In a shift towards total brand metrics and away from single channel measurement, BPA Worldwide announced today that, in cooperation with Nielsen Online, BPA will bundle enhanced website traffic measurement with all print and event audits without increasing existing dues and fees.

BPA members around the world will now have near real time online reporting of audited web activity included with circulation audit of print products and attendance at exhibitions or events.

BPA members will now be able to access website traffic information—including page impressions, unique browsers, users sessions, unique browser frequency, user session duration, page duration and an executive summary of the above—on an unlimited basis to retrieve nearly-real time data, 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week. The ability to select by market sector, country of origin of traffic, or specific site also exists. Members can print or download website traffic information based on daily, weekly, monthly or historical reports, or forward the traffic data directly to sales staff or prospective advertisers. Although BPA will not produce individual reports for the online data, top-line web data can be integrated with a brand's BPA circulation or attendance data. BPA will also work with Nielsen to collect qualitative survey data from website users for more robust measurement and demographics by site and market sector.

Margie Gilbride, Marketing Communications Manager, Beiersdorf Middle East, who chairs BPA Worldwide's Middle East Advisory Board, welcomed the announcement: "This is a great initiative in providing significant added value to BPA members at no additional cost. It means media owners will be able to access near real time information on their web traffic, which in turn will help them realise the potential of their sites. Moreover, for many advertisers, who have never been completely sure of the veracity of web traffic data, this new breadth of information is sure to make online an even more viable advertising channel for advertisers."

According to Glenn Hansen, BPA president and CEO, the global media auditing organization has been eager to create this added-value bundle for its members. "Last year we made the decision to manage revenue and expenses of our not-for-profit organization to enable BPA to offer more services for the same existing rate," he said.

"Cost containment measures and pricing management enable BPA to return value to its members by including 24/7 web measurement for every member with no change in dues or fees," Hansen continued. "We saw the opportunity to give back to our members a truly value-added package to measure their entire brand. This 'integrated pricing, integrated media' approach is vital to BPA's mission to lead the world in media auditing. And that mission only becomes truly validated when we can say 'whatever the channel'."

The new tag-enabled census tool, powered by Nielsen's SiteCensus service, will be launched in beta test to BPA members already participating in BPA's log file-based interactive audits, as well as those members with print audits who have volunteered to participate in the test. The beta test is scheduled to run September through December with full roll-out to BPA's membership in January 2009.

"Nielsen Online and BPA Worldwide share a common goal of driving transparency and accountability within the online advertising industry, and we are delighted to be working together to support this important initiative," said Manish Bhatia, president, U.S. sales and global services, Nielsen Online. "By bundling SiteCensus' comprehensive and independent data and insights within its audit services, now delivering both on- and offline brand measurement, the BPA will increase value for its members and, ultimately, advertisers."

"BPA chose to work with Nielsen", Hansen explained, "because like BPA, Nielsen is a globally recognized brand in the media industry. It has cutting edge, patented web measurement and reporting systems in place, and an installed base of media buyer users".

The "BPA powered by Nielsen Online" solution offers website traffic metrics providing an industry standard that gives advertisers and media buyers an apples-to-apples comparison when making their marketing decisions. "There are a number of web measurement tools available to media owners," Hansen said. "This new solution will create a level playing field with a single set of standards—provided on a constant basis—performed by one analytics tool—that advertisers and agencies can trust as accurate. A single, standard web measuring system across BPA membership eliminates any guesswork on why data is different amongst competitive sites.

According to Hansen, BPA made the move from its previous log file-based interactive audit to page-tagging because the latter gets data to market much faster and at significant savings. As of January 2009, BPA will no longer offer log file audits to its members.

As part of its agreement with Nielsen Online, BPA will conduct a System Certification on Nielsen's SiteCensus tool on an annual basis to ensure it is properly collecting and reporting web traffic data. BPA will also continually audit each website to ensure correct tag placement and number of tags per page, as well as accurate filtering of spiders, robots and internal users from traffic counts.

Market demand for media owners in the United Arab Emirates to have their titles independently audited has "passed the point of no return" according to a case study of the CASTOR initiative, the region's Circulation Audit Steering Organisation, published this week.

The document, entitled "GOOD FIGURES DON'T NEED PADDING, How The UAE Successfully Tackled Resistance To Circulation Auditing" reports that "it is now only a matter of time before it [circulation auditing] achieves critical mass and the last bastions of resistance will have little option but to accede to market forces." The document is being presented at the International Advertising Association at this week's IAA World Congress in Washington DC.

The Study aims to assist other IAA chapters seeking to introduce independent media measurement in their own markets with a blueprint that they can follow. This has involved a range of initiatives from CASTOR threatening to cut back advertising spend in unaudited titles to it communicating the benefits of independent auditing through a series of meetings in the main Middle East publishing centres to reach out to affected parties and enlist their support. CASTOR has found, though, that a desire to be seen as subscribing to internationally-recognised standards in equally prevalent. In addition, BPA Worldwide is supporting the process with an ongoing outreach programme involving training and education for publishers, advertisers, media buyers and planners on the value of audited data as a business tool and as effective information in the planning of marketing and advertising strategies.

CASTOR represents 30 of the Gulf region's biggest advertising spenders and was assigned to promote the widespread adoption of circulation auditing as part of a drive by the International Advertising Association's Dubai Chapter and the Advertisers' Business Group for the GCC to raise standards and professional ethics in the industry. BPA Worldwide, the global auditor of media, is the only specialist organisation to obtain approval from CASTOR to conduct audits in the region. It currently has more than 80 Middle East titles in membership, including newspapers, business and consumer magazines and an internet portal, compared with just 20 in April 2006, and an increasing number of Arabic titles.

In the document, CASTOR stresses that "the more titles are audited, the more advertisers would be confident of investing in print media, giving a clearer picture if the overall health of the sector."

"Our experience in the UAE confirms what we have seen elsewhere. Market forces eventually hold sway and demand for audits overcomes vested interests, special arrangements and anything which gets in the way of the most informed and effective way of deploying an advertising budget," explains Glenn Hansen, President and CEO, BPA Worldwide.

"BPA has embraced the importance of adapting to the particular social and cultural needs of the region but, crucially, has also remained firm in its insistence that international standards are adhered to in order to give the region credibility in the eyes of international and global advertisers."

BPA Worldwide established an office in Dubai in June 2006 and its Middle East Advisory Board provides input to BPA from local buyers and sellers. The current membership of 15 people comprises eight representing advertisers and agencies and seven media owners. BPA is currently investing $1.5 million in new online software that will assist in BPA audits worldwide while offering live assistance to circulation managers.

The study concludes that many publishers have shown "enthusiastic willingness to support independent auditing". It says that as competition for advertising budgets intensifies, publishers have recognised that they can gain a marketing edge by providing verified figures, even if those numbers are not as impressive as they would like.

 "Needless to say, BPA Worldwide is ready to work with any IAA chapter keen to utitlise the GCC experience to deliver independent media measurement in their home market," adds Hansen.