IAB shortlists four suppliers for new cross-device digital user metric

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has shortlisted four companies to provide digital audience measurement services as part of a new cross-device system.

Comscore, Nielsen, Roy Morgan Research and GfK have been shortlisted for the job and will present to a specialist technical review group chaired by industry veteran, Ian Muir, in early August. From there, the IAB will conduct a final technical and commercial evaluation before announcing the successful company later this year.

In a statement, the association group said 23 companies had applied for digital audience measurement honours during the tender process, which kicked off in April. The solution provided will cover digital users across laptop, desktop, smartphone and tablet devices as well as all types of digital content including video.

Nielsen has been the preferred supplier for digital measurement services for the past three years.

The IAB first announced its plans to embrace a wider digital metric in February as a way of meeting the needs of the rapidly expanding and complex digital advertising industry, it claimed. Alongside the new measurement system, it has also launched an agency advisory board and new councils, as well as a revamped industry certification program around digital skills.

Last December, the association also announced a partnership with Nielsen to launch a new mobile audience measurement pilot.

Muir said the level of engagement and effort on the part of suppliers should be commended so far, particularly given the stringent requirements set by the IAB.

IAB Australia CEO, Alice Manners, was also delighted by the amount of interest and said the association would release further details on methodology and rollout timeframes later this year.

“Australia has always been a global leader in innovative audience measurement thinking and implementation, and the quality of the proposals that we have received will help us remain in that position,” she said in the statement.

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