'Real Opinions’ is a full service market research consultancy with offices in Dubai and beyond.
20th July 2009, Dubai, UAE
The age of mobile convenience is upon us. Similar to the growth experienced with the Internet, the mobile Internet in the Middle East is set to dramatically escalate with new devices and applications to feed the demand of the ‘right here, right now’ generation of Internet users.
Research conducted by the Dubai based market research company Real Opinions shows that for business people online in the Middle East, usage of mobile phones to regularly access the Internet is expected to exceed 50% in the first quarter of 2010. This represents an increase of 20% since the same time in 2008. This is in stark contrast to the fixed desktop computer which is expected to decrease by 20%. The usage of laptop computers is expected to remain relatively constant with 3 in 4 regularly using them to access the Internet.
These trends are also happening globally where a recent New Media Age article in the UK reported that the number of British mobile Internet users increased from 2.8 million in May 2008 to 4.3 million in May 2009.
Dan Healy, CEO of Real Opinions who conducted the research in the Middle East, added “The initial growth of the Internet first happened with mainly those under 35 year old and business people. Today, we are seeing similar trends with those using mobile Internet devices where these early adopters of new technology are leading the way for others to follow. The sheer convenience of the mobile Internet is expected to power uptake with instant access to emails and social networking websites being particularly popular. Twitter is a great example of fusing the Internet with mobile devices and we expect more sophisticated application to be developed like this as attention turns to mobile.”
Research from Real Opinions also shows that for business people online in the Middle East, although 89% of respondents claim to have looked for official information about products, 81% claim they are likely to also look for unofficial information about products in the form of personal recommendations and reviews.
Healy added, “Access to price comparison and product information websites while shopping using mobile Internet devices is expected to present both challenges and new opportunities for businesses in the region. And its not just about passively reading comments of others – its also expected to become a very participatory experience online with 78% claiming they are likely to enter their own comments in an online discussion about products.”
Healy further commented on these findings, “These evolving mobile Internet trends are also having an impact on our own market research industry where the challenge is to develop new techniques to capture these new trends to help strategically guide businesses decision makers.”
Real Opinions has responded by launching the Middle East’s first website audience measurement tool Effective Measure which profiles the actual Internet usage (analytics), demographics and lifestyle of visitors to websites. In this context, it also importantly records the percentage visiting using mobile Internet devices. Healy said, “This will allow website publishers to monitor the growth of mobile devices used to visit their website and help them assess if they’re including accessible content for them.”
To capture the ‘right here, right now’ generation of mobile Internet users, Real Opinions has also launched their mobile survey product which allows people to answer questions using their mobile phone. Respondents can answer either after receiving an invitation text/SMS or invite themselves after sending a keyword text/SMS to a number (i.e. a push or pull approach). They will then automatically receive a series of questions as they respond to each. Healy added, “This is ideal for clients who want instant feedback when respondents are at a particular location or moment in time and access to these real-time results. This is particularly useful for events, sponsorship feedback, media consumption and mystery shopping where having these results will allow them to fully assess a situation at that crucial moment of truth. It’s an extra tool we can use to provide clients with a multimodal research approach to suit their requirements.”
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is bringing the 'Effective Measure' solution to the Middle East and beyond. Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and this study, please visit www.real-opinions.com
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
Read more!
Mobile Internet expected to overtake desktop computers for business users
Young, tertiary educated men in senior roles online in the Middle East
30th June 2009, Dubai, UAE
Over 555 million page impressions have been measured in the Middle East during June alone by Effective Measure, the region's leading digital media planning and measurement solution.
Scott Julian, CEO of Effective Measure, said this represents approximately nine million unique internet browsers and 32 million user sessions.
'The sheer scale of measurement that Effective Measure are now undertaking in the Middle East makes it the most comprehensive and accurate tool for assessing internet users in the region,'said Mr Julian.
Effective Measure uses this information in conjunction with opt-in survey data to understand the demographics, behaviour, lifestyle, purchasing habits, motivations and influence of browsers.
This allows a precise understanding of how user patterns and the profile of these users changes throughout the seasons, particularly during summer holidays and Ramadan.
