and delivered has to stand up to intense scrutiny.
The iris methodology has been reviewed by global independent experts Milton Data. The iris process is independently audited by ABC. UKOM’s own technical board, comprising nearly 20 expert practitioners across the field of media insight and research, scrutinises every element of the data.
UKOM governance means that the data from iris is trusted not only by the UK government’s official regulator of communications. The Competition & Markets Authority subscribes to the data. The Information Commissioner’s Office too. And the BBC.
A new Media Services Framework has recently been announced by Isba and now includes online audience measurement from UKOM to ensure “best practices that support consumer trust in digital advertising”.
UKOM-endorsed data feeds into Pamco to provide the industry with a combined online and print readership for the UK audience of published media.
It feeds into IPA TouchPoints to provide the media planning and buying industry with a sound basis for UK cross-media consumption.
Most recently, The Media Leader parent company Adwanted UK added a Web Category report to its Connected Publishing app. Using UKOM-backed iris data, this gives users a holistic view of traditional and pure-play publishing brands.
Issue of trust
And yet not everyone values the governance that UKOM provides. Not everyone subscribes to the full UKOM dataset from iris.
So — back to the handwash analogy — they’re using their own mix and the rest of us aren’t quite sure what’s in it.
Advertisers should be asking: does my agency make full use of UKOM-backed data from iris? What governance exists for any non-UKOM-endorsed audience data? Can I trust datasets that lack UKOM levels of scrutiny?
Trust begins close to home.
Think about that next time you get soap in your eyes.
Ian Dowds is CEO of UKOM