Nielsen Co. Friday launched DemoWatch, a new feature of its Web-based commercial tracking service KeepingTrac that will let advertisers monitor the demographic composition of audiences.
DemoWatch links the demographic information from Nielsen’s overnight TV ratings with the commercial monitoring ability of KeepingTrac to help advertisers and their agencies make sure their commercials reach the intended audience.
For example, DemoWatch will help advertisers of food, alcohol, prescription drug and R-rated movies to adhere to advertising guidelines for children and take immediate corrective action if their commercials violate those guidelines.
KeepingTrac provides next-day confirmation of TV commercial airings for broadcast networks, national cable networks and TV stations in all 210 U.S. TV markets, and matches the ratings data against the media-buy schedule. It also monitors media buying guidelines to be sure that the correct creative is airing during the desired programs and dayparts.
The commercial tracking system, which captures commercials that have been encoded with a digital watermark, is particularly valuable for campaigns where real-time performance evaluation is critical. For example, the DemoWatch tool helps advertisers and their agencies automatically detect commercials that may inadvertently reach unintended audiences such as children and teens so that corrective action can be taken immediately.
In July, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services held a workshop on Children’s Obesity and Marketing, which resulted in 11 of the largest U.S. food companies to adopt new rules governing advertising to children under 12. The Better Business Bureau will monitor and report on adherence to these new rules usingKeepingTrac.
