Roku has enabled Nielsen four-screen measurement across traditional TV, connected TV, mobile, and desktop.
Nielsen ratings are the gold standard for gauging the popularity of TV shows. Nielsen’s Four-Screen Ad Deduplication is a major step forward in its Nielsen One plans. Nielsen One is slated for release in December 2022 and will be a cross-media measurement platform.
“Marketers are increasingly investing in CTV to follow consumers. However, brands want consistent measurement across screens,” said Kim Gilberti, SVP, Product Management, Nielsen. “Marketers can now better evaluate CTV inventory’s unique reach and frequency in conjunction with their entire Roku buy in a comparable and comprehensive manner, and advertisers can reduce waste and help ensure that relevant ads are delivered to the right audiences across devices. This release brings us one step closer to providing comparable and deduplicated metrics across screens with Nielsen ONE.”
“We believe that all TV ads will be accountable and measurable,” said Asaf Davidov, Head of Ad Measurement and Research, Roku. “Our direct consumer relationship, our scale, and our tech all make us uniquely positioned to work with Nielsen to make measurement simpler and more accurate as marketers shift spend to TV streaming.”
Streaming TV may be constantly in the news, with a new service seemingly cropping up every week, but it still comprises a minority of the market.
Netflix, HBO Max, YouTube, Hulu and others are growing in popularity, but they still don’t match more traditional TV options. According to CNN, the latest Nielsen data shows the streaming market accounts for a mere 26% of the American TV market.
In contrast, traditional broadcast TV accounts for 25% of the market, while cable TV still accounts for 39%. An additional 9% is covered by “other,” including VOD and DVD players.
Another significant difference between traditional and streaming TV is the engagement of the viewers. According to Nielsen’s data, streaming subscribers tend to be active viewers, intentionally seeking out and watching specific programs. In contrast, broadcast viewers are often more passive, leaving the TV on in the background or casually channel surfing.
No one knows how long it will take for streaming TV to overtake traditional options, but the degree of subscriber engagement is a promising sign for the future of the market.
A ComScore study focusing on podcasting proved to be good news for podcasters and advertising seeking to reach hard-to-reach audiences. In their study commissioned by Wondery, nearly on in five Americans aged 18-49 report listening to podcasts at least once a month, while nearly one in three men 18-34 do so.
Compared to the average consumer, podcast listeners are more likely to have:
a college or higher education
$100k+ household income
be early adopters in multiple categories including movies, electronics and CPG.
Hernan Lopez, Founder & CEO of Wondery commented, “Are you listening? Your hardest-to-reach consumers are.” Wondery has a reason to be excited about these results considering that it is a company focused on creating and curating podcasts and then integrating brands into the mix. Podcasts have often been a hard sell for marketers because they don’t typically generate a huge amount of direct response to offers. It’s much more of a brand play in my opinion.
According to ComScore, one in three podcast listeners expect to increase their podcast consumption over the next six months, following a similar increase in their behavior in the past six months.
Podcasts can be a very effective platform for marketing according to ComScore. The study reports that two-thirds of podcast listeners have engaged in various research and/or purchase related behaviors as a result of advertising exposure from podcasts. Among all forms of advertising on mobile devices, podcasts create the highest improvement in perception. And among all forms of digital advertising, podcast ads are considered the least intrusive.
“It’s clear that we’re in the midst of a new podcasting boom, spurred in large part by improved accessibility via mobile and a tidal wave of rich and compelling content,” said Andrew Lipsman, VP of Marketing & Insights, comScore. “This research provides strong evidence for why this sector is very attractive for advertisers. Not only do podcasts over-index on reaching some of the most valuable and hardest-to-reach audiences, but they also put consumers in a mindset that’s favorable to ad receptivity.”
“In a world of clutter, attention deficit and elusive audiences the work Wondery is doing adds another valuable string to our bow,” said Nick Emery, Global CEO of Mindshare.
“This study underscores the power of the podcast as a vital digital platform for brand advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “We saw marketers and media buyers come out in strong numbers for first IAB Podcast Upfront Showcase. Now, with research showing the medium’s reach and resonance, we anticipate an even bigger turnout for the event later this year.”
“When we hear ‘podcast listeners’ we think of early adopters, passionate consumers, dedicated to deep cultural content; Wondery’s study confirms this view”, added Jim Elms, Global CEO, Initiative Media.
The study also asked about a listeners emotions before and after listening to podcasts. Many said they felt more “connected, intelligent and energized” after listening. The ComScore study was commissioned between March and April of 2016 among over 2,000 respondents in the US aged 18-49.
A study by Nielsen Scarborough released May 23, 2016 also found that podcasting consumption is on the rise. The study reported that the number of adults 18 and older listening to a podcast during the past month has doubled over the previous five years. Five years seems like a long time to only see doubling, but at least it’s not declining.
The Nielsen Scarborough study found that:
Podcast listeners are equally male and female
The majority (70%) are between the ages of 18-44
They are 39% more likely to be single
44% more likely to be a college graduate
33% more likely to be employed in a white collar occupation
Have an average household income of $83,700 exceeding the national average by about $12,000
Nielsen stats indicate that they could be good targets for marketers:
With higher average incomes than the general population, podcast listeners are particularly interested in investments and wealth management. More than 65% of podcast listeners have some type of investment, with nearly half participating in a 401K plan. In addition, podcast listeners are 25% more likely to have stocks, 105% more likely to engage in online investing/stock trading and 15% more likely to use a financial planner.
And while podcast listeners are serious about their finances, they are equally serious about giving back to their communities with three-quarters having contributed money to a cause during the past year. Their contributions focus on areas they are passionate about and where they can make an impact on society. These causes’ include education, social programs and arts and culture.
Nielsen recently released some findings from its Global Connected Commerce survey looking at what connected shoppers are doing (and not doing) online. One big takeaway is that shoppers are not only “showrooming” (browsing in stores to buy online), but are also “webrooming” (researching online and buying in stores).
As Nielsen says, online shopping is a “two-way street”.
“Conducting online research is not the only activity that is complementing the shopping experience,” the firm says. “Three online activities score consistently high, regardless of the product category being considered. They are what you likely expect: Looking up product information, checking/comparing prices and searching for deals/promotions/coupons. In the travel products or services category, for example, 63% of respondents who shopped or purchased the category in the past six months say they looked up product information, 52% checked or compared prices and 46% searched for deals or coupons. For consumable—particularly edible—products, percentages are notably lower than for durable goods, but the same online activities remain top strategies. For fresh groceries, 38% say they looked up information, 39% checked/compared prices and 30% searched for deals.”
“Perhaps more telling is what consumers are not doing online,” Nielsen adds. “Across all categories reviewed, the online shopping activities with the lowest mentions include those that marketers often rely upon heavily to reach consumers—usage of online ads, store emails and social media. Only about one-10th of respondents say they’ve clicked an online ad or email ad to find out more in the last six months. Even fewer say they have subscribed to product or store emails or liked/tweeted/commented about a product or store on social media.”
According to the findings, 57% say they purchased fro an online retailer outside their own country in the past six months. The most common payment method is credit card (53%) followed by digital payment systems (43%).
49% say they shop online for grocery products they can’t find in physical stores.
Somewhat troubling is that the majority 57% say they have doubts that ecommerce sites will keep their personal info safe.
It’s no surprise that Facebook Messenger continues to grow, but according to new data from Nielsen, it’s actually the fastest growing app in the U.S.
It’s still behind Facebook and YouTube, but is very close to catching YouTube, which is pretty incredible. It’s even ahead of Google Search which is a feat on its own.
Here’s the top ten:
“From videos to music to maps, digital was at the forefront of consumers’ (and marketers’) minds this year. As 2015 comes to a close, Nielsen looked at some of the top trends in digital, including the top U.S. smartphone apps and operating systems.”
“In 2015, Facebook again took the lead as the top smartphone app. The social networking app had more than 126 million average unique users each month, a growth of 8% from last year. YouTube came in second with over 97 million average unique users each month, followed by Facebook Messenger with more than 96 million average unique users each month.”
As you can see, Messenger saw a far greater year over year change than any of the other apps on the list.
Here’s a look at OS market share for the U.S.
Facebook has worked hard over the past year or so to build in more functionality to Messenger and really take the app to the next level. They announced integrations for businesses and even turned Messenger into its own developer platform for people to create all kinds of potentially useful integrations.
Just last week, Facebook announced a new feature that lets you request transportation services (such as Uber, which its the initial launch partner). The more functionality like this that Facebook adds, the more dependent on Messenger people are likely to become.
People are spending more and more time with mobile apps, and that includes those that let them buy things. The problem for businesses hoping to break into that increasing app usage is that the number of apps people are using isn’t really growing along with the time they’re spending using apps.
New changes Google has been making could (and should) mean increased discovery for new and existing apps, and could just lead to that number of apps metric increasing as time goes on. It’s going to be challenging to make your business’ app stand out in the crowd, so you should know what kind of app content users are gravitating towards. We’ll look at that in this article.
Are you getting a significant amount of business through mobile apps so far? If not, what do you think needs to change to make it happen? If so, what are the main ways people are discovering your app and/or the content within? Discuss in the comments.
Nielsen released some research showing significant growth trajectory for the time consumers are spending using apps.
“Over the span of just a few years, the concept of app usage has transformed from a novelty to an essential part of the mobile user experience,” the firm says. “With millions of apps now available and more being rolled out every day, there is an app for everyone, regardless of age, race or interest.”
“But while marketers and app developers continue to add functionality and robustness to apps, they also must effectively position them to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” it adds. “Despite the increase in choices, the number of apps used is staying the same.”
As you may know, Google is now indexing app content in search results. Businesses who follow Google’s protocol for app indexing even get the benefit of a ranking signal. It’s in your best interest to have an app and to have it indexed. At first, Google was only offering this on Android, but has recently started to index content on iOS, though it’s still early days on that. Currently, on Android, anyone can take advantage of app indexing. On iOS, Google is only working with a handful of partners so far, but that will likely open up to everyone else eventually. Luckily, Android has a much bigger piece of the mobile operating system market share since it’s on so many different devices from various manufacturers.
With Google’s changes, users can also discover your app even if they haven’t installed it yet, which is key. They (and others) of course offer app install ads to help you convince more people to get your app on their phone to begin with.
You might want to give this presentation from Google I/O a watch. It’s a session called “Smarter user acquisition with App Indexing, AdWords and Google Analytics”.
Here’s how Google describes it: “Content discovery on mobile isn’t easy. Luckily, this is a familiar problem to Google. With App Indexing on both iOS and Android, you can engage users organically by surfacing app content in the search results page. And on Android specifically, you can even drive app installs for users who don’t have your app. Google’s smart mobile ads platform gives you access to AdWords, the world’s largest network, to find the right users who will install and engage with your app, plus you can gain insights through Google Analytics install attribution to know where your users came from. Discover Google’s variety of approaches to driving app discovery, growth and engagement in this session.”
Even if you can get people to install your app, you face the challenge of getting them to open it and interact with it regularly. Google has been working on some things that can help with that as well.
For one, it now offers app deep linking with Goo.gl. This was announced less than a month ago.
“Once you’ve taken the necessary steps to set up App Indexing for Android and iOS, goo.gl URLs will send users straight to the right page in your app if they have it installed, and everyone else to your website. This will provide additional opportunities for your app users to re-engage with your app,” explained Google software engineer Fabian Schlup. “This feature works for both new short URLs and retroactively, so any existing goo.gl short links to your content will now also direct users to your app.”
You can drive traffic to in-app content through your marketing efforts using such links.
Potentially even more helpful for driving re-engagement from users who have installed your app, is Google Now on Tap. Google announced this at Google I/O. With this feature, users can get to useful content from other apps regardless of what app they’re currently using. It’s driven by context.
An example of how it works would be pulling a movie review from IMDb if the user is looking at movie content from another app or reservations on OpenTable if they’re viewing a restaurant in a different app.
Google says Now on Tap another way to get apps in front of users at the right moment. If you have an app with content that people need to see, well, that applies to you. Luckily, beyond app indexing, there’s nothing else you really have to do to be integrated with Now on Tap. Just have your app indexed by Google.
These are really just potential bonuses of app indexing, but the question remains: what do you need to offer in your app to actually get people to use it and buy from you?
comScore and UPS recently conducted a study looking at what kind of content shoppers find important. The content types are product reviews, Q&A, product and brand videos, and photos submitted of consumers using products. These are good places to start.
Other types of app content shoppers find useful include communities and forums, “trending now” products, the seller’s blog content, and podcasts. You might want to think about using some or all of these things in your app. Luckily, most of this stuff is excellent for appearing in search results.
MarketingCharts put together this graph based on the findings.
That study also concluded that 55% of shoppers value consumer and peer reviews when they’re searching and selecting products to buy. Detailed product information is the most important fact in the search and selection process it found. Other important components cited include the seller’s reputation, return policy, and the use of multiple images or the ability to zoom in on products.
While the above lists what content people value from websites, MarketingCharts notes, “Similar factors are important when shopping via mobile applications. Indeed, product images (54%) and product reviews (53%) are considered the most important retail app features among users, with these followed by relevant search results (50%) and mobile coupons (50%). While the study cautions that ‘apps… aren’t a must for every retailer,’ 4 in 5 mobile shoppers surveyed reported having used a retailer’s app rather than a browser to access a retailer at some point.”
This is all very helpful to know, and can help you make your app more useful to consumers.
Nielsen will soon start measuring viewing on Netflix and other streaming services, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, which claims to have reviewed Nielsen client documents.
This, according to the report, will begin as soon as next month, and will also include Amazon Prime Instant Video. Nielsen will reportedly analyze audio components to identify what content is being streamed, but it won’t account for mobile streaming as the technology won’t work on that yet, it says.
The report also includes a quote from Nielsen SVP Brian Fhurer: “Our clients will be able to look at their programs and understand: Is putting content on Netflix impacting the viewership on linear and traditional VOD ?”
The streaming content providers aren’t commenting.
It’s going to be quite interesting to see what the numbers look like once that data becomes available, as all anyone has really had to go on in the past is whatever data companies like Netflix felt like sharing.
The data could have a direct impact on the deals that are made between Netflix/Amazon and content creators and licenses.
Of course, without mobile, the picture will still be far from complete, and it’s unclear whether tablet viewing falls into the mobile category. If so, that will be a very significant chunk of missing data.
Nielsen released some figures on holiday shopping trends as the season approaches. For many, it’s already here.
The holiday shopping season may not be getting off to as big a bang as it did last year, but it’s obviously expected to ramp up significantly very soon.
“Entering the fourth quarter of 2014, retail sales remained sluggish and weaker than they were this time last year,” Nielen reports. “Consumer confidence in the U.S. has been trending upward; however, uncertainty persists, and many consumers still report feeling as though they are still in a recession. That uncertainty and a sluggish equity market could dampen spending this season. Spending over the next few weeks, however, should pick up for retailers, buoyed by positive trends in the job and housing markets, coupled with low fuel prices and lower inflation.”
“Overall, Nielsen expects Americans to up their holiday spending by almost 2% this year, and 22% of us have already made the transition from thinking about the holidays to actually making purchases,” it adds. “When it comes to the battle of the sexes, women are in the lead in terms of jumping into the ring early. In fact, 27% of women say they’ve started their shopping, dwarfing the 12% of men who are in the same camp. And while many men and women say they plan to wait to shop, 10% of women and 18% of men say they’re not going to shop at all this year.”
The report finds that of the 22% of households who are already shopping, 30% have five or more members, and 32% have children under 12.
Additional findings:
All of this info comes from a pair of studies, including a survey of over 25,000 U.S. households in September and sales forecats from an analysis of 92 categories representing $100 billion in sales.