It also ensures the results are representative and statistically reliable with over 30,000 participating in the survey to date, with growth expected to remain at over 10,000 each month.
Dan Healy, CEO of Real Opinions, Effective Measure's Middle East agent and developer of the survey, said they had trained more than fifty internet media buyers in using the newly available data.
'We work with the buyers to help them to ensure their Internet advertising is efficiently used to focus on what websites their target audience are visiting, when they are there and how they behave when they arrive,' said Mr Healy.
'Effective Measure has been positioned to allow all websites to participate and is allows all media buyers to assess the uniqueness of visitors, no matter how big or small they are. Advertisers want to focus on who is visiting websites and to gain an accurate understanding of the number of people they are reaching - this has not being entirely possible before,' he added.
The surveys used by Effective Measure, also improve the experience for visitors by helping the site to improve by understanding their users' experience.
This is measured in terms of their likelihood to return based very much on their ability to achieve their objective for visiting the site. Analysing this data over time allows websites to see the impact their website modifications are having from an end user perspective and how to improve.
Results collected so far show that the average length of time on websites ranges from 20 seconds to two minutes. This has a dramatic impact for those advertising on websites seeking to maximise the length of time their advertisement is exposed to visitors.
'At the end of the day, media buyers are being held accountable with what they've been able to achieve with their expenditure and Effective Measure increases the transparency and impact advertising is having,' said Mr Healy.
According to Mr Healy, Effective Measure's single most important feature is Digital Helix which solves the issue of over calculation of unique website visitors caused by visitors deleting cookies.
'Don't let others pretend that this isn't an issue. The global industry has been looking at this for many years as over-calculation of visitors has increased and it can be particularly acute for website with frequently returning visitors. We are in the process of discussing this with international industry organisations such as the Association of Online Publishers (AOP), International Conference on Online Measurement (I-COM) and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABCe),' said Mr Healy.
ABCe recently awarded Effective Measure One Star Accreditation, giving it international recognition as an Associate Subscriber.
Source: AME Info 30th June 2009
www.ameinfo.com
To register your website for the trial, visit:
http://register.effectivemeasure.com
About Effective Measure
Effective Measure provides cutting edge digital audience measurement, website rankings, Internet demographics and market intelligence for website publishers, agencies and digital marketers.
Effective Measure’s patent-pending Digital Helix methodology overcomes problems with cookie deletion and unique visitor audience calculation. The solution increases visitation, client visibility and advertising revenue by providing independent third-party analytics to publishers and advertisers around the world.
Effective Measure is an associate subscriber of ABC Electronic.
For more information visit www.effectivemeasure.com
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is bringing the 'Effective Measure' solution to the Middle East and beyond. Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and this study, please visit www.real-opinions.com
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
Read more!
Real Opinions Sets Up London Base
9th June 2009, Dubai
Dubai-based Real Opinions has opened an office in central London, which will be run by founder and CEO Dan Healy.
Real Opinions and Australian digital audience measurement company Effective Measure recently launched their audience measurement tool (also called Effective Measure) in the Middle East, and Healy now plans to introduce the system to UK clients.
The solution, which uses technology to overcome issues with cookie deletion and unique visitor audience calculation, claims to be significantly more cost effective than current market research tools, as well as highly accurate. It also contains advanced reporting features which can be analysed by market and category specific search engine keywords and phrases.
Healy, who will be based in Real Opinion’s St John Street office three weeks every month, has more than 10 years’ international and online market research experience. He previously worked as Regional Research Director at YouGovSiraj, Research Director at Nielsen Online, and SRE Consumer/New Media at GfK NOP.
Source: MrWeb June 9 2009
www.mrweb.com
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and this study, please visit www.real-opinions.com
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
About Effective Measure
Effective Measure provides cutting edge digital audience measurement, website rankings, Internet demographics and market intelligence for website publishers, agencies and digital marketers.
Effective Measure’s patent-pending Digital Helix methodology overcomes problems with cookie deletion and unique visitor audience calculation. The solution increases visitation, client visibility and advertising revenue by providing independent third-party analytics to publishers and advertisers around the world.
