TNS Worldpanel has announced the launch of its Media Efficiency Panel - a major innovation for brands and businesses to measure the return on investment of their media campaigns.

This is likely to be the first panel in the UK to combine online and offline media consumption with consumer sales data from a single source. This allows marketers to compare the efficiency of online and offline channels in driving sales.

The panel of 10,000 households is anchored on the existing TNS Worldpanel service and will provide Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) retail sales data at household level, as panelists will scan and report their offline purchases when coming home from shopping.

Software Nurago will measure online media consumption - logging what URLs they have visited and what online advertising they have been exposed to. The service will measure TV, radio and print consumption via a regular media questionnaire.

Tim Kidd, managing director of TNS Worldpanel, said: “Having a single source of data to measure exposure to online media and the resultant effect on sales, together with our existing information on offline activity, is a significant step forward for marketers. Our aim is to improve understanding of the value of internet advertising and ensure marketing budget is spent more effectively.”

Gary Roddy, research director at GfK NOP Media, said: "We are excited to bring the Media Efficiency Panel to the market. For the first time, the UK marketing industry will have real empirical data linking internet advertising directly to sales and the ability to compare this with other above-the-line advertising. We believe this will help marketing budget decisions to be made in a much more informed way."

For the launch of the panel, Google will fund a limited number of pilot studies for FMCG firms and their agencies. The UK is the second country to use the Media Efficiency Panel after a successful launch in Germany in 2008.

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