Media owners will be asked to foot the bill for creating a universal online planning currency. In return for their investment they will get a say in how UKOM is run, as well as board status alongside existing members the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) and the AOP (Association of Online Publishers).
UKOM has risen from the wreckage of JICIMS (the Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems), which collapsed after the scheme proved too expensive for online media owners to fund.
The IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and ISBA (Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) - two of four board members of JICIMS have since resigned. The IAB and the AOP set up UKOM to come up with a smaller-scale version of the original plan.
Big-brand advertisers have been calling for a common currency for years but the online industry has failed to back an authoritative scheme and will now rely on UKOM to come up with a replacement.
"As well as benefiting from the increase in online ad revenue, online media owners have to be responsible for the lion's share of cost for an industry currency," says Nigel Gwilliam, head of digital at the IPA. "Cost was the main stumbling block for it not happening."
JICs (joint industry committees) have proved successful in other media. The TV industry created a common currency in BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board), while the press set up the NRS (National Readership Survey).
A plan for the digital sector to have its own version has been a victim of timing, with those involved blaming the recession for pulling the plug.
"The main problem was financing but what absolutely came through was an agreement on some kind of system of measurement, with about 90 per cent saying yes," says Peter Bowman, general manager of UKOM.
"It's regrettable that circumstances mean that we can't have a full JIC, which is a tried and tested measure with everyone on the same side," he adds. "But while there is a certain element of regret we need to strive to keep all on side."
UKOM is holding a full tender in the first quarter of this year, after which a research company will be appointed to create an online planning currency.
The newly formed company hopes the outcome will be enough to convince advertisers to commit more of their marketing budgets online.
SMART THINK!NG ONLINE CURRENCY
- Big-brand advertisers see a common online currency as an essential measure of how their ad spend performs online
- JICIMS was established to convince advertisers that their money would work for them online
- Online media owners refuse to foot the bill, blaming the poor economy
SECOND OPINION - PAUL CONSTANTINE, ZED MEDIA
JICIMS going on the back burner for the time being is a setback.
Despite widespread consensus on the need for a common currency (even if the methodology had yet to be thrashed out), the funding was always going to be a big ask, and the economic climate has provided the catalyst for the demise of JICIMS.
UKOM now has a tough task to produce a currency that will not only garner the respect of all parties but could encourage the likes of ISBA and the IPA to re-join the group while avoiding simply giving us yet another alternative.
What was clear in the JICIMS discussions is that while there is consensus on the need for an all-party agreement, there were signs that agreeing to the actual methodology would have been more challenging.
There is no question that a lack of an industry-wide planning currency is now beginning to hurt. While the KPIs (key performance indicators) were direct response-based no one really noticed. But with some big-brand budgets now on the brink of being invested online, the challenge is in providing robust enough planning metrics to convince a marketer to switch monies from the tried and tested (albeit this usually means 'we've always done it' rather than it's actually effective). Then we can start to relate these metrics to an effect other than click-through rates.
Paul Constantine, joint managing director, Zed Media
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