Yeah, that’s what Quantcast’s Adam Gerber seemed to
be suggesting while ramping up round two of his controversial remarks during the audience measurement panel at OMMA Metrics.
“First we
don’t consider ourselves a measurement company,†Gerber declared about Quantcast’s positioning and reason for being. (Good, Gerber proved that he’s familiar with brand
marketing 101: Differentiation.)
“The notion of still trying to place conformity around how media is consumed so that you can report
audiences, is a flawed approach in this world,†Gerber continued. (Proving his knowledge of the second element of brand marketing: Relevance.)
“It is not just how media is distributed or consumed, it’s also about how media is bought and sold,†Gerber concluded, supporting something I’ve believed
all along about the advertising/media complex, and the co-dependencies that exist within it. And it is a simple rule that it’s not simply about measuring how consumers actually use media or
relate to brands. It also has to be about measuring it in a way that enables advertisers and agencies to actually, to use Gerber’s word, “activate†how they reach consumers who
use media and relate to brands.
To do that in a world of hyper fragmentation, Gerber said you need a true “census†for how
“all 220 million†online users are using the Web, and accessing information about brands. Naturally, Gerber believes that Quantcast is the only, er measurement firm, that does that at a
census level.