UKOM

A guide to UKOM - The UK Online Measurement Company Audience Planning System, powered by Nielsen

In September 2009, UKOM – the UK online measurement company – appointed The Nielsen Company as its official partner to deliver an industry-agreed online audience planning system. In a landmark step for the industry, the much-anticipated currency has been approved with the backing of the UK’s largest advertisers and agency groups.

Set to launch in January 2010, the UKOM Audience Planning System (APS) will allow advertisers and their agencies to plan online campaigns that target specific audiences, using an industry-approved system just as they do with TV (BARB), radio (RAJAR) and print media (NRS).

Providing the all-important reach and frequency metrics that agency planners require to build media schedules, the APS will be based on a panel of at least 35,000 consumers across home and work locations and will supply online audience data down to sites as small as 35,000 unique visitors.

How does it work?

The key characteristics of the UKOM Audience Planning System are:

• A panel of at least 31,000 consumers at home, from age 2+

• A panel of 4000 individuals at work locations

• UKOM will supply online audience data down to sites as small as 35,000 unique visitors, essential when measuring the internet’s longtail

• It will report page views and time spent as key metrics

• The sample will be controlled by key demographics and weighted to the home and work online population as estimated by the NRS (National Readership Survey)

• Ad Network reach will initially be reported in the form of potential reach (based on ad calls). It is planned that this measure will be refined such that a final measure will be introduced based on ads served to the page during the second Phase in 2010

• Reporting of video activity will be available around mid 2010 with ‘passive’ reporting of audiences watching video as standard. Media owners wanting to provide more granular levels of reporting - for example for a particular TV show online - will be able to do so by tagging their inventory

Panel members are asked to complete a registration survey which provides details of all household members. This information is verified every 6 months. The system asks panel members to confirm who is using the PC for each online session.

The system will continue to provide all standard demographics currently available on NetView (age, gender, household size, working status, occupation, education, household income, business purchase responsibility). The following new variables will be added:

• Social grade, chief income earner

• Main shopper, new car buyer, moving house, home improvement

• Job seeking, more details on occupation, Mosaic and ACORN

Why is the UKOM APS beneficial to advertisers and agencies?

The robust data supplied by the APS is the information that media planners have been craving since online emerged, and UKOM are currently consulting with agencies to agree the most easy-to-use interface for campaign planning. The APS will benefit marketers because:

• We know that online is the most measureable, accountable medium, but this capability has also led to the majority of digital display budgets being dedicated to direct response campaigns

• UKOM will transform planning for online brand campaigns, providing reach and frequency data for your target demographics comparable to other media via BARB, RAJAR, NRS and POSTAR

• UKOM is the planned plug-in currency for IPA touchpoints

For more information, visit the UKOM website:

www.ukom.uk.net

And who should I contact?

Peter Bowman, general manager, UKOM
Tel: 07889 912 714
Email: peter.bowman@ukom.uk.net