Media accountability & measurement initiatives

Lower TV Production Costs

With advertising budgets remaining under pressure in a tough trading environment, AANA will be looking at ways we can help control costs. One area that has not had enough attention is TV production costs. AANA will aim to develop benchmarks and guidelines to assist marketers in determining fair and reasonable charges in this area.

Greater Credibility in Online Audience Measurement and Audit

In 2011, we welcomed the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB’s) appointment of Neilsen to develop an industry-preferred measurement system for online audiences. We also backed the Audit Bureau’s work in developing reliable auditing for digital media. As more advertisers shift bigger portions of their budgets online, it is imperative that these investments deliver measureable, comparable and credible results.

In 2012, AANA looks forward to working with IAB a little more closely as suitable and advanced metrics for mobile devices are introduced.

Greater Reliability in Print Media Measurement, Readership and Auditing

AANA has been seeking a measurement metric that is reliable, regularly updated, gives sectional readership information, that makes it easier to compare the effectiveness of print against other media and shows a depth of data that enables advertisers to place the correct value on each publication. AANA continues to liaise with the MFA and The Newspaper Works on the new entity "The Readership Works" regarding their new measurement metric for newspapers.

AANA is also calling for ‘issue-specific reporting.’ It enables advertisers to understand the positive effect on circulation of factors such particular magazine covers and major news events. It gives accurate feedback on the impact of promotions and marketing campaign launches, which helps build the case for print’s ROI.

AANA has been heavily involved in the development of Audit Bureau of Circulation Digital Version Rules to come into affect in April 2012. A new set of rule amendments, which will allow for the reporting of sales of digital versions or print publications and stand-alone digital publications are in place. Australia is leading the world through the inclusion of digital formats such as replica, enhanced and paid website. The introduction of Net Average Paid Digital Sales and Average Total Paid Mastheads Sales to complement the existing Average Net Paid Sales for print metrics are the end result of 18 months of work.

Television Media Measurement and Auditing

AANA has been working with the Media Federation of Australia (MFA) to seek more granular reporting on three key issues

Commercial break data (or an alternative way to represent ad break data)
Time shifted viewing (a full understanding of audience shifts, given the growing popularity of PVRs and the increasing numbers of digital channels)
Multiple screen measurement (seeking more robust trials for all devices)

Outdoor Media Measurement and Auditing

AANA continues to work with the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) to assist AANA members in understanding the advancements in the MOVE Outdoor measurement metric.

Auto-refresh

AANA members have expressed concern about the practice of auto refreshing of advertising which is still existent in Australian online publishing.　 From an advertiser viewpoint, the certainty that comes from a website having passed an ABA Web Audit will provide a clear competitive advantage. Telstra was the first of the top 5 publishers (IAB) to achieve this benchmark.

Commercial Radio Media Measurement and Auditing

AANA and MFA have called for the investigation into the replacement of the diary audience measurement collection system in favour of some form of electronic collection or a hybrid version. We have been　encouraging further rigorous trials of technologies like Personal People Meters, as we are seeing other markets shifting towards this form of collection. We acknowledge the new technologies have their own challenges, but that is no reason not to actively pursue them. We welcome CRA’s move to consider proposals for an online measurement system and look forward to seeing the test data from the short-listed systems.