In a long overdue, but highly celebrated and respected (by some of us) announcement, Nielsen has stated that they will not longer rate sites based on the page view, rather they will be rated on time spent on site.

What does this mean for the media planner?

The first thing that it means is that not enough agency people are reading the trades/ or the game changing impact of this news was not as obvious as I think.

Last week there was a lot of chatter about this announcement however, in comparison to talk about the iPhone, this news may well have been a weather report.

Where is everyone?

I had a busy week and did not write about this for a few days, perhaps it was a busy week all around, as this is one of the top 3 things to happen to the industry this year and potentially one of the top ten things to ever happen to the interactive space and I feel there was very little noise made. I hope the truth is that I did not do a good job in keeping up with the news last week and simply did not hear all the quality noise.

Interactive Media Planners: Drink up, enjoy your publisher lunches and perks while you can. Your jobs are about to change and there will be a lot of work involved!!!

Traditional Media Planners: This is your last chance to get in on the future. We will be needing your skills, only we will need you to work with us.

DEATH TO THE CHASM BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND NEW MEDIA PLANNERS, LONG LIVE THE EXPERIENCE PLANNER!

What does this mean for the publisher?

Publishers, are you ready for this? Have you thought about how exactly you are going to sell your media in the new world?

Have you thought about the fact that impressions may not be the way to sell media?

Perhaps it is time to start looking at qualitative ways approach media sales.

Perhaps it is time to start selling engaging experiences

I buy media. I would buy a quality experience not based on impressions if I felt that you spent time devising a quality strategy.

What does this mean for the growth of The Experience Web?

Ok, anyone who reads this blog or has heard my speak lately knows I have a one track mind (The Experience Web…no that does not mean Second Life).

I have not heard one person talk about selling experience in light of Nielsen’s recent announcement. If time spent on site is really how we are going to be measuring media, how else can it be bought and sold?

Are we going to start selling thirty second page views at the risk of having Joseph Jaffe coming to your house and killing you with lectures (Joe, you know I am huge fan, have listened to everyone of your rants and loved them all)?

The answer is of course, no (although I would love Joe to come to office and give a lecture to my team. I am still waiting for CC as well :) ). What we are going to have to start doing is planning experiences that are engaging and that add value. That is the bottom line. That has always been the bottom line and will always be the bottom line. The difference now it that we have the metrics to prove it.

My question for all of you is, how will you be engaging and provide valuable experiences?

Who Else is Talking

Tags: Nielsen, Page View, Web 2.0 Ajax, The Experience Web, Experience, Media Planner, Interactive, iPhone, Jospeh Jaffe, Experience Planner, cc chapman, value, time spent, Read Write Web, Ajaxian, All thing digital, Computerworld, Webpronews, Arun Rajagopal, 30 second spot, 30 second page view