MediaTel

This week's launch of new online planning system UKOM represents the "end of the beginning" for getting online accepted by brand advertisers, according to panellists at last Friday's MediaTel Group seminar on the Future of Online.

Simon Dalglish, vice president and commercial director at Fox Interactive Media, told the sold-out event that the introduction of UKOM would "bring a new dynamic to Online, which has previously only been measured by impressions and clicks", to "show clients that 'effective' means more than just a click". But the industry needs to consider next whether UKOM should develop into a buying tool as well as a planning one - or else buyers will continue to trade in impressions.

OPera's head of digital buying, Adam Pace, argued that Digital is at a tipping point: would it become a media channel, or a technology business? "People need to embrace it and give it a chance. It will be interesting to see where it takes agencies," he added.

While the new online audience measurement system, which launches on 10th February, will provide a boost to the way we understand what happens online, its very newness in this space could take some getting used to. "The interesting thing about UKOM," said Paul Wright, VP commercial Europe at ADTECH, "is that a lot of people on the buying and selling sides have never used this kind of system before. It's going to take us a while to educate that audience."

Specific Media's UK VP Ian Dowds said that some have questioned the importance of such a tool, saying "Online needs a traditional measurement system like it needs a hole in the head". But whatever the reservations of specialists, if it is what "clients and agencies demand, then we have to give it to them". The task is now to prove its value alongside current metrics.

UKOM is clearly opening a new chapter in online measurement but at the MediaTel Group seminar there was a clear desire from the industry to see what will come next. Speaking from the floor, ABC CEO Jerry Wright called the appearance of UKOM "a giant step forward - there's a need for panel measurement and complementary census measurement working together".

The picture painted was that with UKOM working with other metrics, online will be able to flourish, with Wright adding that by UKOM and ABCe working together the medium will be able to grow from an "unruly teenager to a responsible adult".

Dominic Allon, agency leader at the search giant, echoed Wright's view that UKOM will become even more valuable when it is coupled with other metrics, particularly when it is combined with the IPA's multi-media database TouchPoints.