The story of the Slovenian selection of surveyor of visits to websites is very interesting, because the two same measuring companies, who took part in their competition, appear in Croatia as parallel entities. At the Media Measurement and Research conference, which will be held on 8 November in Zagreb’s Hotel Esplanade, this topic will be discussed by two persons, probably the most competent to talk about this issue, Zoran Savin (Chairman of the Executive Board MOSS* 2004-2015, director of Styria digital marketplaces, Slovenia) and Alenka Bućan (President of the Tender Committee and the Executive Committee of MOSS* 2016-2018, senior marketing researcher at Pro Plus, Slovenia).
For 2016 you conducted a tender to select surveying company. Why did you opt for such a step when you could have left it to each market stakeholder to select the one they wish to use, as is the case in Croatia? Doesn’t this limit the development of the market?
In our opinion to us, far from limiting the market, it strengthens it. MOSS in Slovenia is organized as a JIC (Joint Industry Committee), where all decisions are made as a joint decision of the media and the board of Slovenian Advertising Chamber (SOZ). JIC is also the exclusive owner of the copyright and intellectual property rights over all data, results and analysis of MOSS and can freely use them. Due to the power, influence, insights and experience of a JIC, MOSS was quickly accepted as a strong player, which genuinely forms the market.
As for the possibilities of research, MOSS selects a new surveyor (which can obviously be the incumbent) every 3-4 years, which in itself means that there is room for new research and ideas. According to our experience, the presence of a large number of different “official” surveyors in a market only gives a negative signal to advertisers, who don’t know whose data to rely on.
Did the selected surveyor fulfill your expectations?
Given that each new surveyor goes through the selection process, they ultimately meet the expectations for certain. Although it is clear that none of the surveyors is “the best that we wanted”. Or, to put it differently, no one has everything that the media and advertisers would like for the price they are willing to pay. There must always be a compromise. For the time being, the selected surveyor has proven to be a reliable partner, who invests a lot of time and energy to deliver results. In currency research it is especially important that the surveyor is reliable, that they follow and implement international standards, and can therefore deliver long-term results that enjoy the highest possible level of trust within the widest range of users. We still can’t assess all that to the fullest, given that we are only at the beginning of cooperation with the current surveyor.
What other useful things will the visitors at the conference have the chance to hear?
They will have the chance to hear everything about our, already long history of measurements in Slovenia, and about the benefits and drawbacks of a JIC as an organization. And what it can provide to a certain market.
*Online audience measurement (MOSS) is implemented under the auspices of the Slovenian Advertising Chamber (SOZ) since 2004.
