Media Metrix, IntelliQuest Form Alliance

IntelliQuest Information Group Inc. formed a strategic alliance with Media Metrix, The PC Meter Company, to measure and report technology buyers’ Web usage.

Austin, TX-based IntelliQuest, a provider of information-based marketing services to the technology industry, will manage and market the new service as an extension to its Computer Industry Media Study (CIMS).

IntelliQuest will use Media Metrix’s proprietary PC Meter for measurement of Web usage within IntelliQuest’s sample of technology influencers. Financial details were not disclosed.

IntelliQuest and Media Metrix said they will also collaborate on the sales and marketing of CIMS Internet, which will begin beta fielding in February 1998. Interestingly, IntelliQuest said it will not be using RelevantKnowledge software and operations as previously announced. No explanation was given.

The new service, to be known as the Computer Industry Media Study for the Internet (or CIMS-Internet), will be the first application of an end-user Webmeter within a qualified sample of technology influencers, capturing observational data on their online usage.

IntelliQuest said it will use Media Metrix’s PC Meter software to track and report how individuals involved in the purchase of technology products, in business and at home, use the Internet as a communications medium. Technology vendors can gain a greater understanding of who in their target audience is using the Internet, how they are using it, where they are going online, and what media mix can most effectively reach that audience.

“This alliance will offer the advertising and media community a new level of insight into actual Web usage habits within the technology sector,” said Mary Ann Packo, president of New York-based Media Metrix.

CIMS is sponsored by technology manufacturers, their advertising agencies, and the print and television media who serve them. IntelliQuest screens over 30,000 qualified technology buyers, and establishes the size and characteristics of the technology buying or influencing population in the United States, which it said includes 34.9 million individuals in the home and 25.8 million in business in 1997.