Plan using the right digital figures
In South Africa most local publishers are members of the IAB SA (Interactive Advertising Bureau http://iabsa.net/) All IAB SA publishers are measured using a single measurement provider called Effective Measure (http://effectivemeasure.com/) This means that they are all on a level playing field. Figures from one website are public and directly comparable to another website, which brings welcome consistency to an often fragmented digital landscape. Publishers often use multiple measurement providers and get many different metrics out of them. Even when metrics share a name, the underlying collection techniques and calculations are very different. In the worst cases the way a publisher implements their measurement can over- or understate their figures. With all this complexity, a uniform, an audited standard is crucial. If you only purchase advertising that has been verified by the ABC then it would be prudent to base your digital decisions based on the IAB SA and Effective Measure's figures.
Plan using the biggest media research panel in South Africa
Across all the IAB SA publishers, questions are asked to the general public at random. These create rich demographic profiles that help publishers understand their audiences and help marketers plan their campaigns. Currently, there are over 300,000 active profiles visiting IAB SA publisher sites each month. This is more than ten times the size of AMPS, with two-thirds of the user profiles using mobile devices. The full demographic pool is representative of the South African internet audience and hence an extremely powerful resource. Since there are so many of these demographic profiles, even smaller sites end up having enough data to provide stable results. In fact, websites with approximately 100,000 people visiting on a monthly basis usually have around one thousand respondents. That translates to a 3% margin of error, which is the research industry benchmark. This means you can get incredibly accurate planning data even on niche websites. If you need to know where your target audience is, which websites they like, and how regularly they go there, then this constantly evolving research has it all.
Plan using the right tools
When planning a campaign, there are a number of tools that you can use. The IAB SA, Effective Measure, and Telmar all worked together to convert complex digital metrics back to actual humans. If you want to plan using good old reach and frequency based on humans in the digital space, then Telmar has it. These figures also tie back to AMPS and will in future also tie back to the establishment survey. The benefit is that they are using the right data based on the largest research panel in a tool that is familiar in the market. The IAB SA and Effective Measure data are also going to be pushed into a number of other tools in the near future as well.
There is also huge potential for multi-basing this data so that traditional channels can be compared to digital within the same plan.
In conclusion
While digital can be complicated, you have the power to make it simpler. The IAB SA are pushing to make digital as easy to plan as traditional channels. A number of excellent resources are already available and if anything is confusing, the team is available to help.
Get in contact with the IAB SA here: ten.asbai@ofni
