Time to sort out user numbers: the IAB is exploring the idea of a single online audience measurement currency, but does the industry really need it?

New Media Age, August, 2004

GREG STUART President, Interactive Advertising Bureau US

Of course the industry should want a single currency. The problem is that everyone is using the same word and assuming it's the same thing.

Currency means that money is changing hands and what people trade money on is the ad impression. We're working with trade bodies around the world to try and agree a single global currency for ad impressions, which will be the first global measurement standard for any media.

In the US we believe that the most important thing to get right is the ad impression, followed by click-throughs, then unique users, and finally audience measurement, which is essentially demographics.

We shouldn't be trying to replicate the TV industry. TV is built on a...