IPA Boss Calls For Investment In Online Measurement

IPA director general, Hamish Pringle, has called for increased investment from major players in the online industry to fund reliable audience measurement of the web.

In an open letter published by Media Week, Pringle claims that ahead of the launch of the IPA Touchpoints survey it is now important to improve online audience measurement.

“The lack of an industry trading currency for online will be all too apparent when the IPA Touchpoints Initiative arrives on the desktops of media planning and buying agencies in early 2006,” he explained. “All other media will be represented by the integration of its industry currency – online will have to make do with data simulation which will be nothing like as robust as the data it could so easily put in place.”

The IPA chief explained the proven business case for increased online measurement, citing the recent Bellwether report as valuing UK expenditure on online at 4%, or £1.7 billion per annum. Elsewhere, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has reported that online now has a 19% share of individual media usage.

“We know that the media agencies and their clients have asked for this data,” Pringle said. “All me need now is for the major online media owners to come together as an industry and make this happen.”

Last week saw the IAB Engage conference addressed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who predicted that consumers would soon use the internet in every aspect of their media consumption.

Gates went on to claim that in the near future the debate between online and offline advertising will be obsolete, with all media channels soon delivered using internet-based technology (see Gates Predicts A Converged Future For Online Advertising).

IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk