Dubai Media City and Nielsen Company to host workshop on media evaluation

Organized in partnership with The Nielsen Company, a leading market research and media measurement company, the one-day seminar to be held on 21 October at the Grand Millennium Dubai, will offer the Middle East region's key advertisers, media buyers and owners an insight into the latest tools and solutions for media measurement.

Lorraine Hadfield, Managing Director, International Audience Measurement of Nielsen Media Research International, Diego Semprun, Senior Director, Commercial Development EMEA of Nielsen Online, and Toni Petra, Managing Director, Corporate Support Centre, AGB Nielsen, will facilitate the workshop that will impart techniques in broadcast, print, outdoor and online media.

Hadfield, Semprun, and Petra will feature as panellists, alongside leading UAE media personalities in a discussion on 'Enabling Media Measurement in the UAE'. It will focus on the UAE's approach to media measurement and identify the technique that is most suitable for the region.

Mohamed Almulla, Executive Director, Dubai Media City said:

"Media measurement plays a crucial role in market research and trend analysis and the workshop comes at a time when the regional industry is registering an unprecedented growth phase. The forum reflects our ongoing commitment towards offering a suitable platform for the Middle East media sector and is in line with our efforts to successfully develop a knowledge-based economy in Dubai. "

"The forum on media measurement will help initiate a dialogue among major industry players on the region's media measurement needs and services relevant to the Middle East in the future. The workshop will also contribute to creating an effective implementation mechanism in the UAE for augmenting further industry growth."

Currently, the Pan Arab media industry's TV rating system utilizes a diary panel to capture viewership numbers, while the rest of the world has already been using 'people meters' for several years. The rapid growth of the media industry in the Middle East has necessitated the immediate adoption of global methodologies and media measurement techniques.

Piyush Mathur, Regional Managing Director, The Nielsen Company, said: "We strongly believe the Middle East's media industry has come of age and is therefore well positioned to launch world class services, such as advanced media measurement techniques. Dubai has already pioneered distinct projects in the real estate industry and established landmark initiatives in several other sectors. Moving forward, we can now focus on state of the art 'next generation practices' available for media measurement that would be relevant to this region."

Hadfield, a veteran in the marketing and media arena, will introduce the Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2 M2), which aims to deliver an all-electronic measurement system that combines ratings for diverse types of television viewing, regardless of the platform. She will also discuss the need for audience measurement for outdoor, radio and print, and with her rich experience in markets across the globe will highlight how the industry can benefit from these tools.

Semprun, an expert in online environment, together with Hadfield, will introduce the tools Nielsen utilises for audience measurement and advertising intelligence. He will also discuss 'consumer generated media' and its importance to the region's online industry.

Toni Petra, who has more than fifteen years of experience in television audience measurement, will introduce the techniques developed to measure television viewership and manage the challenges of TV in today's world. She will explain the concept of 'Anywhere, Anytime' media measurement (A2M2) and its utility to media owners and advertisers. Petra will also showcase the power of analysis achieved through the AGBNielsen Arianna software Media Research and WPP.

In various countries across the globe, radio, print and outdoor measurements are already widespread. With the right statistical lifeguards, results obtained from these tools are extremely accurate and facilitate the evaluation of trends in viewership.