NBCU Uses Nielsen Cross-Platform for Olympics

NEW YORK —Digital video viewing saw double-digit growth in 2013*, making cross-platform insights critical for marketers—particularly when it comes to marquee events like the Olympics. To better understand exactly how consumers watched the 2014 Winter Games across TV, online and mobile, NBCUniversal participated in an exclusive pilot using soon-to-be-released Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings mobile measurement and Nielsen’s proprietary Software Development Kit.

Nielsen is making a significant mobile push this year, expanding to measure advertising and programs across platforms, both linear and dynamic ad models.

To determine consumer exposure to advertising across all NBC Olympics channels, watching on one screen or multiple, NBCUniversal tapped Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings. The solution combines Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings reporting with TV ratings to deliver unduplicated and incremental reach, frequency and gross rating point measures by age and gender for TV and digital advertising. The pilot looked at five national ad campaigns that ran heavily across platforms.

“We’re living in a cross-platform world. Whether you’re 45, living in Boise and watching on your big screen or a 19-year-old tuning in from your smartphone at a Starbucks in Atlanta, we need to be able to capture your ad exposure,” said Megan Clarken, executive vice president of Global Product Leader for Nielsen. “This pilot with NBCUniversal is proof that it’s possible, and offers a preview of the cross-platform measurement capabilities that will be available to the marketplace this year.”

Mobile will be included in Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings in Q3 and in the C3 TV rating this fall.

*Nielsen Cross-Platform Report. Q4 2013. Average monthly time spent watching video on the Internet (computer) and on a mobile device compared to Q4 2012.