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ata analysis company Nielsen announced that Indonesia will become the first country where it will introduce the '€œmobile ad ratings'€ measurement because of the Southeast Asian country'€™s ever-increasing smartphone and mobile platform usage that benefits the digital economy.

The mobile ad ratings will measure the effectiveness of a particular digital ad campaign by tracking its viewability and human traffic metrics and will therefore deduce how much of an impact such campaigns make on a company.

It is an extension of the Digital Ad Ratings method, which has been operating in Indonesia since July 2015 and in also seven other countries, which measures the effect and the impact of a company'€™s digital media campaign. However, the difference is that the Digital Ad Ratings method only measures laptop and PC traffic and not mobile platforms.

The executive director for Nielsen Indonesia'€™s retail service unit, Yongky Susilo, said the mobile ad ratings will not be conducted in an overall and syndicated method as is done when measuring television ratings, but will vary depending on demand.

'€œThe mobile ratings service will be on a campaign-to-campaign basis, meaning that we will only monitor it for specific companies who ask to be measured,'€ Yongky said at the 2016 Marketing and Media Summit on Wednesday.

Yongki claimed Indonesia had shown a positive response toward the firm'€™s Digital Ad Ratings since July and the company managed to gauge the impact of several online ad campaigns.

Nielsen'€™s mobile ad rating service would also be available in several other countries after Indonesia, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, Japan and Mexico.

Nielsen global president and chief operating officer Steve Hasker underlined the importance of the mobile ad rating, especially in a market like Indonesia, saying that the progression of digital technology is pushing companies to explore new business models and different ways in which they would address their audience.

'€œIn places like Indonesia, where mobile penetration almost exceeds PC or laptop usage, any analysis must also reflect the needs of the market. With Digital Ad Ratings, marketers are able to plan their campaigns more thoroughly and consider the implications on both online and mobile platforms within it,'€ he said.

He emphasized Indonesia'€™s technology statistics were at the core of why the company wanted to focus on Southeast Asia'€™s largest digital market. Indonesia currently has a smartphone penetration of more than 30 percent among its population of 250 million.

Indonesian smartphone usage is projected to have a compound growth rate of 17 percent through to 2017, while also having a digital ad spending growth rate of 80 percent up to the same year. In comparison, the US'€™ digital ad spending compound growth rate is predicted to be 16 percent in the same period.

Nielsen'€™s Digital Ad Ratings measurement was first rolled out in 2011. It is expected to be implemented in 25 countries by the end of 2016.

'€” JP/Dylan Amirio