• by November 3, 2003

We have read over the past few weeks a number of commentaries regarding the state of online audience measurement. We think it's time to share our point of view, and to outline the specific, actionable steps that comScore Media Metrix is taking to meet the measurement challenges of today -- and tomorrow.

The fundamental issues we would like to discuss in this article are the property definitions and site aggregation rules used to define an Internet property, since these areas seem to be getting so much industry attention currently.

Several industry participants have expressed their frustration and voiced the need for "fair and balanced" reporting in defining site aggregations. It's hard to argue with a "motherhood and apple pie" statement such as this. But in the world of measuring Internet audiences, what is "fair and balanced" to one party is simply not "fair and balanced" to another. For better or worse, "fair and balanced" is a subjective perception in this industry that we believe is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. That is the reality.

The measurement companies would like nothing better than to be able to produce one report that is indisputable. But, unfortunately, standardized rules for the determination of property definitions do not yet exist for the Internet.

Some have suggested that the solution lies in standards set by industry groups such as the Media Ratings Council. The IAB and OPA have nobly stepped up to further this effort, we've embraced their initiatives and progress is being made. But if recent meetings of the MRC and OPA are any indication, there's still little agreement among participants regarding the standardization of property definitions.

In truth, many of the recommendations put forth have clearly been in the interest of individual companies - not the industry as a whole. That's because publishers, advertising networks, marketers, media buyers and agencies often have different views of how to define an online entity. And in most cases, each different view is to some degree valid.

It is comScore Media Metrix's conclusion that no "one-size-fits-all" view can adequately represent "truth" in all situations. There are many conflicting interests and objectives for viewing a Top Properties report - each one legitimate from the perspective of the particular client and business objective. Because of this, our solution is to put forth alternative views of site aggregations that appropriately measure Internet audiences based on different objectives and perspectives.

The Client-Focus Conundrum

One solution initiated by Media Metrix several years ago, was to allow clients to have input into the definitional process. This continues to be viewed by many clients as a positive development. However, the Client-Focus approach is a double-edge sword. While it addresses many issues, and is widely applauded by clients, it also allows for the possibility of inconsistent definitions across properties. For example, in the Top Properties report, Viacom and Disney prefer to have their entities roll-up under their corporate umbrella, while InterActiveCorp, on the other hand, prefers to report Expedia, Ticketmaster and their other entities broken out separately. Neither approach is right or wrong. But they are different and both approaches will appear in the Top Property report.

Different View for Different Objectives

Late last year, following the acquisition of Media Metrix by comScore, we pioneered the approach of alternate views of the audience data by releasing our Top Properties with Duplication report. This report allows for duplication of audiences so as to more fairly and accurately represent a property's reach for certain business applications.

Using October 2003 data, comScore Media Metrix will next release a unique Advertising-Centric ranking report. This report will focus on ad-supported sites or groups of sites, not corporate ownership, with the goal of tabulating the audience data in a manner that mirrors as closely as possible the way in which advertising inventory is actually packaged and sold. Using this new capability, media professionals will be able to accurately measure and compare ad-supported sites and networks on an equal footing when buying and selling advertising.

We believe other views are relevant to specific business planning issues and we are well along in implementing them. For example, there is the Corporate Ownership view, which is relevant and important for corporate business planning and other financial valuation purposes. As an example, for Disney or Viacom it IS relevant to identify each of the entities they own and to roll-up them up for a total corporate view of their audience. But this view may not be relevant for purposes of buying and selling ad inventory on MTV.com, for example.

And, let's not forget about the consumer. We are in the process of producing a Consumer-Centric audience measure of consumer-selected sites on the Internet. This view uses advanced comScore technology to capture consumer intent when surfing. Our technology allows us to capture Internet activity at the consumer level, whereby only destination Web sites that have been specifically requested by a consumer, either by typing, clicking or using the "enter" key, are identified and tabulated.

Taken together, we believe these three approaches-Corporate Ownership, Advertising-Centric and Consumer-Centric-will provide the much needed clarity and insight necessary to support a full range of business decisions.

Industry Challenge

The power of the Internet as an advertising medium lies in its unique ability to efficiently and precisely reach many, many different market segments. But to fully take advantage of its power, we as an industry need flexible measurement and planning systems that can readily be used to describe any audience segment that is of value to both the buyer and seller.

That said, we must stress that this is not a simple problem to solve. The Internet is clearly a massive media animal, with over 3 billion pages across 30,000 reportable channels and multiple locations - home, work and university. As a result, the challenge of measuring the Internet is far more complex than that of measuring TV. For example, the sample size that we need to measure the Internet - 100,000 people - dwarfs that used to measure TV viewing. And in the case of TV viewing, there are far fewer programming alternatives to be measured and reported. And those are relatively simple to define: for example, no one questions the definition of NBC or ESPN. We would also point out that, as the online industry's watch-dog, we face constant battles to identify and eliminate "non-legitimate" traffic (such as push-traffic, pop-ups, redirects etc.) that proliferates in such a flexible medium as the Internet, but which, if left unaddressed, can misrepresent the true audience.

Bottom line, as an industry we have two choices going forward: we can continue to try to balance conflicting objectives in one simple ranking report; or we can embrace multiple views depending on the particular business reporting objective. We believe the latter approach represents the best solution. However, the industry needs to have the discipline and interest in actually working to identify the appropriate metric if there are multiple views. Because of this, it's critical that the industry embrace the concept of the most appropriate report for the task at hand instead of simply shooting the measurement messenger.

At comScore Media Metrix, we're committed to solving the Internet's most complex measurement issues arm-in-arm with the industry. Our work with industry groups such as the ARF, MRC and the IAB is ongoing to tackle these issues head-on. And as a leader in the audience measurement space, we continue to invest in, and improve, our sample, data collection methodology and reporting technologies with the goal of providing the most relevant and valuable metrics for the business issues at hand. As such, we continue to lead the industry in enhancing the concept of audience measurement by providing uniquely relevant services such as qSearch, which measures online search activity, monitoring of consumer purchasing of Premium Services and our well-known ability to track all online commerce activity.