DMMA's digital audience data now integrated into Telmar

This allows media planners in South Africa to create a comprehensive print, broadcast and digital media plan from a single planning source.

"Telmar is the de facto industry standard planning tool because of its comprehensive coverage of media. Having digital options reflected using the same metrics and comparisons to AMPS means that planners now have the whole media universe presented to them in one place. It is great news for the industry, as it means digital will finally be classed as another legitimate media channel rather than a strange outlier," says Jarred Cinman, chair of the DMMA.

Media planners will now have access to EM reports and metrics traditionally only available to DMMA members, providing a far clearer audience picture. "We have been working with Telmar and EM through several iterations of internet data and, during this time, we have progressed from simply providing traffic data in terms of browsers, to weighting this data to the AMPS universe and incorporating these metrics. This enables us to provide more effective data to local media planners."

EM data is delivered monthly and these records are then weighted by age, sex, and region to the AMPS population. The data is then re-weighted to the internet population, as determined by a formula devised by the DMMA in conjunction with Echo Consultancy.

The Telmar dashboard allows for cross-tabulation of these metrics against the demographics supplied though the EM questionnaire and the AMPS target markets. Reach and frequency metrics are also available in its multi-media planner, using a Poisson-based formula that calculates the average daily page views in line with international standards.

The September 2013 data, weighted to these new populations, is now available for media planners. "This is a significant step in the South African advertising industry and the company is glad to be a part of this. Digital adspend in the developed world is hovering at around 33%, so this move will help South Africa catch up with these international markets," says Alan Morrissey, MD of Effective Measure South Africa.

"Our aim is to then re-deliver June, July and August 2013 demographic files so that we can integrate this data into the Telmar dashboard as well. This has been a key objective for us this year and we are extremely excited that we are now able to make this data available to our members - particularly the publishers - for whom this information is critical. Without a single, universally accepted measurement currency, digital will never get its fair slice of the adspend pie. In order for this to happen, we need to be confident that this data is as accurate as possible so that we reach a consensus. This process has taken us one step closer to achieving this," concludes Cinman.