GroupM, Nielsen to develop cross-platform advertising measurement tool

The goal is to overcome challenges posed by separate media planning, buying, and analysis processes for TV and the Internet, and to answer a growing demand by advertisers for cross-platform measurement tools that help them streamline their marketing strategies.

The new service, dubbed Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings, will be designed to leverage the Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings product, as well as its existing television audience measurement capabilities, to provide clients with total and overlapped reach and frequency of their marketing campaigns. Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings provides reach, frequency and GRP measures for Internet advertising.

The effort calls for GroupM, one of the world's leading media investment management companies, and Nielsen, a leading global information and measurement company, each to contribute resources and expertise to create Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings and make it available to GroupM clients. The two companies will also work together to develop innovative new measurement tools that extend beyond TV and online to other platforms.

'Consistent measurement is vital'

"Our advertiser clients increasingly recognise that traditional television advertising and online video advertising must work together," said Rino Scanzoni, GroupM's chief investment officer. "It's vital that we have consistent measurement, and that's our goal in working with Nielsen."

Executives from both companies said consistent measurement across TV, the web and beyond is critical in order to calculate the total reach and frequency of a cross-platform campaign - a goal previously unattainable because TV and web measurement traditionally employ different metrics.

"Cross-platform metrics are essential to both buyers and sellers of advertising," said Steve Hasker, president of Media Products and Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen. "Every day, we're hearing from advertisers, online publishers, TV networks and agencies that a better system of measurement is required. Through working closely with GroupM and others in the industry we believe we can help create best practices that will benefit the entire ecosystem."

About GroupM

GroupM is a leading global media investment management operation. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare. Our primary purpose is to maximise the performance of WPP's media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise our company are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of our company is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.

For more information go to GroupM.