Not surprisingly, Millennials (age 21-34) are leading the way in online shopping compared to other age groups, according to a report from Nielsen.
This age group comprises at least half of all those surveyed who plan to make an online purchase across every product category the firm measures. The most popular categories among the age group are baby supplies, personal care items, toys/dolls, and alcoholic drinks.
“But don’t count older generations out,” Nielsen says. “They represent a sizeable 40% share of online purchase intenders. But reaching the older age set is much more fragmented territory than with their younger counterparts. As can be expected, the older the age, the greater the decline in online shopping intent. Globally, Generation X (age 35-49) respondents comprise about 28% of those willing to make a purchase online, and Baby Boomers (age 50-64) make up about 10%. The Silent Generation (age 65+) contributes roughly 2%. The youngest age group, Generation Z (under age 20), represents about 7% of those who intend to purchase online.
“While the generational mix of online shoppers currently skew younger, attention to the needs of all segments should be considered when developing outreach plans,” said John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives, Nielsen. “Tomorrow’s highest purchase-power consumers are ones who skew much higher for digital shopping. As the population ages, greater percentages of consumers will be connected and online prominence will continue to grow. Building trust at the onset is the foundation for sustaining lifetime loyalty among shoppers.”
We recently looked at some other findings from it related to the product categories with the most purchase intent here.
Nielsen recently released some research looking at mobile app usage, finding that while app usage is up, the number of apps being used isn’t really changing.
According to the report, American adults spent 30 hours and fifteen minutes per month on apps in Q4 2013, which is up 65% from two years before that. The number of apps used remained basically flat at 26.8 apps used per month versus 26.5 apps the previous year.
Nielsen’s Global Head of advertiser solutions Randall Beard writes, “Does this trend of channel overload sound familiar? I see a clear parallel to TV, where even as the number of channels and average hours of consumption have increased over time, the average number of channels watched has stayed close to flat—17, if you’re interested. We’re seeing the same thing in app usage—more overall time spent on apps, but not many more apps being used.”
Beard adds, “Now, ask yourself a really hard question: ‘how likely, really, is it that consumers would use an app from my brand as one of the 27 apps they use each month?’ The answer depends a lot on what kind of brand you have.”
According to the research, over 80% of time spent on apps is in the search, portals, social, entertainment, and communication.
E-commerce is booming, and the coming holiday season will only fuel the fire. New research finds that consumer purchase intent is skyrocketing for many e-commerce categories.
Nielsen says online purchase intention rates for over half of the twenty-two consumer product categories it measures have doubled between 2011 and 2014. The categories seeing the highest growth are ebooks, event tickets, computer software, sporting goods, toys and dolls, music, videos/DVDs/games, baby supplies, flowers, cars, alcoholic drinks, and pet-related products.
Half of people surveyed, the firm says, plan on buying clothing or making an airline or hotel reservation using an online device within the next six months.
Not as many people are buying groceries or other consumable products online, it says, but there there is growth in that area. Here’s a chart looking at the changes over the past three years category-by-category.
“While durable and entertainment-based categories are showing a substantial rise in intent, consumable categories like pet supplies and baby supplies are also gaining traction quickly,” said John Burbank, President of Strategic Initiatives for Nielsen. “While online transactions make it easy to download a book, buy a ticket to a sporting event or book a hotel room, building a consumer base for consumable categories requires more marketing muscle. Finding the right balance between meeting shopper needs for assortment and value, while also building trust and overcoming negative perceptions, such as high costs and shipment fees, is vital for continued and sustainable growth.”
“These shifts in stated purchase intentions are also supported by purchase data that indicates similar trends,” Nielsen says. “The baby supply category is really taking off in China, Korea, France, the U.S. and the U.K. to name a few countries. For example, sales of baby supplies already comprise three of the top 10 most popular categories sold online in China (based on Nielsen’s retail measurement e-commerce market figures). Meanwhile, in Korea, baby supplies make up two of the top 10 categories, and in France, they account for five. Online shopping accounts for a substantial portion of total diaper and infant formula sales in China (29% diapers/23% formula), Korea (10% diapers/22% formula [hypermarket online sales only]) and France (5% diapers/5% formula).”
On the B2B side of things, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business recently released data from its CMO survey (via Marketing Charts) finding that B2B CMOs in the U.S. expect e-commerce to account for roughly 10% of their sales to be through the internet in the next twelve months. That compares to roughly 15% for B2C CMOs.
Are you in B2B or B2C? What percentage of your sales do you expect to come from the internet in the next twelve months? Let us know in the comments.
Note: This article has been updated to include additional information.
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show clearly captivated audiences. How could a one-hour telecast of barely clothed women, jaunting around in diamond undergarments not draw in such a crowd?
The numbers are in and boy are they astonishing. According to Nielsen, the sexy show drew in 9.71 million viewers with a rating of 3.4 among key 18-to-49-year-olds. Those sky-high numbers made it a top-rated telecast among young adults on the major networks. While its rating in the demographic fell 6% from last year, the entire viewership increased by 2%.
But how did the other stations hold up during the fashion show?
While ABC saw a gain with comedy, “The Goldbergs” (up 21% to a 1.7) they seemed to get less of a reaction from the comic book series, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” The midseason finale dropped 23% in 18-49 to a rating of 2.0.
CBS won the night outright with an average audience of 14.4 million and an 18-49 rating of 2.8.
As most fantasy football players are gearing up for their league’s playoffs (or looking to play spoiler, in some cases), it’s prime time to take a look at the fantasy sports landscape – thankfully, Nielsen has done just that.
And as it stands, fantasy sports are still, by and large, a mans game. According to Nielsen’s research, more than two-thirds of fantasy sports players are men (68.4%), and 49% more likely to play than the average U.S. internet user. Still, you can look as these numbers from the other side and say that over 30% of the fantasy sports-playing population are women. Ladies, represent.
The most fantasy-happy age group are those between 25 and 34 years old, and Nielsen found that marital status doesn’t really factor in the decision to create a fantasy team – the split between married and single fantasy sports players was negligible.
And who’s the king of fantasy sports? By a thin margin, it’s Yahoo – followed closely by ESPN.
Here’s my favorite finding from Nielsen’s study, however – a list of things that fantasy sports players are more likely to shop for online as compared to the average U.S. internet user. Yes, beer is on the list.
Also, it appears that fantasy sports players are checking their mobile fantasy apps almost once a day, on average.
“Fantasy sports players are also taking their teams with them on the road, as more than 10 million Americans accessed fantasy football apps on their smartphones, up 15 percent from a year ago. Looking at the top fantasy football apps, Yahoo! and ESPN each had five million unique users, respectively, during September. Overall, fantasy football app users spent 2 hours 14 minutes per person, on average, using these smartphone apps during September 2013, and they opened them 27 times per person on average—that’s almost once a day.”
Brb, I gotta go check the waivers for the 12th time today.
Lead image via ESPN, my Fantasy Football team (#1 in my league, baby), table via Nielsen
The modern smartphone market is now six years old. As the technology improves, analysts are predicting that smartphone markets in the U.S. and Europe will soon reach saturation points, with emerging markets such as Brazil and China leading smartphone growth in the coming years. This week, Nielsen released new research providing some clear evidence for these assumptions.
The new Nielsen report shows that 64% of U.S. mobile phone owners own a smartphone. In addition, 80% of Americans who had recently bought a mobile phone (within the past three months) bought a smartphone.
Nielsen also broke its data down by OS and demographics. Of those recent mobile purchasers, over 90% of them bought either an Android or iOS smartphone, with 61% choosing an Android device. Over half of U.S. smartphones now run Android, while 40% are still iPhones.
It also seems from the report that age is a large factor in smartphone adoption. Half of the Americans still using feature phones are over the age of 55. Twenty-somethings are the leading smartphone users in the U.S., with a full 81% of Americans aged 25 to 34 using the devices. Teens aren’t far behind, with almost 70% of those aged 13 to 17 already using a smartphone.
Nielsen, the long-time leader in TV audience measurements, is taking their methodology online.
Today, the company announced a pilot program for the Nielsen Digital Program Ratings which will track TV content viewed online. The pilot starts with a handful of big-name partners – A+E, ABC, AOL, CBS, The CW, Discovery Communications, FOX, NBC and Univision. The pilot is set to begin in May and run through July, but Nielsen is already announcing that the Digital Program Ratings will see a commercial launch. The pilot program is simply serving to “fine-tune” Nielsen’s methods before they hit primetime, or, later streamed on the internet time – whatever.
“The pilot for Nielsen Digital Program Ratings is a major milestone for the industry,” said Eric Solomon, SVP for Global Digital Audience Measurement at Nielsen. “As a companion product to Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, Nielsen Digital Program Ratings will enable clients to better understand the online audience for their programming by harnessing the same methodology Nielsen already uses to measure the audience for related advertising.”
Nielsen says that they will start by measuring TV content viewed online, on computers. For instance, CBS will be able to see Nielsen’s numbers for how many streams their online content got on their official site. During the pilot, initial results will only be shared with clients, but Nielsen hopes to make the data public when the program sees a full launch later this year.
Of course, Nielsen plans to expand the program to “additional content types and devices” in the future. So we’re talking streams from sites like Hulu or YouTube, made on and iPad or Xbox.
Nielsen already has an presence in online metrics, including web content (YouTube videos and such). They also track websites based on visitors. This pilot program marks their first foray into tracking online streams of traditional TV content, however.
“The potential to measure video viewing of specific programs on linear TV as well as the Internet is significant,” said Alan Wurtzel, President of Research and Media Development, NBCUniversal. “It’s an important step toward reaching the ‘holy grail’ of true cross-platform measurement.”
It’s an interesting move from Nielsen, but the online viewership tracking won’t really come into its true form until Nielsen is measuring all types of online TV streaming across all types of devices. Although Nielsen is just announcing this pilot program, it’s clear that full inclusion is what they envision.
Are you the kind of person who uses their mobile device during a movie? If so, shame on you. That being said, you’re not alone as new research has found that most moviegoers use some kind of mobile device to augment the experience.
In Nielsen’s 2012 American Moviegoing report, the group found that mobile moviegoers “spend more, consume more content and are more actively engaged in the moviegoing process.” The report found that the moviegoers are increasingly moving to mobile with 69 percent of moviegoers owning a smartphone and 29 percent owning a tablet. It also found that mobile device owners see more movies with smartphone owners seeing nine percent more movies, and tablet owners seeing 20 percent more movies last year compared to their non-mobile device owning contemporaries.
Outside of the theater, tablet owners are the biggest film consumers. The report says that they watched 47 movies on average last year, 10 more than the average moviegoer. Tablet owners are also more likely to spend more, and buy their tickets online.
Being closely tied to mobile, social media’s impact on the moviegoer experience can not be ignored either. Nielsen’s report found that that the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age ranges used social media the most to discuss films. The overall moviegoer population is seeing increases in social media use as well.
From a certain point of view, this is great news for marketers who can take advantage of new advertising venues on mobile to reach a larger audience. I just ask that you turn off your phone during the movie. The annoying warning before the movie starts is there for a reason.
The findings indicate that a mix of media and word of mouth advertising bring about the most success in raising consumer awareness, and the most persuasive awareness drivers include a mix of activities like in-store discovery, TV, print advertisements, advice from family/friends, free samples, searching the Internet, and professional/expert word-of-mouth advice.
“Consumers increasingly find the Internet and mobile are compelling vehicles to get information about new products,” the firm says. “However, potential reach and ease of execution varies substantially.”
As you can see, all other methods listed are more effective than text messages. It appears that marketers may be better off reaching consumers on their mobile devices via Internet channels like search, websites,articles, forums, social media, video sharing sites, and even banner ads.
The Walking Dead returned to television on Sunday night, and it just happened to beat its own record for ratings at the same time. The show, as you may know, returned from a midseason hiatus, hooking in users anxious for its return.
The AP reports (via ABC), citing Nielsen numbers, that the midseason premiere set a series record on Sunday night with 12.3 million viewers, beating its previous record, which was set when AMC ran the season premiere in October (10.9 million). According to the report, 7.7 million of this past Sunday’s viewers were between the ages of 18 and 49 – a record on its own, for a cable show for that demographic.
For those who have yet to see the midseason premiere, AMC is offering it online for free until Sunday, March 10th. The network will not be offering other episodes of the series as free online streams, but they want to get fans started off, so if you’re interested, you have a few weeks.
Twitter and Nielsen have joined forces on a new industry-standard metric called Nielsen Twitter TV Rating. It’s based completely on Twitter data.
The multi-year agreement enables Twitter and Nielsen to offer the new metric for commercial availability starting next fall.
“As the experience of TV viewing continues to evolve, our TV partners have consistently asked for one common benchmark from which to measure the engagement of their programming,” says Twitter Head of Media, Chole Sladden. “This new metric is intended to answer that request, and to act as a complement and companion to the Nielsen TV rating.”
“The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating is a significant step forward for the industry, particularly as programmers develop increasingly captivating live TV and new second-screen experiences, and advertisers create integrated ad campaigns that combine paid and earned media,” said Steve Hasker, President, Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen. “As a media measurement leader we recognize that Twitter is the preeminent source of real-time television engagement data.”
“Ultimately, we have one goal for this new metric: to make watching TV with Twitter even better for you, the TV fan,” says Sladden.
The metric will complement Nielsen’s existing TV ratings. The companies say that the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating will give advertisers “the real-time metrics required to understand TV audience social activity”.
According to a report from Nielsen, your susceptibility to and tolerance of social media advertising is tied to your ethnicity.
Nielsen looked at interactions with social ads and found that Asian-American consumers are much more likely to react positively, all across the board. They were more likely to share an ad, like an ad, and make a purchase based on the ad.
Whites were the least likely to share, like, or buy from a social media ad, with Hispanics and African-Americans falling in between the two.
Nielsen also found that of those who made a purchase after viewing an ad, most obtained a coupon first. Check out their mini-infographic below:
Nielsen also had this to say on the current state of social media advertising:
“Consumer attitudes towards advertising on social media are still evolving, though a third of social media users agree that ads on social networking sites are more annoying than other online ads. More than a quarter of users say they don’t mind seeing tailored ads based on their individual profile information. Not only do consumers not mind certain ads, they also engage with them by liking or sharing an ad (26% and 15%, respectively), or actually making a purchase (14%). As attitudes towards advertisements evolve, and ads become more accepted based on consumers’ responsiveness level, social media platforms can become more and more like traditional, ad-supported media.”
Another recent study from Adobe/Edelman Berland painted a still pretty bleak picture of online ad credibility. Over half of respondents said that most online marketing was “a bunch of bullshit,” and 68% said they were “annoyed” by online ads. In fact, people said they were 7 times more likely to pay attention to their dentist than pay attention to an online ad.
As a country, we are obsessed with liking, sharing, tweeting, and pinning. Seriously obsessed. Nielsen has just published their Social Media Report for 2012 and the numbers are staggering.
According to Nielsen, Americans spent a total of 121.1 billion minutes on social media sites during the month of July. Make a few calculations and we find that over 230 millennia was spent on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networks in a four week span. That’s just incredible. Nielsen’s stats include sites like Blogger and Tumblr, so were really talking about social networking and blogging here – but still, it’s pretty unbelievable.
Year-over-year our total time on social media increased a whopping 32.7 billion minutes.
Nielsen also determined that our socia media obsession is moving more toward mobile. While 87.8 uniques accessed social media via mobile (web and apps combined) in July of 2011, 166.9 did so in July of 2012. When you look at who is doing the most social networking, Nielsen’s findings echo previous claims that say young women are the most active.
Facebook remained the top social network, followed by Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, and LinkedIn. Pinterest saw the biggest increase from 2011, with users spending 1.25 billion minutes via web, 120 million via app, and 720 million via mobile web.
You can check out Nielsen’s full social media report here.
