Correct, but incomplete
The online advertising market Media Focus is seeking to clarify: The gross online advertising volume reported for January 2003 is only preliminary. It will be revised upward at a later date.
Online advertising market Media Focus is trying to clarify: The gross online advertising volume reported for January 2003 is only provisionally correct. It is subsequently corrected upwards.372000 Swiss francs are said to have been generated by the online industry in January 2003, 66.4 percent less than in January 2002, according to Media Focus (MF). The fact that quantitative and methodological changes had been made in the data collection (see WW 7/03) was mentioned by MF managing director Lukas Zihlmann in his commentary, but he left his readers in the dark about the extent. He simply asked readers to "take a very differentiated look at the gross online figures for the next three months".No wonder that a storm of indignation broke out in the online industry after the figures were published. The figures were not correct, they were far too low, marketers complained. "It can't go on like this," also complained self-marketers. Reto Hartinger, Head of Marketing at Search.ch, described the figures as "nonsense".
On March 10, Jens Windel, MF Board Delegate, attempted to smooth the waters and create more transparency in a communiqué. The text was coordinated with online and self-marketers, who in return abstained from further additional comments. The attempt to speak with only one voice is laudable, but the text was noticeable for the prior haggling over the wording: it contained numerous convoluted and sometimes misleading formulations. However, the following conclusion can now be drawn.
Some own marketers are missing
The online volume of CHF 372,000 for January 2003 is made up of data from Adlink, Publimedia Webservices and ActiveAgent, and from the proprietary marketers Swisscom Directories, der Bund, NZZ Online, Basler Zeitung, Finanz und Wirtschaft, Msn, SevenOneMedia and Swissquote.ch. Important self-marketers such as Search.ch, Google.ch and Bluewin.ch, on the other hand, have not yet supplied any data.
"The January data are correct, but incomplete," concludes Jens Windel - because some large self-marketers are still missing. Negotiations are underway with Bluewin.ch and Google.ch, and Search.ch plans to supply the data soon. As soon as new data providers are added who also declare their data retroactively, the volume of January and the following months will be corrected upwards accordingly, he said.
Windel also notes that the reported values are now "gross invoiced" and correspond to the monthly processed order values of the individual marketers and self-marketers. The switch to exact time-based accrual, he said, will naturally lead to a temporary reduction in advertising volumes. "This effect will be neutralized within the next six months at the latest," Windel wrote. Because of these changes, moreover, "no trend comparison with the previous year can be made at the moment." In any case, the previous year's figures supplied were to be judged as "qualitatively inadequate" in terms of the new survey method.
Nevertheless, MF's online advertising trend will continue to include percentage comparisons with 2002 levels. Windel confirmed this. The reason: The volumes of the other media types surveyed by MF are also subject to ongoing changes, some of which are significant, and these are then explained to customers in detail. There, too, comparisons with the previous year are not dispensed with. But precisely because the MF gross expenditure statistics are subject to constant dynamism, it is important to always see the absolute Swiss franc amount in connection with the number of advertising placements, which are also shown in the statistics, said Windel.
Gave rise to heated arguments in the scene: The January sales figures for online marketers compiled by Media Focus.
Media Focus board delegate Jens Windel: "Insufficient prior-year figures."
Markus Knöpfli
On March 10, Jens Windel, MF Board Delegate, attempted to smooth the waters and create more transparency in a communiqué. The text was coordinated with online and self-marketers, who in return abstained from further additional comments. The attempt to speak with only one voice is laudable, but the text was noticeable for the prior haggling over the wording: it contained numerous convoluted and sometimes misleading formulations. However, the following conclusion can now be drawn.
Some own marketers are missing
The online volume of CHF 372,000 for January 2003 is made up of data from Adlink, Publimedia Webservices and ActiveAgent, and from the proprietary marketers Swisscom Directories, der Bund, NZZ Online, Basler Zeitung, Finanz und Wirtschaft, Msn, SevenOneMedia and Swissquote.ch. Important self-marketers such as Search.ch, Google.ch and Bluewin.ch, on the other hand, have not yet supplied any data.
"The January data are correct, but incomplete," concludes Jens Windel - because some large self-marketers are still missing. Negotiations are underway with Bluewin.ch and Google.ch, and Search.ch plans to supply the data soon. As soon as new data providers are added who also declare their data retroactively, the volume of January and the following months will be corrected upwards accordingly, he said.
Windel also notes that the reported values are now "gross invoiced" and correspond to the monthly processed order values of the individual marketers and self-marketers. The switch to exact time-based accrual, he said, will naturally lead to a temporary reduction in advertising volumes. "This effect will be neutralized within the next six months at the latest," Windel wrote. Because of these changes, moreover, "no trend comparison with the previous year can be made at the moment." In any case, the previous year's figures supplied were to be judged as "qualitatively inadequate" in terms of the new survey method.
Nevertheless, MF's online advertising trend will continue to include percentage comparisons with 2002 levels. Windel confirmed this. The reason: The volumes of the other media types surveyed by MF are also subject to ongoing changes, some of which are significant, and these are then explained to customers in detail. There, too, comparisons with the previous year are not dispensed with. But precisely because the MF gross expenditure statistics are subject to constant dynamism, it is important to always see the absolute Swiss franc amount in connection with the number of advertising placements, which are also shown in the statistics, said Windel.
Gave rise to heated arguments in the scene: The January sales figures for online marketers compiled by Media Focus.
Media Focus board delegate Jens Windel: "Insufficient prior-year figures."
Markus Knöpfli
