Nielsen and Adobe are teaming up to measure and analyze the audiences for digital content that appears on websites and apps and is viewed on different digital devices.
The companies say Nielsen’s new Digital Content Ratings, Powered by Adobe will offer comparable metrics for desktop, smartphone, tablet, game-console and over-the-top device consumption of video and other content.
ESPN, Turner Broadcasting and Sony are among the media companies beta testing the system, which is expected to be available in 2015.
“One of the challenges in digital measurement has been lack of alignment between site analytics and syndicated measurement data, and we will be working with Nielsen and Adobe to help resolve this,” said Artie Bulgrin, senior VP for global research and analytics at ESPN, which creates a lot of cross-platform content and sells advertisers cross-platform marketing campaigns.
Nielsen is in a competition with comScore to measure online audiences. The strategic partnership with Adobe supports Nielsen’s new Digital Content Ratings. The companies say the integration of Nielsen’s numbers with Adobe’s data is expected to accelerate the adoption of a digital ratings currency.
Advertisers will be able to use the data and analytics to better allocate ad dollars and optimize their marketing campaigns to reach specific audiences.
Nielsen data will be embedded in Adobe Primetime to give broadcasters and cable networks that ability to measure audience and viewing behavior across devices.
“Online TV consumption is at an all-time high and Adobe and Nielsen are two leaders coming together to standardize audience measurement for digital content,” said Brad Rencher, senior VP and general manager, digital marketing at Adobe. “Major media companies and broadcasters already depend on Adobe to bring TV across screens better understand digital viewer engagement. Once complete, our partnership with Nielsen will provide analytics tied with ratings –benefitting advertisers, media companies, and consumers alike.”
The combination of data and analytics will also be useful as addressable advertising and programmatic buying and selling become more pervasive.
“This alliance is expected to accelerate the adoption of consistent and comprehensive measurement across screens,” said Megan Clarken, executive VP, global product leadership, at Nielsen. “This will give Nielsen and Adobe clients access to analytics against industry-grade audience metrics that enable smarter buying and selling decisions. By integrating our technologies, together we’ll be able to offer our customers a more seamless and efficient way to enable cross-platform deliver and measurement.”
