Industry welcomes ABC's digital measurement plans

Digital media consumption continues to increase, and so does its share in ad-spends. With the rapid growth in digital reach through mobile platforms, share of digital advertising is pegged to grow at a fast pace from its current share of 9% in the total ad pie. Hence emerges the need for a robust digital measurement system.

ABC or Audit Bureau of Circulations, pioneers in print media measurement since the year 1948, has decided to take a step in this direction. It is initiating a project in the direction of digital measurement. It is of the view that being the fastest growing media across the world, digital measurement would complement print measurement in years to come.

As per the information shared by ABC, its digital measurement services would neither be restricted to India alone, nor would it be restricted to publishers. Details of the measurement system would be revealed on 9th September 2015.

Welcoming the move, Sandeep Tarkas, President (Customer Strategy) and CEO (Bengal Warriors) at Future Group says, "There is a need for more credible data and new measurement will provide more comprehensive and in-depth analysis. Any new measurement system is welcome, as it will help in the growth."

Ajay Kakkar, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Group-Financial Services too believes the movement to be step in the right direction. He says, "Every measurement is welcome when you are investing a huge sum of money. The more tools you have, the more confidence, accuracy and accountability comes into play."

If one remembers right, sometime back there was talk of BARC going multiscreen in time to come and measure digital media too. Would we not end up in a dual currency scenario if so happens – something the industry resolved with great difficulty in print space, and is trying to settle in television space now? Partho Das Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, BARC India, says, "We intend to get into Audio Video measurement sometime by next year." It would, however, not be measuring digital universe per say, and hence there is no clash of interest, and no dual currency scenario. 

Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India adds, "BARC has plans to integrate video and audio together because the future is moving towards video."

With the launch of new digital measurement system by ABC and data for other media being captured digitally and being available on the digital platform, would one now see emergence of a system, which would seamlessly analyse cross media data? Sanjay Tripathi Tripathi Executive Vice President - Head Marketing, Product, Analytics, Digital & E-Commerce says, “Dynamics of each medium is different in terms of content, usage and form. Currently there is no technology or body that has capability to track and report all three. Thus marketers have to analyse each medium separately and make informed decisions.” He adds, “Yes, there is an opportunity for innovators to provide one window of truth for these mediums. It can give marketers the power to target very small but highly viable niches and optimise the media spend across mediums.”

One would have to wait till 9th September to find out the nitty-gritties of new measurement system, and how it would differ from comScore data being used at the moment. Whether there is a definite need for digital measurement, the answer is a definite Yes. Advertisers would love to know whether their monies are being spent on platforms that bring big bang for the buck, or it is the hoopla in the marketplace that is leading to those spends.