Effective Measure is an associate subscriber of ABC Electronic.
For more information visit www.effectivemeasure.com
To register your website for the trial, visit:
http://register.effectivemeasure.com
Read more!
Interview: When the cookie crumbles
4th June 2009, Australia
Web measurement firm Effective Measure claims ‘new benchmark’ in online privacy.
Earlier this week, web audience measurement firm Effective Measure claimed to be setting “a new benchmark in visitor privacy” with a system that would allow consumers to permanently opt out of having their online activity tracked.
With that in mind, Research contacted Effective Measure’s chief privacy officer Roger Kermode to find out more about the company’s new solution and gauge his views on where the privacy debate is heading.
Could you start by explaining how Effective Measure produces its audience measurement data? Is it a cookie-based measure?
Effective Measure produces its audience measurement data via the use of patent-pending DigitalHelix technology. DigitalHelix incorporates a number of methods, including cookies, to track and aggregate media consumption across multiple sites, browsers, and devices. The technology is designed to cope with the deletion of cookies and in so doing provide accurate counts of the number of visitors to a site.
It also allows Effective Measure to offer an integrated survey functionality that allows anonymised and aggregated responses given by users who opt in to answer questions on one site to be shared with another site. This allows audience demographic data to be compiled and shared across the sites within a market based on what people are willing to share.
Should they decide not to participate in a survey or not answer a specific survey question that is their choice. All traffic data collected by Effective Measure is anonymised and aggregated so that it is not possible to identify individual users.
Other methods based solely on cookies suffer from a couple of problems, the most serious one being that they generate inaccurate data regarding site traffic when users delete cookies. While the number of page views is roughly accurate, the number of visitors can be significantly over-counted since deleted cookies result in new visitor IDs when a user returns.
How does your new opt-out system differ from the existing one?
Our previous opt-out system followed the industry practice of setting a cookie to enable opt-out. Our new system builds on this by leveraging the persistence afforded by DigitalHelix to ensure that any potential tracking data from a visitor that has been opted out is discarded and not included in the measurement stats.
Opt-out methods based solely on third-party cookies create a potential privacy issue. A user who deletes cookies after visiting a site, and then visits a site again, will have a new cookie created and be tracked again under the new identifier. This creates a problem for both users and for advertisers, since the user isn't opted out on a permanent basis, and the traffic numbers generated by the cookie-only verification service include duplicated user data.
What was the catalyst for introducing such a system? Was it a response to the outcry there has been around ISP-based behavioural monitoring and ad targeting?
Effective Measure doesn’t participate in behavioural ad targeting in any form, we simply measure the size of website audiences, and provide opt-in site demographics. We decided that it was appropriate to proactively lead the discussion on user privacy in the audience measurement space.
You bill the new opt-out system as a new benchmark in visitor privacy – yet law makers, specifically in the US and Europe, seem to be pushing heavily for opt-in when it comes to behavioural tracking. Would this be workable in a research context?
Our survey function is completely opt-in by design since it allows users to answer all, none or some of the questions presented. All demographic data we collect and manage on behalf of our clients is on an opt-in only basis, the only data we collect on an opt-out basis is de-identified, website usage data.
At the highest level, privacy is something for which users will make personal decisions around how much data they are willing to share. If there is a perceived benefit to be gained then a user can choose to reveal some information to gain that benefit.
We do believe that DigitalHelix sets a new benchmark in visitor privacy. As far as we're aware no other system is able to provide the combination of opt-in demographics with a permanent opt-out without compromising browser operation by permanently disabling cookies altogether.
How do you see the online privacy debate unfolding?
Online privacy has been an important issue since the early days of the internet and is an issue that constantly evolves along with the application of new technologies. We feel that consumers are becoming more and more aware of how their personal data could be used, and are becoming savvier about how they can prevent identifiable data being misused.
We see the debate moving towards responsible self-regulation by industry groups like the Network Advertisers Initiative. In an industry where technology moves quickly, we feel that these kinds of industry-led initiatives, along with proactive user privacy policies, such as persistent opt-outs from responsible companies, are the most effective way to ensure user data is not misused.
