Clean online data at last
Internet Media Focus promises that figures on online advertising volume are now more reliable.
Internet From now on, the figures on online advertising volumes are more reliable, promises Media Focus. 19.58 million Swiss francs were generated by the online sector in 2003 as a whole, compared with 16.39 million Swiss francs in 2002. This is according to Media Focus (MF) in its year-round industry overview. However, as with last year's monthly publications, MF again notes that the online figures cannot be compared with those of 2002. The relative increase of 19.5 percent in 2003 is therefore not accurate. The reason: at the beginning of last year, MF, in consultation with the Internet industry, completely revamped the survey of online volumes: Quantitative and methodological changes were made, as a result of which "gross billed" data should now be available.
This data had been awaited with a certain amount of excitement, as it was unclear until the end what effect the new survey method would have. Since January 2003, in addition to the volumes of the online marketers Adlink, Publimedia Webadvertising and Active Agent, those large and small website operators who acquire online advertising themselves have increasingly been included. The aim is to represent the online volume as completely as possible.
A second change: marketers report which advertising media they market exclusively and which customers have invested what gross amount there. Self-marketers also report their customers. This means that budget duplications, which were previously relatively common, can be avoided.
Thirdly, the budgets must be broken down into the individual months of their term. Previously, entire annual budgets were reported in a single month. Fourthly, it has been stipulated that gross values should be reported before deduction of discounts, freespace and special conditions. Previously, some also reported net values.
However, a great deal of persuasion was required throughout 2003 to make all this possible. This can also be seen in the last twelve MF monthly publications. If you compare, for example, the MF publication on online volume from the first half of 2003 with that of October 2003 and also with the current annual review, the monthly figures for no other medium vary as much as those for the Internet. The February volume, for example, which was still quoted at CHF 499,000 in the middle of the year, was CHF 2.3 million in October, but has now been corrected downwards by around 50 percent to just over CHF 1 million in the annual financial statements.
According to MF Managing Director Jens Windel, there are two reasons for this: On the one hand, important self-marketers such as Bluewin.ch, Search.
ch and PubliDirect. These published their volumes retroactively from January 2003, which is why monthly volumes were continuously corrected upwards. However, there were still errors in the first declarations of the "newcomers", which were later corrected - as was the case in February 2003.
Clean foundation laid
While the online data in the monthly publications could not be relied upon completely, this should now be different for the annual review. Everything has been thoroughly checked, says Windel and adds: "With the data for the whole of 2003, we have created a clean basis for future comparisons with the previous year. The figures for January 2004, which will be published in about 14 days' time, will therefore be comparable with those for January 2003." In terms of the recording method, there is also reliable comparability with the volumes of other media categories.
At the end of this week, MF, marketers and self-marketers will sit together once again to make a joint comment on the 2003 online figures. In a survey conducted by Werbewoche among marketers and major in-house marketers, most of them believe that the MF annual review reflects the online reality more reliably than before. The only question mark is the comparability with other media types.
Market shares: Teletext brings up the rear The medium of cinema apparently did not feel any recession in 2003: gross advertising expenditure rose by 13.65% to CHF 41.7 million. Newspapers (-6.55 percent), specialist magazines (-5.5 percent) and posters (-5.25 percent) suffered the most. There were hardly any losses for magazines and teletext (-0.2 percent each). TV and radio, on the other hand, increased by 5.2% and 3.1% respectively. The total advertising volume fell by 2.5%.
In terms of market share, there has been a shift in position: teletext has been narrowly overtaken by online and now brings up the rear of all media. Although newspapers remain in first place, they have lost more than one percentage point and are approaching the 40 percent mark. Television has benefited from this, increasing its market share from 17% to 18.4%. The other market shares have hardly changed. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli
This data had been awaited with a certain amount of excitement, as it was unclear until the end what effect the new survey method would have. Since January 2003, in addition to the volumes of the online marketers Adlink, Publimedia Webadvertising and Active Agent, those large and small website operators who acquire online advertising themselves have increasingly been included. The aim is to represent the online volume as completely as possible.
A second change: marketers report which advertising media they market exclusively and which customers have invested what gross amount there. Self-marketers also report their customers. This means that budget duplications, which were previously relatively common, can be avoided.
Thirdly, the budgets must be broken down into the individual months of their term. Previously, entire annual budgets were reported in a single month. Fourthly, it has been stipulated that gross values should be reported before deduction of discounts, freespace and special conditions. Previously, some also reported net values.
However, a great deal of persuasion was required throughout 2003 to make all this possible. This can also be seen in the last twelve MF monthly publications. If you compare, for example, the MF publication on online volume from the first half of 2003 with that of October 2003 and also with the current annual review, the monthly figures for no other medium vary as much as those for the Internet. The February volume, for example, which was still quoted at CHF 499,000 in the middle of the year, was CHF 2.3 million in October, but has now been corrected downwards by around 50 percent to just over CHF 1 million in the annual financial statements.
According to MF Managing Director Jens Windel, there are two reasons for this: On the one hand, important self-marketers such as Bluewin.ch, Search.
ch and PubliDirect. These published their volumes retroactively from January 2003, which is why monthly volumes were continuously corrected upwards. However, there were still errors in the first declarations of the "newcomers", which were later corrected - as was the case in February 2003.
Clean foundation laid
While the online data in the monthly publications could not be relied upon completely, this should now be different for the annual review. Everything has been thoroughly checked, says Windel and adds: "With the data for the whole of 2003, we have created a clean basis for future comparisons with the previous year. The figures for January 2004, which will be published in about 14 days' time, will therefore be comparable with those for January 2003." In terms of the recording method, there is also reliable comparability with the volumes of other media categories.
At the end of this week, MF, marketers and self-marketers will sit together once again to make a joint comment on the 2003 online figures. In a survey conducted by Werbewoche among marketers and major in-house marketers, most of them believe that the MF annual review reflects the online reality more reliably than before. The only question mark is the comparability with other media types.
Market shares: Teletext brings up the rear The medium of cinema apparently did not feel any recession in 2003: gross advertising expenditure rose by 13.65% to CHF 41.7 million. Newspapers (-6.55 percent), specialist magazines (-5.5 percent) and posters (-5.25 percent) suffered the most. There were hardly any losses for magazines and teletext (-0.2 percent each). TV and radio, on the other hand, increased by 5.2% and 3.1% respectively. The total advertising volume fell by 2.5%.
In terms of market share, there has been a shift in position: teletext has been narrowly overtaken by online and now brings up the rear of all media. Although newspapers remain in first place, they have lost more than one percentage point and are approaching the 40 percent mark. Television has benefited from this, increasing its market share from 17% to 18.4%. The other market shares have hardly changed. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli
