• by Joe Mandese , February 24, 2010

That was my takeaway from listing to comScore’s Josh Chasin explaining the impact that so-called “hypbrid” online metrics panels have had on the audience measurement marketplace.

 

The panels, which integrate conventional panel-based measurement, such as comScore’s core online audience panel, with “site-centric” measurement derived from cookies and other data, are a valuable means of reconciling the differences that inherently exist between the two divergent methods of understanding online audience behavior, Chasin said.

 

“It’s popular so far,” Chasin said of the methodology, which has been championed by Quantcast, Nielsen Online, and more recently, comScore.

 

“Publishers like it. Advertisers and agencies like it,” he added, noting that it helps them “come to grips” with the fact that panel-based data typically has lower overall numbers than the site-centric methods, which may actually overstate individual user audiences.

 

One reason Chasin says customers like the hybrid approaches, is that it gives them the ability to conduct the forensics necessary to understand the relationships between panel-based and site-centric measures.

 

That’s important, Chasin says, because it allows publishers in the U.S. and in other markets around the world to clarify the confusion about their audience data that, in some cases, “undermines the credibility of the medium.”