Source: Research June 4 2009
www.research-live.com
To register your website for the trial, visit:
http://register.effectivemeasure.com
About Effective Measure
Effective Measure provides cutting edge digital audience measurement, website rankings, Internet demographics and market intelligence for website publishers, agencies and digital marketers.
Effective Measure’s patent-pending Digital Helix methodology overcomes problems with cookie deletion and unique visitor audience calculation. The solution increases visitation, client visibility and advertising revenue by providing independent third-party analytics to publishers and advertisers around the world.
Effective Measure is an associate subscriber of ABC Electronic.
For more information visit www.effectivemeasure.com
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is bringing the 'Effective Measure' solution to the Middle East and beyond. Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and this study, please visit www.real-opinions.com
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
Read more!
‘New Benchmark’ for Online Privacy
2nd June 2009, Dubai
In Australia, digital audience measurement firm Effective Measure has announced plans to roll out a new visitor opt-out mechanism, which it says promises a ‘new benchmark’ in visitor privacy.
The initiative will comply with EU and US privacy principles, while enabling the millions of anonymous users the firm measures to permanently opt out of its research.
Effective Measure uses its patent-pending Digital Helix system to solve the issue of over-calculation of unique web site visitors caused by visitors deleting their cookies. A recent survey conducted by the firm showed that more than 60% of users delete these cookies at least monthly, leading some web sites to significantly overestimate their unique visitor figures.
‘One of the real challenges with current online audience measurement opt-out mechanisms is that users who knowingly or unknowingly delete their cookies are subsequently opted back in and measured again,’ Chief Privacy Officer Dr Roger Kermode explained. ‘Effective Measure will allow anonymous users to permanently opt-out of being measured through our Digital Helix methodology.’
Scheduled for release later this month, the opt-out mechanism has been designed to enhance and extend the existing system currently available on the firm’s web site.
‘We know that our customers expect increased accuracy of online measurement information, but they also want assurances that we are focused on protecting the privacy of the anonymous users we are measuring on their behalf,’ added CEO Scott Julian.
Source: MRWEB June 2 2009
http://www.mrweb.com/drno/news10046.htm
To register your website for the trial, visit:
http://register.effectivemeasure.com
About Effective Measure
Effective Measure provides cutting edge digital audience measurement, website rankings, Internet demographics and market intelligence for website publishers, agencies and digital marketers.
Effective Measure’s patent-pending Digital Helix methodology overcomes problems with cookie deletion and unique visitor audience calculation. The solution increases visitation, client visibility and advertising revenue by providing independent third-party analytics to publishers and advertisers around the world.
Effective Measure is an associate subscriber of ABC Electronic.
For more information visit www.effectivemeasure.com
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is bringing the 'Effective Measure' solution to the Middle East and beyond. Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and this study, please visit www.real-opinions.com
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
Read more!
Internet Industry Comes Together for ‘Effective Measure’ Trial Results on 28th May.
19th May 2009, Dubai
Real Opinions, a leading Internet research agency based in Dubai and London is inviting the Middle East Internet Industry to gather at their forum on 28th of May to announce and discuss the eagerly anticipated trial results of the Effective Measure website audience measurement solution.
Over 80 websites are participating in the trial and the forum will focus on the results and analysis techniques from 3 perspectives: website publishers, Internet media buyers and Internet advertisers. This will help them to harness the full potential Effective Measure offers and to help build confidence in the Internet advertising industry with unprecedented insight and accuracy.
Dan Healy, CEO of Real Opinions added “We really do mean it when we say this is unprecedented accuracy and insight for the global industry with this breakthrough solution being showcased in the Middle East. We are profiling website visitors by not only their demographics, but a more in depth segmentation of who they are in terms of lifestyle, personality, purchase influence, whether they’re an early adopter or a leader capable of influencing the opinions of others. This information is collected non-stop throughout the year 24/7 on each participating website as we know visitor traffic can shift in a matter of minutes with viral communication on breaking news or offers. This impact is what makes the Internet so unique and influential, so we believe anything else like a quarterly or annual measurement approach just doesn’t work in this medium.”
