I have been reading an increasing number of U.S. industry trade articles and blogs discussing co-operative audience measurement, even though this term isn’t commonly used in the Australian market, we have been leaders in this space since the launch of the first ratings based on tags place on publisher’s sites by Red Sheriff (later purchased by Nielsen) in 1999. These early ratings – including brands such Looksmart, City Search and a raft of F2 sites – were made possible because the publishers understood the value of having accurate comparable data in market.
July 25 saw the latest evolution in Australian digital audience measurement with Nielsen’s daily Digital Content Ratings (DCR) launching measuring text, video and audio content. Again the accuracy and depth of the ratings data is assisted by media owners allowing third-party measurement tracking and a new SDK enabled on their sites, apps and video content. Nielsen are referring to this as Team Sport – a little American sounding for me but I am sure you get the drift.
DCR launched with data on more than 1,000 sites, apps & streaming players providing unduplicated daily audience data across key digital devices – this level of cooperation by media owners is not yet present in other major markets. Australian DCR launched with three times as many apps as in the U.S. where the focus is almost solely on video content.
In my opinion three of the main advantages of DCR in market for both media buyers and sellers are:
- Audience numbers for smaller sites and publishers – To date these properties have had traffic data in Nielsen’s Market Intelligence product but the underlying media panel for Digital Ratings Monthly has not been large enough to give accurate people-based metrics.
- Attribution of traffic and audiences within social and apps back to content originators – Off-platform audience growth and marketing strategies will be fairly reflected in the official ratings currency. In the current monthly currency, Digital Ratings Monthly, this traffic is only reflected in the distributing platform (e.g. Facebook, Google AMP, etc). Publishers will need to work with Nielsen to enable this tracking.
- Video reporting enhancements – Beyond daily video data being available in market, enhanced data on video consumption on smartphones and tablets will enable a new monthly market data. July 25 will see a new market number for the number of people who view video on desktop, mobile and tablet and how long they spend each month.
The launch on the July 25 was not the final stage – not all publishers will have everything tracked, changes will need to be made as content distribution methods and technology change and consumers continue to change their behaviour – but having an independent third-party measurement system that allows all media owners to be measured in the same way is incredibly important to the IAB and our members, particularly the 17 media owners that participate in the IAB Measurement Council and oversee the development of the digital currency run by Nielsen.
(Companies that have representatives on the IAB Measurement Council: ABC, Bauer, Carsales, The Daily Mail, Facebook, Fairfax Media, Google, News Corporation, Nine, Pacific Publications, REA, SCA, Seven, Telstra, TEN, West Australians Newspapers and Yahoo7.)
Listen our latest podcast all about DCR below (or listen on iTunes here).
