RedSheriff aims at 500 new clients

By SIMON HENDERY, marketing writer

Internet ratings firm RedSheriff chose a good week to poke its head above the trenches.

Web surfing has surged as users log in for the latest on the Iraq war.

New Zealand internet traffic is up a quarter this week and one leading British service provider said "war" had replaced "sex" as the most popular search phrase.

So Tuesday night was an ideal time for RedSheriff's global head, Richard Webb, to be in Auckland, talking up the company's future to members of the online and advertising communities.

Last July RedSheriff was endorsed by an online media industry group as New Zealand's preferred supplier of internet tracking data.

The endorsement of RedSheriff by the Online Publishers Group was intended to bring uniformity to website traffic measurement, with the aim of increasing advertiser confidence in the medium.

"Having an accurate, third-party measurement tool has been absolutely vital to allow the internet industry in New Zealand to grow and develop," Webb says.

RedSheriff has so far signed up more than 100 clients - an impressive, but not yet exhaustive, list of the top local website operators.

Among notable absences from RedSheriff's client list, and so its ratings, are popular ISPs TelstraClear and ihug.

But omissions aside, RedSheriff's progress has been welcomed by the industry.

John Stewart, managing director of Auckland online media buyer The Internet Bureau, says RedSheriff had helped by moving from confusing technical-type measurements to "people-oriented" measurements: how many people see an online ad, how often they see it, and viewer demographics.

"That makes it much easier for agency media people to get their heads around what people are actually talking about."

Webb says RedSheriff aims to sign up 500 clients over the next 12 months, and this week's function was part of a push to increase its profile.

There are elements of the dotcom hype of old in Webb's presentation - he talks about the company's 7 per cent month-on-month growth since it was founded in 1996 and its plan to add 12 more countries to the 40 it is already in over the next year.

But behind the self-promotion is a business model which seems to be working.

The company follows up its automated tracking with random online surveys and phone interviews with web users.

This has allowed it to compile a demographic survey of more than 60,000 users.

"A sample size of that magnitude is unheard-of in any market and gives invaluable insight to New Zealand internet users," says Webb.

He says New Zealand was the first country to establish an internet measurement standard and RedSheriff is using its experience here to sell the benefits of its technology elsewhere.

Israel has now adopted the system and Japan, China, South Africa, Singapore, Spain, France and Italy are looking at it.

The company is expanding its presence in New Zealand with the creation of a new position of country managing director, to be filled by Mark Ottaway, currently the general manager of APN Interactive, publisher of nzherald.co.nz.

Stewart says there has been steady growth in online advertising over the past year.

He estimates the market has grown from $8 million to $10 million last year, to $10 million to $12 million this year, and could reach $15 million next year.

"What we've seen is a steady growth in advertising spend in online space, but more importantly we've seen a growing number of companies advertising online," he says.

"It's not the same companies spending more, it's extending across into different industries or greater depth within industries."

Lynne Clifton, executive director of the Communication Agencies Association, says internet ad spend is predicted to account for 3 per cent of total spend in the US by 2006, but remains under 1 per cent of the total in New Zealand.

She says advertising agencies tend to be risk-averse, but RedSheriff's data should give them the confidence to offer clients the online medium as viable and measurable.

TOP 20 WEBSITES

RedSheriff's top sites in order of ranking for the week beginning March 17:

Site Unique visitors

xtramsn.co.nz 335,598

xtra.co.nz 249,988

nzherald.co.nz 90,572

nzoom.com 88,080

stuff.co.nz 70,205

trademe.co.nz 60,991

kachingo.co.nz 38,675

seek.co.nz 32,963

nzjobs.co.nz 17,999

oldfriends.co.nz 16,746

Source: RedSheriff