Online measuring deal moves closer

Effective Measure and Nielsen release a list of their new clients, ratcheting up the battle to become the Middle East's dominant online audience measurement service.

The battle between Effective Measure and Nielsen to become the dominant online audience measurement service in the Middle East has increased, with both companies releasing a list of their new clients yesterday. Advertisers are planning a meeting within the next month to try to arrive at a collective endorsement of one of the two systems, which should settle the fight that began when Nielsen entered the Middle East online measurement fray in February.

Scott Julian, the chief executive of Effective Measure, said: "It's been a fairly long task, because it's a new way of doing things for the region. It's been a very cautious approach [for media] to come out and saying who is supporting who, because they want to know which system is going to be chosen by the advertisers." The latest organisation to announce that it has formed a commercial agreement with Effective Measure, the Australian measurement company that has formed a partnership with the Dubai-based market research company Real Opinions, is Netlog, a social network that claims more than 3 million users in the region.

Timothy Bataille, the MENA business development manager at Netlog, said: "Online is a very fast-moving medium and the only way for planners and advertisers to keep an accurate account of where their target audience hangs out on the net today is by having a competent measurement system." Netlog joins ITP, Albawaba, 7Days and several smaller media companies on Effective Measure's client list, along with about 70 other media companies that are participating in the company's trial, according to Mr Julian.

Nielsen also claims 7Days and ITP, as well as an array of media products under the Egyptian-based Sarmady media platform; Mangam; Propertyfinder; Waffar; Youm 7; Orange Telecommunications; and the biggest internet player in the Middle East, Maktoob. Tahir Khalil, the associate director of consumer research at Nielsen's operation in MENA and Pakistan, said: "Now that Maktoob has joined we will also be welcoming Yahoo into the system, resulting in a measurement system that covers the vast majority of internet traffic here in the MENA region."

Nielsen is also working on a trial basis for 15 other media properties in the region, including large regional portals, leading news publications and online magazines, Mr Khalil said."Currently our system is measuring over 500 million page impressions and over 100 million internet sessions per month across the MENA region on a monthly basis," he said. The lack of transparent, audited traffic numbers for websites has been a common complaint among online advertisers and digital media professionals in the region.

But those same professionals have expressed concerns about the online advertising market splintering into opposing systems of measurement. Having too many auditing companies is nearly as problematic as not having enough, since advertisers need to agree on a single, trusted system in order to do their media planning and buying. To solve that problem, Dimitri Metaxas, the regional executive director of digital at the ad agency Omnicom, is trying to convene a forum to reach a consensus.

"I am hoping to pull the agencies together by the end of September or beginning of October to meet to arrive at a collective endorsement of one system or another for the industry," Mr Metaxas said. [e-mail]