comScore Announces Campaign Ratings to Solve Cross-Platform Video Ad Measurement Challenge

By Sudipto Ghosh On Jul 31, 2018

comscore’s New Product Will Offer Unduplicated Campaign Measurement Across Linear TV, Network OTT and Hulu on Desktop, Mobile, and Living Room Devices

comScore has announced a pilot program for its newest solution aimed to solve the industry’s need for sophisticated cross-platform video advertising measurement. The product, called Campaign Ratings, launches in beta this September with ABC, CBS, CNN, Disney, Fox, Freeform, GroupM, NBCUniversal, The CW Network, Turner, and Viacom, and will provide media buyers and sellers with trusted, unduplicated measurement of ad campaigns across linear TV, over-the-top (OTT), desktop, and mobile platforms, with streaming measurement powered by Hulu.

Currently, comScore is a trusted partner for planning, transacting, and evaluating media across platforms.

Bryan Wiener, CEO of comScore, said, “The measurement gap in advertising has hampered media brands from fully articulating the value of their audiences and advertisers from gaining an accurate understanding of campaign performance.”

Bryan added, “We heard from customers that cross-platform video measurement is a pain point that continues to magnify as audience viewership and engagement proliferates across screens. We’re excited to collaborate with these industry-leading partners on a product that will reduce friction and enable media buyers and sellers to drive business growth.”

The new solution will include an unduplicated view of total audiences across linear TV and digital platforms, person-level reach and co-viewing insights, and reliable audience demographics. comScore will incorporate feedback from beta partners to iterate on and optimize future releases of the product.

comScore’s recent “State of OTT” report highlighted that two-thirds of OTT audiences are also watching linear TV, demonstrating the convergence of digital and linear video consumption and a growing need for unduplicated, cross-platform measurement. In fact, another recent comScore study revealed that OTT alone increased the average number of linear TV viewers for a specific network program by 20 percent. When also combined with mobile and desktop, linear TV viewership for that same program increased by 42 percent, with audience reach increasing by 33 percent.

Given these trends, comScore is partnering with Hulu to power the product’s OTT measurement capability. The comScore “State of OTT” report found that Hulu viewers watched more hours of content per household than any other subscription service. Hulu has amassed more than 20 million U.S. subscribers as of May 2018.

This program is the first step in a broader company initiative to develop comprehensive and unduplicated measurement across all platforms and content types. As part of this initiative, comScore will continue to work with leading media buyers and sellers to create a true cross-platform solution made for the industry, by the industry.

What Customers are Saying

“The market is ripe for true cross-platform measurement that provides critical insight into unduplicated audience reach and co-viewing behavior,” said Radha Subramanyam, Chief Research and Analytics Officer, CBS.

Radha added, “We’re passionate about this initiative and look forward to partnering with comScore’s new leadership on a solution with the potential to move our entire industry forward.”

“CNN has a history of collaborating on new measurement solutions with comScore, notably as an Xmedia launch partner, in order to capture the full multi-platform scope of the CNN brand,” said Robin Garfield, SVP of research and scheduling, CNN.

Robin added, “This beta is another important step towards that goal and will ultimately help the entire industry accelerate investments in content experiences across a growing number of platforms and environments.”

“We continually work with partners and research companies to identify multiplatform measurement solutions that better serve our clients by providing them with a holistic understanding of their audiences and how they engage with brands,” said Elizabeth Sloan, SVP Consumer Insights, Disney|ABC Television Group.

“Supporting the development of a unified, third-party, audience metric covering all video platforms has been a priority for GroupM. A robust, comprehensive video currency is essential to maintaining a healthy video marketplace where agencies can productively trade clients’ budgets with media partners,” said Ed Gaffney, Head of Implementation Research and Marketplace Analysis, GroupM.

Ed added, “We look forward to the shared learning we’ll achieve with our clients by participating in the pilot of this new audience metric.”

“By powering comScore’s cross-platform measurement product for OTT, we’re giving marketers more options for measurement and a third-party validation of the incremental reach only Hulu provides at scale,” said Julie DeTraglia, Vice President and Head of Research at Hulu.

Julie added, “Our partnership with comScore is just another step towards achieving comprehensive measurement for the entire industry.”

“As NBCUniversal continues to seek out the best cross-platform measurement practices, and build on the momentum we’ve created with CFlight, we look forward to working with our measurement partners on new approaches,” said Kavita Vazirani, Executive Vice President, Insights and Measurement, NBCUniversal.

Kavita added, “Industry adoption of new measurement methodologies will be key in keeping up with the changes in consumption of our content.”

“Consumers are watching more video than ever, which underscores the importance of efforts by Turner and the industry as a whole to measure the impact of advertising across every screen, platform and environment,” said Beth Rockwood, vice president of portfolio research, Turner.

Beth added, “Providing measurement that can facilitate accurate planning, and fully value premium video is a priority for both buyers and sellers, and we look forward to expanding on our efforts with comScore through this beta to create measurement solutions that advance the industry.”

“This is a critical effort, not for the future of television, but for its present,” said Bryson Gordon, Executive Vice President of Advanced Advertising at Viacom.

Bryson added, “Closing the cross-platform measurement gap, that once intractable market challenge, with innovation across the industry like the comScore Campaign Ratings pilot and OpenAP’s platform for advanced advertising, will help to propel the industry’s transformation towards new currencies, products and consumer experiences.”

With a data footprint that combines digital, linear TV, over-the-top and theatrical viewership intelligence with advanced audience insights, comScore allows media buyers and sellers to quantify their multiscreen behavior and make business decisions with confidence. A proven leader in measuring digital and set-top box audiences and advertising at scale, comScore is the industry’s emerging, third-party source for reliable and comprehensive cross-platform measurement.