Healy added “Effective Measure's single most important feature is 'Digital Helix'. This solves the issue of over calculation of unique website visitors (often called unique browsers for those in the industry) caused by visitors deleting their ‘cookies’ which are stored on a user's computer by a website to identify them when they return. Don’t let others pretend that this isn’t an issue, because the global industry has been looking at this on the sidelines for many years as it escalates. Our recent survey with business people in the Middle East showed that over 60% delete these ‘cookies’ on at least a monthly basis and in turn this means some websites could be overestimating their unique figures by over 60% for this target group. It also allows you to see the overlap of visitors across a number of websites so advertising isn’t targeted at the same visitors. ‘Digital Helix’ is a patent pending solution and is unique to Effective Measure.”
The forum on 28th of May will take place at ‘The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina’ opposite Dubai Internet City at 2:30pm in the Abu Dhabi Room. All those involved in the Internet and advertising industry are invited to attend.
Guest speakers include perspectives from website/publishers, advertisers and media buyers in the region which we will be announcing closer to the event.
Louis Hakim, Vice President of Royal Philip Electronic, CEO of Philips Middle East and Chairman of Advertisers Business Group (ABG) added “Credible performance measurement of media is of paramount importance. Effective Measure's methodology goes beyond numbers and provides insight and data deeper than what we've seen before in this region for online media. We welcome this initiative as we can see great benefit in demonstrating media ROI and validating digital activation."
The ABG is dedicated to bringing international standards and best practices to the local market and aims to foster a fair and accountable marketplace in the Middle East. Their members include a who’s who of leading global advertisers such as Emirates, Nestle, Unilever, Beiersdorf, Kraft and General Motors.
Steve Wheeler, SVP of Emirates Group Corporate Communications who was the keynote speaker at our forum in February this year commented “Emirates Group welcomes the initiative by Real Opinions to introduce the Effective Measure website visitor profiling tool in the Middle East. Any technology that provides more accurate estimates of visitor traffic and advances digital media in Emirates' home market should be embraced by media owners and agencies alike.”
To register your website for the trial, visit: http://register.effectivemeasure.com
About Effective Measure
Effective Measure provides cutting edge digital audience measurement, website rankings, Internet demographics and market intelligence for website publishers, agencies and digital marketers.
Effective Measure’s patent-pending Digital Helix methodology overcomes problems with cookie deletion and unique visitor audience calculation. The solution increases visitation, client visibility and advertising revenue by providing independent third-party analytics to publishers and advertisers around the world.
Effective Measure is an associate subscriber of ABC Electronic.
For more information visit www.effectivemeasure.com
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and this study, please visit www.real-opinions.com
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
Read more!
Real Opinions interviewed by mediaME about Effective Measure
1st May 2009, Dubai
1. Kindly introduce yourself and your company.
Full service market research and leading digital research company Real Opinions. We have offices in Dubai and London. We comprise of former Nielsen Online (nee Nielsen//NetRatings), TNS and GfK (nee NOP) senior executives who have an intimate knowledge of not only the Middle East but also the global digital research industry accumulated over more than 10 years. Real Opinions was established after viewing the growing impersonalised approach and inability of global organisations to keep pace with new technologies and approaches to benefit clients. What appears to be happening in the website measurement industry (and in the Middle East in particular) is that global companies are trying to squeeze as much revenue from their products which were developed years ago. With the passing of years, flaws in some of these approaches have opened up like a gaping wound and this has presented opportunity for us to take the lead not only in the Middle East but globally. We see innovation as being integral for our organisation and the industry. The Internet favours those who are quick and innovative, not big brands who aren't performing.
