NBCU Details Winter Olympics Ad Measurement Test With iSpot.tv to Fix ‘Broken’ System

As NBCUniversal’s Winter Olympics coverage ramps up today ahead of Friday’s Opening Ceremony, the company is taking the wraps off its measurement test and learn that will take place during the 19-day event. Last month, NBCUniversal set iSpot.tv as its first certified measurement partner in the company’s lengthy efforts to create a new currency for cross-platform measurement on its One Platform ad offering. The companies will team up for Q1 currency tests across One Platform in Super Bowl 56, the Winter Olympics and Q1 scatter. And now NBCU is sharing more specifics about the Olympics test and learn, which will involve nine advertisers from the six major holding companies. (The Super Bowl and Q1 scatter tests have “a different mix” of advertisers, said Kelly Abcarian, evp, measurement and impact, NBCUniversal.) Compared to Nielsen’s metrics, “the counting is radically different,” said Abcarian of the iSpot.tv data. “For the first time, we are moving toward a true commercial-based rating, qualifying linear television impressions at a second-by-second level, versus this average-minute, proxy-based program rating that is used across the industry today.” NBCU Sets iSpot.tv as First Alternative Measurement Partner The Olympics test and learn will focus solely on a client’s campaign level data, removing all program level data and other advertising to highlight “your individual unit delivery, helping you to precisely understand the audience we delivered to you,” Abcarian wrote in a letter sent last week to NBCU’s Olympics test and learn marketing partners. iSpot.tv will update its Olympics dashboard to measure campaign performance by noon ET each day, providing on unified, de-duplicated linear and digital measurement within 48 hours. The new metrics, according to the company, will give advertisers more accurate and impactful measurement data about their campaigns. Fixing what is ‘broken’ NBCUniversal is one of many media companies, including WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS, actively developing alternative measurement metrics following Nielsen’s public stumbles during the pandemic. Last week, the Video Advertising Bureau released a new study estimating that Nielsen’s undercounting of out-of-home audiences for national TV programming between September 2020 and December 2021—which Nielsen admitted to in December—accounted for as much as $700 million in lost ad inventory over that 16-month period. “Nielsen ratings are broken,” said Abcarian. “Now it's time for our industry to move forward and help our advertisers get this right, so we can move on to measuring impact for our clients.” The company will air more than 2,800 hours of Games coverage across its platforms, but only about 200 hours of that will be on NBC. The rest will be spread across USA and CNBC cable networks, streamer Peacock (which will livestream all of NBCU’s Olympics coverage for the first time) and its digital platforms. Nielsen won’t fully deploy its new cross-platform metric, Nielsen One, for two more years, but “we don’t need to wait until 2024 to count it all, see it all and value it all, which is critically important because our advertisers need to be able to understand the totality of the delivery that we provide, that is not just about linear television,” said Abcarian. Tokyo Games test NBCU's Beijing test follows an internal test and learn during last summer’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which involved 16 advertiser campaigns and six measurement companies. The Summer Olympics study showed more reach and impressions across those campaigns, even inside linear, which Abcarian said proves that “the linear instrument is outdated and broken and is unable to fully count the entire audience.” Last summer’s test also proved that “multiple” measurement companies are ready to transact on their cross-platform metrics, said Abcarian. While iSpot.tv is NBCU’s only certified measurement partner so far, Abcarian said that more companies will be added to the mix. NBCUniversal transacted all of its Winter Olympics advertising on its Total Audience Delivery metric, but will report several different metrics during the Games that the company says represents a more complete consumer and advertiser picture, including Nielsen and iSpot reach numbers, programming and advertising highlights, advertiser insights and brand impact, social platform highlights, along with streaming and digital engagement. Going forward, the company hopes to transact these new metrics for future Olympics, said Dan Lovinger, formerly NBC Sports ad sales chief, who was just promoted to president, NBC advertising sales and partnerships, and has stepped into a new role focused solely on monetizing all of NBCUniversal’s Olympic and Paralympic interests. NBCUniversal has been working on alternative currency plans since last summer, and received more than 100 proposals from measurement companies about how best to verify and measure audiences. Ultimately, iSpot.tv, which signed a multi-year deal with NBCU, will be one of many measurement partners NBCUniversal selects as it creates a currency that paints a more complete consumer picture. Winter Olympics ad sales Two weeks ago, Lovinger said that Winter Olympics ad sales for Beijing are on par with the Games in Pyeongchang in 2018. “We still have some work to be done between now and the end of the Games, but we feel really confident that we’re going to achieve all of our goals,” said Lovinger. So far, nearly 100 advertisers—40 of them new—are on board for the Winter Olympics, which Lovinger said is on par with where NBC Sports was at the same point heading into the Games in Pyeongchang. NBCUniversal’s measurement efforts will also be a key focus part of One22, its annual developer conference, which is set for March 22.