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Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

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Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#11

Post by andrewvc »

kitcar wrote: post #4

At the end of the day, the real problem with using ComScore #'s when developing a media plan is unlike with all other forms of mass media (TV/Radio/Print), in Online the advertiser has direct feedback from the audience of their advertisements - hence you don't really need to use a 3rd party measurement service to help you determine if your campaign was on target/"worked". A much better way to buy media online is spri…

I'm not in the ad game, but what you just said doesn't sound right to me. I mean, if I see 10 ads for a new show on TV network X, even if I don't click on them they have value. Not everything is monetizable online, and those things that aren't will be hard or impossible to track.

Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#12

Post by ecaron »

Who is going to take the lead in setting up an independent analysis for Compete.com vs Quantcast vs Comscore and see who has the most accurate data when compared to the raw web server data?

I think the test should compare 20 1k, 20 10k, and 20 100k sites. If anyone decides to take bets on it, I'd guess Compete has the best data and Comscore has the worst. Let's see the services have a throw down!

Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#13

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

sachinag wrote: post #7
stingraycharles wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, never understand why companies go this way, when responding to social media. I assume it's an act of impulse by one of their employees, I would be amazed if it was actually discussed and cleared by their PR department. But it sure doesn't look professional at all, and I do expect professionalism from a company like Comscore.

Isn't that the whole point of social media? Be authentic and don't sound like a PR? I, for one, give them a hell of a lot of credit for pushing back at Jason in this way. He's the one who brought up the subject, and it's fun to see people stand up for themselves. It's part of why Jason is such an entertaining writer himself. He's a big boy; he can take it.

Correct, I'm a big boy and I can handle it. :-) No one should ever feel bad for me... I got a free roll on life. I'm playing with the houses money and my life is 1,000x better than I ever thought it would be.

Seriously, I've been fighting with these guys for a decade trying to get them to address the fact that their data is wrong and HIGHLY DAMAGING for startups looking to get ad revenue.

They ignored me for a decade, and this email was the FIRST time I've really been able to get them to address the issue.

I try to take these inside conversations and put them in the sunlight and part of that is writing with a certain, well, flair (at least 20 pieces of flair in fact).

You can be sure I'm laughing and smiling when I write these things, and more so when folks like Comscore or Kiretsu Forum take the bait.

Now that Comscore has engaged the debate other folks can move it forward. I think Comscore will do the right thing here and move to a freemium model like:

1. Free for companies with under 50M impressions 2. $1,000 a year for companies with 50m-250m impressions 3. $5,000 a year for companies over 250M impressions

If they did this they would build a funnel of clients and a ton of good will. Compare that plan to their current plan:

1. Pay us $5,000 for accurate stats or... 2. Don't pay us and we will use our old and admittedly inaccurate system for counting your stats--thus damaging your company and ability to get advertising.

best j

Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#15

Post by teye »

jgrahamc wrote: post #3

It’s unfortunate that you were picked on as a child. It must have been difficult to you. But you’re an adult now. If you want to debate, please do so with facts, not just blind fury. That last line of reply was worth reading the whole article for.

The last line was petty. No need to sully a well-written response like that... offering to answer any further questions instead would leave me much more impressed.

Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#17

Post by sounddust »

As publishers, why should we be supporting any of these services, Quantcast included? Am I really going to have to put 12 different JS includes on my site and pass on my users' browsing history to these companies just on the slim chance that some advertiser is using their stats? I get enough complaints already about the Google Analytics tracking (and that's after putting it on the bottom of the page to minimize the chance of blocking the page, thus hurting my stats).

Everyone is talking about "pixels," but actually giving publishers blocking JS includes. This means that as a publisher, you're going to have to prioritize the user experience versus tracking, and also prioritize the tracking! If you put the Comscore JS under the Quantcast JS, then the slower the Quantcast JS returns, the lower your Comscore stats will be (because it gives the user more time to navigate away from the page). It seems like it would give an incentive to the analytics firm to serve the tracking JS as slowly as possible.

I wish we could just make portions of our Google Analytics data public and be done with it. I don't think the "pixel include" race is going to scale very well.

Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#18

Post by barrkel »

Nothing I read in the replies or MA's commentary actually countered the substance of Jason's argument.

Fred's line: "someone has to pay, so pay up." That sounds like a straight-up mobster.

Linda Abraham's line: "we measure people" (what about dogs? I wondered), "we have a slightly cheaper option of 5K". IOW, we can be flexible in what we hit you up for. Oh, and we have cameras in people's homes, so we know the difference between people, machines and cybernetic half-breeds.

MA's line: this person is right, someone needs to get paid, Jason's wrong. The judge and jury in one persona, but logic-free.

But all this doesn't address the core fact: that people using ComScore to evaluate a site (why can't these people pay?) can be greatly influenced by the sites paying ComScore for "auditing" and other ancillary services to make sure they "get counted correctly". 'Cos you know, if you don't pay up, some "accidents" might happen.

Re: Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back.

#19

Post by barrkel »

teye wrote: post #16

I'd be interested to hear what Google/Quantcast/Compete have to say about people vs cookies and if/how they tell the difference.

I'd like to know how ComScore can tell the difference between a TCP connection from a machine and one directly from a human.
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