2. Tell us about Real Opinions latest initiative, Effective Measure. Kindly describe how it works.
Real Opinions latest initiative is called Effective Measure. It offers unprecedented accuracy in the measurement and understanding of website visitors to give Internet advertisers the confidence to advertise on websites and also help websites to understand who their visitors are to improve the user experience and loyalty. To do this, websites simply register for the free 2 month trial at and install our tag code on their website pages. We then automatically collect the actual behaviour of website visitors such as pages visited, length of time on each one and when they return to the website. We then fuse this data with an in depth survey which discretely appears at the bottom right corner of their browser as a random visitor interception of 1 in 10 visitors every day tracking throughout the year for those who have not filled in the survey before. This survey allows us to profile visitors in terms of their demographics, personality, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyle and purchase intent. Websites can also add some of their own unique questions, such as opinions on their website. All this information can be accessed and analysed in our interactive online reporting interface which allows websites to view all the data and survey results in full, while Internet media buyers and advertisers can identify their target market and see how to efficiently reach them across all the websites involved and maximise the impact of their Internet advertising budgets.
We believe Effective Measure's single most important feature is what we're calling 'Digital Helix'. This solves the issue of over calculation of unique website visitors (often called unique browsers for those in the industry) caused by visitors deleting their cookies which are small pieces of text stored on a user's computer by a web browser which contain the user's settings or other data used by websites to identify them. For example, if someone visited a website in the morning they would be recorded as 1 visitor. If their cookie was deleted at lunch time (either by themselves, anti-virus software or automatically by their browser) and visited the same website again in the afternoon, then a competing audience measurement system would calculate this person as 2 unique visitors. Our 'Digital Helix' has a global patent pending on a solution which acts as a bridge to identify this person as a returning visitor. To better understand the magnitude of this, Nielsen Online (nee Nielsen//NetRatings) reported back in 2005 about the impact this is having upon accurate calculations. We believe this issue has escalated greatly since then and to back this up a recent survey we conducted and presented at the AME Info Digital Marketing Conference 2009 with business people in the Middle East showed that over 60% delete their cookies on at least a monthly basis. This means, some websites reporting visitors on a monthly basis could be overestimating their figures by over 60% for this target group. On the plus side, these websites have a higher level of returning visitors, but for Internet advertisers this has a huge impact on the number of people seeing their Internet campaign and the impact it is having.
3. In your opinion, how critical is such information to digital media buyers in the Middle East? How have agencies responded?
Support has been tremendous. We have involved the leading Internet media buyers right from the start by hosting round table discussions and forums to help evolve Effective Measure to meet their precise requirements and to ensure it becomes an integral part of their website advertising selection process. One of the issues agencies had was the inability to consider hundreds of websites and compare them against each other accurately. Effective Measure solves this and also allows them to identify what combination of websites to select in order to increase the number of people campaigns reach and reduce the overlap of audiences across them (i.e. reaching the same people on different websites). They see Effective Measure as validating their Internet media buying plans for their advertising clients which is paramount in these economic times. At the end of the day, agencies are dedicated to helping their clients reach their objectives and rightly so. We believe the accuracy and transparency provided by Effective Measure will actually help grow the popularity of Internet advertising with advertisers and we will also be approaching advertisers to help educate them about the benefits of Internet advertising and Effective Measure. We will also be conducting training sessions with Internet media buyers to ensure they make the most of Effective Measure's features. With our innovation hats on, we are already developing a post campaign evaluation tool and we will be making further announcements in the coming months. We are encouraging all Internet media buyers to use Effective Measure by giving them access to it for free.
4. How appealing is this service to online publishers? Tell us about the levels of response and cooperation you have had so far, and the levels of awareness.
If online publishers have ever experienced the feeling of being invisible in terms of attracting Internet advertising, then Effective Measure will ensure they will be seen by automatically including them in the list of websites media buyers are evaluating for advertising. Instead of spending valuable time showing how unique and valuable their website visitors are in credentials, media buyers will be able to see this for themselves tracked every minute of the day throughout the year rather than view the traditional stagnant presentation of an audit conducted months ago. We are also working with ABC Electronic (ABCe) and have been made an associate to ensure users have complete confidence in Effective Measure from this third party.
In addition websites are able to monitor how their visitors change over time in not only actual behaviour but also who they are and their experience to help evaluate what they should continue doing more of or change. As an example, if a website is changing content, design or their marketing, then this can be tracked and correlated with results in Effective Measure for their website. Effective Measure also allows them to compare their website to others and we believe this transparency will help websites to diversify themselves and become more user centric. Overall, participating websites and the industry should benefit enormously.
