Here are some things that every marketer knows: The media landscape is transforming. The marketplace is fragmented as consumers face a world of options for consuming content. This wealth of choices is reshaping consumer behavior in ways never before seen as viewers can choose everything from the source, device, location and time that best suits their needs.
And here’s what every marketer wants: The ability to measure viewership today and how can you get the kind of apples-to-apples numbers that not only let you take action against your buys but let you understand the true financial impact.
How viewership has changed
Let’s first look at the changing media landscape. The Nielsen Total Audience Report found that on average U.S. adults spent more than 11 hours a day connected to linear and digital media and almost six hours a day with video alone during the first quarter of 2018.
The report also reveals that two-thirds of U.S. TV households have devices capable of streaming content to the TV set and that one in 10 minutes of television viewership in these homes happens through streaming. Even in non-television households, more than 8 in 10 are still viewing video content. All of this reinforces the fact that consumers are increasingly customizing their own media usage, choosing the content that matters most to them, in the form and at the time they prefer.
The currency for critical decisions
But as viewership goes through its radical transformation, the currency the industry relies on to transact and make critical decisions has to keep up.
Increasingly, marketers are pursuing a range of strategies depending on their audience, programming and other factors. Whether it’s guaranteeing advanced audiences on digital or TV, or connecting a campaign to sales lift, a variety of metrics are required to fully monetize audiences.
Consequently, marketers are looking for flexibility outside the current industry currency commonly known as C3/C7.
The need for gold-standard measurement
As the currency evolves, there is one core component that must stay the same: Any metric that is intended for use in a transaction must be a derivative of gold-standard, high-quality, persons-level data. This caliber of data is the foundation for accurate audience measurement. It builds off the identification of unique viewers and the frequency at which they were reached.
Nielsen’s Total Audience Measurement solutions create this foundation using a standardized set of currency metrics, such as Digital Ad Ratings or traditional linear TV data. These reach and frequency measures are sourced from long-trusted universe estimates, enabling marketers to know traditional age/gender audiences, but also to inform things like how many potential dog food buyers or auto purchase intenders they can realistically reach through an advanced audience buy.
This is why we call persons-based measurement a foundation of truth.
The reason is pretty straightforward: Without knowing your actual addressable market, you’ll never have an accurate measurement. Nielsen’s data is the only true foundation on which advanced audiences and outcomes can be calculated and used as currency. That’s necessary to make the important decisions that will impact the bottom line.
While the industry continues to debate the evolving direction of currency, Nielsen will continue to serve the industry with viable solutions that enable marketers to fully monetize the expanding universe of metrics.
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Megan Clarken is global president of Watch for Nielsen, the world’s largest research company with a market cap of $16.13 billion and more than 40,000 associates across 106 countries. Megan represents Nielsen to the investment community and key stakeholders through frequent public speaking appearances, op-eds and other commentary in the press globally.
