ABC Kicks off First-Ever Nielsen Trial to Measure Ad Campaigns in Mobile Apps

Will Provide Demographic Data for Tablet and Smartphone Media

NEW YORK – Nielsen and ABC announced the network’s participation in Nielsen’s first-ever trial to expand its Nielsen Online Campaign RatingsTM solution to mobile. Quickly emerging as the standard for online campaign measurement, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings measures the audience of digital advertising. Incorporating mobile apps will significantly extend the solution’s coverage footprint, which currently includes computer and tablet browsers.

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“When we first launched Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings 18 months ago, we knew that it was the beginning of a market-moving shift in digital advertising. For the first time, it enabled all parties to understand the audience of an ad campaign using metrics comparable to TV”

The proliferation of mobile devices coupled with the ease-of-use of the in-app environment has contributed to significant growth in video viewing on both smartphones and tablets in recent years, according to Nielsen research. Through the Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings pilot program, ABC will be able to measure audience demographics and understand the reach and frequency of online campaigns across ABC content on the web and in mobile apps.

ABC’s Geri Wang, President of Sales, announced their participation in the pilot during today’s ABC Upfront presentation. “An increasing amount of our digital video viewing comes from apps on mobile devices, so the ability to understand who sees ads is crucial for our business,” said Wang. “Viewers have demonstrated that they want to watch ABC content everywhere they can, and that increasingly means on their smartphones and tablets. This trial with Nielsen is a significant next step in allowing us to help advertisers see the whole picture, and make our ABC Unified offering even more compelling.”

ABC and Nielsen have a history of collaboration and innovation around multi-platform advertising. Earlier this year, ABC began comprehensive use of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings to provide advertisers with metrics for their ABC Unified offering – one buy across all screens. In 2012, ABC and Nielsen announced work to develop a custom tablet measurement panel and consumer insights connecting media exposure with purchase behavior using Nielsen Buyer Insights.

“When we first launched Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings 18 months ago, we knew that it was the beginning of a market-moving shift in digital advertising. For the first time, it enabled all parties to understand the audience of an ad campaign using metrics comparable to TV,” said Cheryl Idell, Executive Vice President, Client Solutions for Nielsen. “In that period, mobile usage has skyrocketed and the need to extend our measurement has become clear. We are excited to be announcing this pilot and to collaborate with ABC once again to deliver high-powered, multi-platform insights into the market.”

The mobile expansion of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings will use a similar approach to the solution’s Media Rating Council-accredited methodology, which combines the industry-leading Nielsen Cross-Platform Homes panel with data from providers, to measure all ads, including video and display, within iOS and Android apps. The pilot runs through summer 2013.

ABOUT NIELSEN CAMPAIGN RATINGS

Nielsen Campaign Ratings delivers clients comprehensive, comparable metrics for TV and online advertising campaigns. Part of the Nielsen Campaign Ratings product suite, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings combines Nielsen’s Cross-Platform Homes panel data with aggregated, anonymous, privacy-protected demographic information from participating online data providers. Campaign reporting is available the day after the launch of a campaign, providing vital delivery information in-flight to both advertisers and publishers. Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings, also part of the suite, draws upon Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings as well as Nielsen’s proprietary TV data to deliver unduplicated and incremental reach, frequency and GRP measures for TV and Internet advertising.

ABOUT NIELSEN

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

*Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings is the first Internet measurement system that provides demographic ratings for online advertising campaigns of any size with certain metrics comparable to those used for TV advertising to be accredited by the MRC.