5. Do you foresee any issues with online publishers who may resist this measurement initiative? Have you received any comments or concerns in this regard?
Take the scenario that a website had previously been audited for a month in a time period they know their website visitors would be high and they also focused their marketing effort to drive visitors during this time period which wasn't sustainable for the other 11 months of the year. If they then marketed these results in the marketplace then I could see there would certainly be resistance on their part to be involved with Effective Measure. Like others we have talked to in the industry, the uniqueness of the Internet isn't about how many, but who in particular is visiting your website to enable advertisers to develop target campaigns to increase their effectiveness. Effective Measure allows all websites to be involved and show how unique each one is. Advertisers and media buyers will have the final assessment on which websites to advertise on and Effective Measure is there to help with this process.
6. This is the first year you offer the Effective Measure service. What would be a reasonable target, or market coverage percentage, that you would like to achieve to become the industry standard?
To help Effective Measure to be an industry standard, we will be educating the marketplace on its unique benefits by conducting regular training and insight forums for all those involved to make the most of it. We have over 100 websites participating in the trial in the Middle East alone and we will be making some announcements in the coming weeks of the websites involved with their feedback on the trial.
7. Anything else you would like to add?
We would like to invite all interested parties to visit our website www.real-opinions.com for news on our upcoming forum in Dubai where we will be releasing the results of our trial and encourage online publishers, Internet media buyers and advertisers to interact with each other to help further the industry. For websites who would like to participate in the 2 month free trial, then they can register at
About Real Opinions
Real Opinions is a full-service market research company, specialising in online media, with global and Middle East research expertise and best practice. Based in Dubai and London, Real Opinions has proven ability to help strategically guide communication, insight and assess the effectiveness of campaigns.
Real Opinions is an accredited member of ESOMAR, an international organisation for market research. For more information about us and Effective Measure, please visit
Contact Real Opinions for more information:
inquiry@real-opinions.com
Read more!
Leading websites come together to roll out Effective Measure
Leading Australian digital audience measurement company Effective Measure and market research company Real Opinions, hosted a forum with some of the region’s leading online websites and Internet advertising exponents, including Emirates Airline, to commence the roll out of the Middle East’s first online audience measurement tool.
Real Opinions, a leading research agency based in Dubai, expects a number of leading websites to commence trials of the Effective Measure solution this month, with the Advertising and Media industry eagerly awaiting the results of which is hoped to boost confidence in the industry and to attract a larger share of advertising budgets.
Over 30 invitees attended the event representing over 100 websites, with Steve Wheeler, SVP of Emirates Group Corporate Communications, delivering the keynote speech.
"Emirates Group welcomes the initiative by Real Opinions to introduce the Effective Measure website visitor profiling tool in the Middle East. Any technology that provides more accurate estimates of visitor traffic and advances digital media in Emirates' home market should be embraced by media owners and agencies alike.” said Steve.
Dan Healy, CEO of Real Opinions added that “The Effective Measure solution promises "unprecedented accuracy in Web site visitor measurement, profiling and better understanding of the user experience. This will benefit not only those advertising online, but for websites themselves by understanding who is visiting and their feedback to help them build a better user experience and in turn loyalty – helping the whole industry."
Healy added, "Working with Effective Measure, we have addressed the impact of website visitors deleting their cookies, using our recently approved global patent pending "Digital Helix" technology to reduce the overestimation of unique visitors. This allows a more accurate calculation of Internet advertising frequency and reach – maximizing the impact of online advertising expenditure”.
Websites are invited to trial the Effective Measure solution for two months at no cost from the beginning of March 2009. Websites participating will instantly be included in the consideration set of media planners identifying their target groups on websites to advertise on.
Media planner Dimitri Metaxas, Group Director, OMD Digital added, “We in OMD are in support of solutions such as Real Opinion’s partnership with Effective Measure to create better transparency and sophistication in the market. The timing couldn’t be better as we truly believe that accountability and accuracy will be two of the biggest drivers in advertising over the next couple years. Measurement tools like this will be critical to us realizing these goals.”
To register your website for the 2 month trial, visit:
http://register.effectivemeasure.com
Read more!