UK’s Origin makes £20m bid for global ad measurement lead

UK advertiser body ISBA is ready to roll out Origin, what it claims is the world’s first reliable cross-media measurement system. Origin is backed by 30 major advertisers and technology companies including Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal, EE, PepsiCo and Unilever plus Meta, Google and TikTok.

Origin has an initial budget of £20m (users will pay a fee) and is led by former GroupM executive Tom George. There are other such initiatives around the world too, including Nielsen in the US although they often end up mired in controversy.

George (above) says Origin, intended to be a standalone company next year, is a “UK prototype for a global framework” while ISBA says the new system is a “significant milestone in helping the UK advertising industry measure, report and plan cross-media campaigns.”

ISBA says the new system will be transparent on who is watching what, allowing advertisers to decide where to best spend their money. At the moment they rely on many competing forms of measurement including data from the tech giants’ fabled “walled gardens.”

A big issue for advertisers is waste – the US ANA has now admitted that 23% of digital advertising is wasted, a mind-boggling system for a multi billion dollar sector – and also ad effectiveness. There is a growing realisation in some quarters that digital adspend contributes little to brand building.