Discipline instead of number crunching
Internet advertising Online marketers are clearing up confusing and confounding statistics: Media Focus' online gross advertising expenditures are becoming more accurate, but are no longer comparable with last year's figures.
Internet advertising Online marketers are clearing up confusing and confounding statistics: Media Focus' online gross advertising volumes are becoming more precise, but are no longer comparable with last year's figures.The online industry has long been dissatisfied with the informative value of the online gross advertising volumes surveyed by Media Focus (MF). Together with MF, the survey has now been put on a new footing - also in the sense of generic marketing.Marketers report customers
According to the available information from the online industry, a lot is changing: Since January, not only online marketers such as Adlink, Publimedia Webadvertising or Active Agent have been declaring their volumes, but also large website operators who acquire online advertising themselves (for example NZZ-Online, AZ-Online and others). Secondly, the marketers report which websites they market exclusively and which customers have invested how much on the same. Self-marketers report their customers as well.
Previously, budget duplications were relatively common, because often agents and exclusive marketers each declared the same amounts. The third change: budgets must be broken down to the individual months of their duration. Previously, it happened that entire annual budgets were reported in a single month. Fourth, it is now regulated that gross values should be reported before deducting discounts, freespace and special conditions. Previously, some also reported net values.
The online advertising market is therefore likely to appear in a completely new light in the future, because breaches of the rules will become rarer as they become more obvious. The effects on the total volume are unclear: Will it tend to fall without budget double entries, or will consistent gross values and the inclusion of self-marketers tend to push it up?
Swisscom is a new addition
Probably the latter. Because Swisscom Directories is also one of the own marketers, which now includes the huge volumes of WeisseSeiten.ch and GelbeSeiten.ch in the statistics. Swisscom did not want to quantify their size, but since the advertising there is acquired by PubliDirect, a joint venture of Swisscom and PubliGroupe, at least approximate figures became known about PubliGroupe (WW 31/02). According to these figures, PubliDirect sold about as much online advertising last year as the total online advertising volume in Switzerland was estimated to be in 2002 - i.e. a gross figure of CHF 18 to 25 million.
"Limited comparability"
One thing is clear: the gross figures for online advertising have been completely recompiled with immediate effect. MF Managing Director Lukas Zihlmann confirms that they are only "comparable to a limited extent" with the previous year's figures. In terms of volume, however, there will be "no big boost," he says. Overall, the figures will be more stable.
Zihlmann, on the other hand, makes it clear that some of the company's own marketers have already been involved. In the future, however, the aim is to get all the big players on board. The definition of gross values, on the other hand, is by no means new; it has long been the same for all media. "With the young medium of the Internet, however, we have accepted uncertainties because they were not significant for the overall advertising market," he says. But MF has always declared this.
Media Focus' new survey method sheds more light on the jungle of online marketers' measurement figures.
Market shares of online marketersBased on last year's online gross advertising volume of a good CHF 16 million, the three major marketers estimate themselves and their competitors as follows: Adlink and Publimedia Webadvertising (PWA) agree on a 40 percent market share each, Active Agent (AA) gets 10 percent from both - and the rest is distributed among various providers. The view at AA is somewhat different: Adlink is the market leader, PWA is number two, AA comes in third with 25 percent, and 15 to 20 percent remain for various marketers, they say. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli
According to the available information from the online industry, a lot is changing: Since January, not only online marketers such as Adlink, Publimedia Webadvertising or Active Agent have been declaring their volumes, but also large website operators who acquire online advertising themselves (for example NZZ-Online, AZ-Online and others). Secondly, the marketers report which websites they market exclusively and which customers have invested how much on the same. Self-marketers report their customers as well.
Previously, budget duplications were relatively common, because often agents and exclusive marketers each declared the same amounts. The third change: budgets must be broken down to the individual months of their duration. Previously, it happened that entire annual budgets were reported in a single month. Fourth, it is now regulated that gross values should be reported before deducting discounts, freespace and special conditions. Previously, some also reported net values.
The online advertising market is therefore likely to appear in a completely new light in the future, because breaches of the rules will become rarer as they become more obvious. The effects on the total volume are unclear: Will it tend to fall without budget double entries, or will consistent gross values and the inclusion of self-marketers tend to push it up?
Swisscom is a new addition
Probably the latter. Because Swisscom Directories is also one of the own marketers, which now includes the huge volumes of WeisseSeiten.ch and GelbeSeiten.ch in the statistics. Swisscom did not want to quantify their size, but since the advertising there is acquired by PubliDirect, a joint venture of Swisscom and PubliGroupe, at least approximate figures became known about PubliGroupe (WW 31/02). According to these figures, PubliDirect sold about as much online advertising last year as the total online advertising volume in Switzerland was estimated to be in 2002 - i.e. a gross figure of CHF 18 to 25 million.
"Limited comparability"
One thing is clear: the gross figures for online advertising have been completely recompiled with immediate effect. MF Managing Director Lukas Zihlmann confirms that they are only "comparable to a limited extent" with the previous year's figures. In terms of volume, however, there will be "no big boost," he says. Overall, the figures will be more stable.
Zihlmann, on the other hand, makes it clear that some of the company's own marketers have already been involved. In the future, however, the aim is to get all the big players on board. The definition of gross values, on the other hand, is by no means new; it has long been the same for all media. "With the young medium of the Internet, however, we have accepted uncertainties because they were not significant for the overall advertising market," he says. But MF has always declared this.
Media Focus' new survey method sheds more light on the jungle of online marketers' measurement figures.
Market shares of online marketersBased on last year's online gross advertising volume of a good CHF 16 million, the three major marketers estimate themselves and their competitors as follows: Adlink and Publimedia Webadvertising (PWA) agree on a 40 percent market share each, Active Agent (AA) gets 10 percent from both - and the rest is distributed among various providers. The view at AA is somewhat different: Adlink is the market leader, PWA is number two, AA comes in third with 25 percent, and 15 to 20 percent remain for various marketers, they say. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli
