Future of Media Research: UKOM arrives to clean up the last Wild West

UKOM has arrived to clean up the last Wild West: online. But delegates at Friday’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Media Research’ wanted to know just how successful were its first 100 days.

Laura Chaibi, director of research, Yahoo! Europe, said that the industry needed to agree on a measurement system, if only to stop confusion over whether comScore or Nielsen figures were correct.

However, she added that UKOM is not being used “as a language yet; it’s a very complex market”.

Panellists were in broad agreement that the time was ripe for UKOM to succeed, with Justin Gibbons, managing partner, Work Research, saying: “Having multiple currencies is the Wild West.

“You need one that is authoritative or you end up with chaos like the riots in Greece.”

Chaibi said that online is even more of a Wild West than mobile, which now has GSMA data and just five operators compared to the plethora of ISPs.

While there was some disappointment expressed by the IPA’s research director Lynne Robinson that UKOM is not a JIC, she was positive about the effect it will have on agencies.

“Agencies are keen on UKOM because it starts to give online a data source that’s comparable to other media. It allows online to be part of total campaigns and that’s the beauty of it.”

She added: “It’s still, I think, a work in progress and, given the speed digital progresses, I think it will always be a work in progress.”

Of course, with News International soon to introduce a subscription model for access to the Times and Sunday Times online, the publisher will have a wealth of new data, although Stuart McDonald, head of insight at News International said there would still be a place for UKOM.

“The subscription model News International is introducing will allow it to find out more about conmsumers from registration data, giving it the opportunity to serve more relevant ads and content; UKOM is another tool in the armoury,” he said.