MSN Advantage Marketing

July 2002

Online Reach and Frequency Update
By David L. Smith President and Media Director, Mediasmith, Inc.

A lot has happened in the last two months relative to the Online Reach and Frequency scene. It feels like the industry was waiting for the ARF to give some direction. But, in fact, these things do not happen overnight and there was a lot of work going on that was not apparent until after the ARF committee meeting on Online Reach and Frequency in late March.


Table of Contents Background New Announcements Other Issues

Background

As mentioned in my last article on this subject, the ARF Online Reach and Frequency committee voted to endorse the overlay of SCM (server centric measurement: the third party ad servers) onto UCM (user centric measurement: the survey companies). At the ARF meeting, in anticipation of this direction, Atlas DMT and comScore presented a concept to combine their resources for a UCM/SCM combined product. They are working with Telmar to get the combined product up and available on Telmar. At this point, you can still get this directly from Atlas DMT while you are waiting for availability on Telmar.

Return to top of page

New Announcements

On May 14, IMS/MediaPlan and Nielsen//NetRatings announced their WebRF product in the UK which uses NetRatings data and the IMS interface. This will be available in the US at about the time this article is posted. They have plans to introduce a product which will enable combination with traditional media R/F and permits the evaluation of Online efforts relative to overall media mix. NetRatings has also announced an alliance with DoubleClick to overlay SCM data over their SCM based panel data. This data should be available via DoubleClick’s MediaVisor as well as the WebRF product but no timetable has been set.

The number of UCMs was reduced by one in the past week by the purchase of "certain assets" of the Media Metrix Audience Measurement Service from JMM. This purchase, at an arguable "fire sale" price, leaves the JMM product in doubt according to industry experts. While comScore insists that the JMM product will be released, no clear plan of SCM/UCM combination or third party system access from a Telmar or IMS has been put forward. Whether comScore will try to revive this or continue to partner with Atlas/DMT remains to be seen.

The result of all of the changes and consolidations is that discussions continue between all vendors to determine what the best shape for the optimal R/F product of the future is and who each provider should partner with.

Return to top of page

Other Issues

The dialogue within the industry is heating up. In the last several weeks, some new alliances have been struck. The ARF committee is moving ahead on setting parameters and industry guidance. The various vendors are working on their products. We will keep this page on the site up to date on progress. So, check back for news. We expect a report on the new alliances some time in June.

Return to top of page


David L. Smith, President and Media Director of Mediasmith, Inc. in San Francisco is a nationally known expert in the areas of new media application, media strategy and media planning. A thirty-seven year veteran in the advertising media management arena, Smith has a major involvement in national committee work to establish and refine standards in metrics, business practices and financial issues for Interactive advertising with organizations such as the AAAA's, IAB, OPA and the ARF. He currently chairs the Online Reach & Frequency Committee for the ARF.