X-Media Working Group Meeting Update

Attended by:

Shadi Kandil, MCN Media Brands
Ravi Rao, GroupM
Omar Katerji, Ferrero
Walid Yared, Choueiri Group
Anna Germanos, Facebook
Ibrahim Kadiri, Google
Asad ur Rehman, Unilever.

First ever of the working group meeting was attended by all the members. We started with a recap of the purpose of this working group as laid out and agreed during our broader committee meeting on April 9th, 2020.

Cross Channel Measurement Working Group: Is part of the broader measurement committee and is accountable to the committee and to the ABG board. The core job of formulating a project and funding
plan lies into this workstream. The responsibility of bringing the project to life and proposing a governance and funding mechanism lies within this group.

We also started with a reflection from each of the members of this sub-group on what their vision is of this project and how this process should be managed. Without any disagreement per se, below were some key points on how the measurement vision and scope was talked about.

• The research needs to be a unified view of all channels ultimately but needs to build keeping a realistic view of where we are and where we need to be in mind.
• It was reiterated that for this project to be successful, an upfront commitment and alignment
  form the ABG board, hence the industry, is a critical component of the work.
• It was also felt that the funding commitment, while largely coming form media, publishers and
  platform owners, needs to have a stake from all parties for it to be considered valuable.
• It was unanimously agreed that it is not just the research, but the entire process should be
  audited by a third party for it to have the trust of the industry.
• It was agreed that we may be unique as an industry in our media landscape, but most of the
  challenges we face are quite in line with what some of the other markets are facing.
• It was felt that the scope of the research should be clear on what aspects of digital advertising
  are included- from pure advertising to editorial for example.
• It was also agreed that to the best of the ability, this committee should build on the work that
  may already have been done by individual companies in the past.
• We also reflected that for a research to be sustainable, we will need to have some lense of
  feasibility and affordability. Whilst we do not know what the true size of the industry is, we
  should at least have a view on what is it that we can collectively afford to spend in this research.

Proposed Roadmap:
The group then discussed in detail the proposed roadmap and phases of this project. A copy of that in a deck that was used for the discussion in the group is attached with these minutes.

It was also agreed that while it may not be possible to lock in the funding and specifics of the roadmap or all four phases upfront, it will be our clear objective to secure funding and resource for Phase 2 to
ensure we get a proposal stage.

It was felt that we have had rich enough discussions and agreements in the room for us to consider Phase 1 complete, and that we will now go to the broader committee with the minutes, and then the proposed Phase 2 and Phase 3 funding and approach to the ABG board for sign-off.

We will now go into the agreed actions and next steps.

Scope:
It was agreed that the “proposed” scope of the research will be an online video first model, with a provision built in for an establishment survey- and a refresh of that periodically.

This was agreed after an exhaustive discussion on how going the people-meter first approach might limit the agility as well as the relevance for UAE specifically. It was also discussed that since a lot of TV is Saudi first, starting with a TV first approach might not be entirely relevant.

There was a concern in the room that this scope might undermine TV in UAE. And there was a conclusion in the room that we will provide for that to that balance to struck in our scope. For example, making sure there is a clear understanding of relative reach of each of the channels, as well as a clear need to link various data sets when comparing online video to linear TV. An example quoted in the room was to potentially ask the research partner to look at the “Return Path Data” from TV distribution networks like Du and Etisalat – and fusion of that with the online video data to provide for a comparable view.

It was also decided that Ibrahim will help organize a session with Google’s lead representative at ISBA for a greater connection with WFA. It is important that the KPI framework and metrices follow the WFA
guidelines.

We also agreed that Anna will continue to represent FB on this working group- and bring in specialist expertise and points of view as and when needed.

Partners:
It was agreed that we will initially work to invite the following for the first stage of RFP:

• Nielson
• Ipsos
• Media Metri
• Gemius
• And potentially ComScore if they are keen to renew their discussions in Middle East.

Funding and Management of Phase 2:

It was agreed that we will:

• Look to appoint Houda Kousa (unanimous agreement) to independently help manage the Phase 2 and 3 for us.
• Put together a scope of deliverables for her and seek her proposal on the costs
• Take that cost proposal to the ABG, to be evenly funded by all members of the ABG. This is with a conscious realization that while the actual cost and funding of the ongoing research will not be
  funded evenly by all parties of the industry, this seed money to start and run the process should be.
• It was agreed that Shadi will share the draft scope with the committee and will then lead the discussion with Houda.