IAB Australia extends deed with Nielsen as sole supplier of online audience measurement – Samantha Yorke appointed in acting CEO role

IAB Australia has extended its deed with Nielsen as the sole and exclusive preferred supplier for the provision of online audience measurement in Australia. The deed has been extended for a further eighteen months, which coincides with Nielsen Online Ratings hybrid data being in market for three years. Mobile volume traffic data is included within the deed; however mobile audience data will remain outside the deed while the IAB carries out a thorough review of available options and vendors.

The new deed includes an additional layer of KPIs to ensure Nielsen continues to improve its product delivery times, adoption, education and training.  Nielsen will also be releasing more detailed mobile device volume data for Market Intelligence on May 1st 2013. This data will combine the current Market Intelligence and Mobile Market Intelligence to allow clients to drill into the distribution of devices where a site is consumed.

IAB Australia has also announced that Tony Prentice has stepped down from his interim CEO role. Prentice was engaged in January by IAB Australia in a part time capacity to manage the review and resulting extension of the deed with Nielsen. Samantha Yorke (pictured), IAB Australia’s director of regulatory affairs has now been appointed acting CEO and assumed responsibility for all aspects of IAB Australia’s operations, as well as maintaining her regulatory affairs portfolio.

Says Gai Le Roy, director of research at IAB Australia: “IAB Australia’s Measurement Council has conducted a thorough review and come to the conclusion that Nielsen is still best placed to provide online audience measurement services in Australia.

“With the explosion of mobile usage, one of the IAB’s key priorities is to identify a mobile audience measurement offering or offerings that are affordable, nimble and can be integrated into other media measurement systems to provide true, unduplicated cross platform and cross media audience data.”

Nielsen’s original contract with IAB Australia was for a two-year term, following an eight-month tender and review process which was strongly supported by the MFA and AANA.

Nielsen Online Ratings identifies people-based metrics, as opposed to browser-based for the Australian online advertising industry.  This allows online to be measured comparably with other media, in addition to providing online reach and frequency analyses comparable with traditional media schedules.