The Nielsen Company has announced the development of a new product called Online Campaign Ratings, which the research company hopes will become a widely accepted metric for measuring Internet media usage.
"This is a major step forward for both Nielsen and our industry," said Nielsen media products president Steve Hasker. "This new system will provide marketers with a better understanding of their ROI, and will give media companies a much needed tool to prove the value of their audiences. Perhaps most importantly, marketers and media companies alike will now have a simpler way to measure the combined reach of TV, the web and even mobile advertising. Reach alone doesn't tell the whole story, however, and Nielsen intends to combine the ratings with cross-platform advertising effectiveness metrics to provide a complete view."
The product attempts to address the long-standing complaint among media agencies that existing metrics don't effectively measure online audiences.
The new ratings will be tested in the fourth quarter by advertisers including Procter & Gamble and Verizon Wireless, as well as major media agencies including Starcome MediaVest.
