FAQs

1. Where did the idea for UKOM APS come from?
2. Where does UKOM APS fit into planning?
3. How is UKOM APS better than tools that the online industry already has?
4. Why were Nielsen chosen as the supplier for UKOM APS?
5. Who is responsible for making sure UKOM APS and Nielsen act in the interests of all parties?
6. What's it going to cost, and are there any extras?
7. Where do I access UKOM APS data?
8. Why is UKOM APS better for planning when site stats give me a bigger audience?
9. What data and updates are planned, and when?

Advertisers have been asking for consumer centric online planning data for ten years. Their advertising campaigns rely on the ability to identify media vehicles which will deliver their reach and frequency objectives efficiently across a whole medium, using measures that are comparable across multiple media. Without this data, advertisers have not been able to assess how Online fits effectively into multi-media brand advertising campaigns. As a single, industry-agreed system, UKOM APS creates clarity and consensus on planning across the internet.

Advertisers and their agencies use official audience data (such as BRAB for TV, NRS for press etc) as a foundation to plan campaigns across all media. The reach and frequency metrics produced enable them to understand the weight of advertising a medium can deliver, how this equates to other candidate media, and importantly how this translates into results measured by total sales or brand tracking. This data comes from high-quality research that accurately reflects the UK population and its demographic composition. UKOM APS now provides directly comparable data for online brand advertising planning.

As with all other media, additional industry or proprietary tools exist to enhance the planning process, building on the essential basics of the agreed planning currency.

Later in 2010, UKOM APS data will be fused to the IPA's TouchPoints 3 media-neutral planning tool, enabling audience planning across all major media for the first time.

UKOM APS has the level of quality, robustness, detail and transparency that advertisers require from data used for planning any medium. Considerable investment has been made to convert Nielsen's NetView system into the new UKOM APS. In particular, UKOM APS's online and offline population figures are established using a questionnaire administered face-to-face among a truly representative sample of the population, as part of the National Readership Survey. This and other work carried out to establish and regularly validate internet users' demographics, means that advertisers can now plan to reach specific target audiences with confidence.

Nielsen stood out among the four candidate suppliers for three reasons. First, Nielsen were prepared to adapt their existing NetView system to fit the industry's requirements, not force the industry to compromise on essentials such as sample quality, nationally representative weighting, and demographic audience definitions. Second, their approach uses a pure panel: this creates the level of transparency currently required to achieve client confidence. And third, they showed clear commitment to the industry, evolving UKOM APS as the industry's needs develop.

Nielsen's product and customer service are the subject of a detailed Service Level Agreement with both customers and the governing body, the UK Online Measurement Company Ltd. This agreement ensures that the whole industry can steer UKOM as a product, including maintaining research standards, development, technical support and customer service.

UKOM has a public ratecard, so subscribers can see they are playing a fair price which represents the size if their online business. As a proportion of the online display market it serves, UKOM is half as expensive as BARB.

The basic subscription includes monthly UKOM APS data, and the advertising planning interface for reach and frequency analysis and campaign optimisation. UKOM data will also be available to subscribers through bureau software (e.g. Telmar, IMS, Choices), but you need to make arrangements with your chosen bureau to access the data in this way.

Please get in touch with the team at Nielsen to find out more.

UKOM APS data comes packaged with an online ad planning tool. This is where the latest data is available, 10 days after the end of the month. Thereafter, data will also be available through your multi-media planning software bureau (e.g. Telmar, IMS, Choices), if you have arranged this with the relevant bureau.

First, UKOM APS data has advertiser approval, so a plan based on UKOM APS data will inevitably gain more client buy-in than one based on less validated sources. Site-centric data cannot tell a client how advertising on one site compares to others, or indeed to other media in terms of audience reach and frequency. It is also liable to significantly over-count individual users, and advertisers want clarity on how many people they can actually reach.

Second, media owners' revenue depends more on their share of audience than their absolute audience numbers. Other media, notably Radio and Outdoor, have been through the same process of approving a new currency and  have seen overall advertising activity rise across the whole sector.

Third, sites will be able to market their inventory more effectively to advertisers using newly available audience profiles, like socio-economics, that match the audiences they want to reach.

Where UKOM APS must lead other industry planning currencies is in its ability to adapt to the changing media landscape. UKOM's brief is dynamic - new uses and data will be added in response to industry needs, but using the robust methodology that advertisers demand, not expeditious patches.

In May this year, a new campaign planning tool is to be launched, together with first Ad Network data and data files for clients' bespoke analysis systems. Before the end of 2010, UKOM APS plans to see the addition of Video data, more detailed site classifications and fusion to the IPA TouchPoints 3 integrated planning database.