Ipsos iris, Australia’s new digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB, has officially launched.
It provides accurate data about the 21 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across Smartphone, PC/Laptop and Tablet devices.
Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $14.2 billion Australian online advertising market.
The January 2023 data shows that Australians spent, on average, 107 hours online on a PC/laptop, smartphone, or tablet device.
The most popular online categories by total audience size in January include social networking (20.9 million), search (20.9 million), technology (20.8 million), retail & commerce (20.6 million) and entertainment (20.5 million).
Almost 20.3 million Australians spent on average more than six hours visiting online news sites and apps in January, which rose to 11 hours among those aged 55-64. The News category includes audience and time spent online on both general news and broader news content including weather, and sport, lifestyle, entertainment, and business news.
News.com.au came in at the top spot, according to Ipsos iris January 2023 rankings.
News Corp Australia Managing Director, National Sales, Lou Barrett said: “Ipsos iris provides the advertising market with robust and independent data about the number of people visiting and engaging with the content on News Corp Australia websites and apps.
“It enables our advertising partners to better understand how audiences are engaging with our digital brands’ content for their commercial decision making.
“The January 2023 data released today shows that four in five Australians are consuming news and information across News Corp Australia’s digital platforms.
“We look forward to showcasing new ways for marketers to engage the attention of 16.8 million Australians in News Corp Australia’s premium digital environments at our annual digital marketing showcase D_Coded events this month, where we will unveil further innovations.”
News.com.au Editor-in-Chief Lisa Muxworthy said: “Drawing on our deep insight into what people want to read, news.com.au has become a daily habit for so many Australians.
“We balance hard breaking news with funny, inspiring and quirky stories. We tell Australians what the news means for them. We explain, entertain and provoke. We are insightful, curious and have a sense of humour.
“And when it comes to engagement, no one does it better. Our audiences spend a lot of time with us, they read multiple articles, watch videos, shop in our ecommerce vertical, play our daily quiz or listen to a podcast.
“We are always trying to push boundaries and find new and exciting ways to reach audiences on and off-platform.”
General news is the most popular news sub-category reaching 19.2 million Australians in January and weather had the highest time spent with almost four hours per person. The reporting of news brands also includes the audience of media owner content distributed on platforms such as Google AMP, Facebook, and Apple News.
The Ipsos data has revealed that foxsports.com.au was the #1 ranked sports website visited by Australians aged 14+ in January, clocking an audience of 4.343 million.
It’s been a record-breaking start to the year more broadly at Fox Sports Australia with Fox League Round one ratings up 17% YoY with average total audiences of 523k per game across Foxtel Group platforms, including Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices.
Smartphones led digital consumption with 19.2 million Australians spending on average 82 hours online. In addition, 14.1 million Australians accessed PC/laptops spending an average of 32 minutes online and 3.6 million were on tablets spending on average 61 hours online.
In demographics, 25- to 39- year olds remain the largest age group online at 26% share of audience. The highest average time per person spent online is amongst the 55- to 64-year-old age group, spending on average 116 hours online in January.
Later this year CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM will provide total unduplicated digital audience currency data for CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Simon Wake, Ipsos ANZ CEO, said: “Ipsos iris brings a new standard of measurement to the industry that has been built in conjunction with the IAB. Ipsos iris delivers accuracy in cross device usage and audience duplication, as well as new insights into younger audiences on mobile devices. All Ipsos clients will benefit from our deep understanding of the digital behaviour of Australians.”
Gai Le Roy, IAB CEO, said: “The launch of Ipsos iris today is the culmination of significant collaboration across the industry to provide robust digital audience content measurement that will continue to evolve with the changing media, consumer, and technology landscape.
“Ipsos iris provides inclusive, independent, and transparent data for advertiser and agencies to confidently plan digital media investment and new ways for media owners to differentiate their inventory. Ipsos iris also provides a pathway to cross-platform and cross-media measurement solutions for the industry into the future.”
Endorsed by UKOM, Ipsos iris has been the digital audience currency in the UK since 2021 and it was recently announced the endorsement has been extended until 2027. Ipsos iris has been adopted across the UK publisher and agency ecosystem.
Ian Dowds, UKOM CEO, said: “In the UK Ipsos iris is proving itself to be trusted, transparent and future ready. UKOM is pleased to endorse the Ipsos iris methodology and congratulates Ipsos and IAB Australia on their launch.”
See Also: Ipsos and IAB Australia launch digital audience measurement currency Ipsos iris