Nielsen to Add Hyper-Targeted Ad Measurement to National TV Ratings

Nielsen is adding hyper-targeted ad measurements to its National TV currency, a long sought-after addition that should please advertisers who are wary that Nielsen is missing key swaths of people who are watching commercials. With so-called “addressable” TV advertising, sponsors can target consumers down to the household level and break down viewers by a much wider swath of categories such as income level, lifestyle and shopping interests. This is much more granular than the age and gender demographics that Nielsen typically measures — and could lead to consumers seeing different TV commercials than their next-door neighbors. The system has gained prominence thanks to the advent of connected TVs and streaming devices, which Nielsen now says are in 77% of all U.S. homes. According to eMarketer, addressable TV advertising spend will reach $3.6 billion by 2022, which would mark a 75% increase from this past August. Nielsen said that more advertisers are inserting addressable ads into linear broadcast feeds. Nielsen will add roughly 55 million devices across smart TVs and set-top boxes to help scale addressable TV measurement. Nielsen’s addressable measurement will include DirecTV, Dish Network, Nielsen Advanced Video Advertising and addressable campaigns on Vizio devices that utilize the open addressable standard developed by Project OAR, an addressable TV advertising consortium led by Vizio. Nielsen plans to begin sharing preview data in the first half of 2021. “As TV continues to become more digital in nature, there is greater demand for comprehensive independent measurement of reach and frequency that’s scaled across linear and advanced TV,” said Scott Brown, GM of Audience Measurement at Nielsen. “Addressable TV advertising can only scale if media buyers and sellers can monetize those impressions. By marrying big data with Nielsen’s high-quality panels, we can ensure all metrics are representative, accurate and trusted. This is a critical first step to help scale addressability and lay the foundation for a holistic cross media measurement system.” “This expansion of our relationship could not come at a more important time for the industry,” said Rick Welday, executive vice president and general manager, AT&T Broadband and Video. “The combination of our expertise and leadership in addressable advertising with Nielsen’s decades of experience as the backbone of TV measurement will unlock the power of National Addressable TV. It is a win for national TV networks, a win for integrity in measurement, and most importantly, a win for advertisers.” “Nielsen has been a strategic partner of DISH Network for several years and we’re excited to expand this relationship to give advertisers and programmers the option to reliably measure addressable campaigns that leverage our data and tech stack,”  Kemal Bokhari, Dish Media General Manager of Data & Analytics, said. “We continue to advocate for innovation and collaboration across the industry, and this is a great step toward that vision.” “The goal from the outset of OAR has been to help the industry rapidly evolve the technology and infrastructure to make linear advertising more responsive and relevant to the interests of the viewer while giving inventory owners and brands a better value proposition for TV on the whole,” said Adam Gaynor, VP of Network Partnerships and Head of Addressable at Vizio. “We are encouraged that Nielsen is making the investment to measure addressable advertising at scale as it will accelerate industry adoption and ultimately provide a better experience to viewers at home.”