JICIMS failure gives rise to new measurement body

by Andrew McCormick, Revolution UK 08-Dec-08, 19:40

LONDON - The two remaining board members of JICIMS (the Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems) have formed a new company in order to salvage plans to create an industry-wide online audience measurement, Revolution can reveal.

The new company will be called UKOM (UK Online Measurement) and will be run by the AOP (Association of Online Publishers) and the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau), after the other two shareholders of JICIMs pulled out of the scheme.

The IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and ISBA (Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) resigned as JICIMs borad members, after failing to commit the millions of pounds required to set up a Joint Industry Committee.

Since then the AOP and IAB have acted quickly to create UKOM in order to maintain momentum in their bid to create an industry-approved online planning currency.

Major advertisers such as Proctor & Gamble see common measurement standards as requisite before they commit more money to digital marketing.

JICIMS chairman Marc Cranmer is expected to continue being involved with UKOM while JICIMS general manager Peter Bowman has taken on the same role at UKOM.

Bowman said: "The possibility of agreeing a set of standards is still in rude health. It's very important that we keep the support of agencies and advertisers."

Bowman said that the inaugural JICIMS summit held in October and attended by almost 100 digital heavyweights resulted in support from all sides of the industry but prohibitive costs are thought to have led to the IPA and ISBA withdrawing support.

"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," he said.

UKOM will be run to meet the needs of advertisers, media agencies and online media owners and a tender will go out to research companies in early 2009.