Tag: contributors

There’s been a lot of energy and excitement in media circles of late about the future of measurement and the promise of big data. At Nielsen, we’ve long understood the value of big data, in fact just last month we announced additional details around how we are adding it to our national TV measurement service. 

We also know that no panel is perfect, as the past few months have demonstrated. 

But when our teams of data scientists hear some of the big, broad claims about big data coming to save the day and fix all the perceived challenges in the industry, it’s hard not to be skeptical.

That’s because, for all it’s value and amazing potential, the big data sets that the industry currently has access to have very real limitations. 

A relevant recent example

After losing access to Nielsen’s Portable People Meters, Comscore reported that it will now be using data sets from Experian’s ConsumerView to help them identify individual viewers for measurement purposes. Their announcement was framed in the trade press as an advancement – after all, if big data is the future, any shift in that direction must be a good thing. 

Unfortunately for their customers, and for consumers, that’s not the case. 

There are a handful of third-party identity vendors out there who provide the ability to match data sets based on personally identifiable information and provide demographic characteristics, both directly collected and modeled. 

At Nielsen, we regularly check this data. We do it by directly measuring information from our robust panels to validate how accurate these data sets are in 1) correctly matching to a household and 2) accurately reporting demographics and characteristics. 

What we typically find should give advertisers pause. 

The majority of data sets out there today are built around billing information or online behavior collection, not demographic profiles. They don’t have the rich details about exactly who the people are on their lists—from age, to income, to race and ethnicity—the way you do with a robust panel. These data sets, because they’re created by machine-to-machine transfers, also increase the possibility of waste and fraud. 

Because of that, the level of certainty they can provide around who actually lives in a given household is limited. And they have no ability to say who within a given home is watching a given program at a specific time. 

Even when you triangulate that data with other sources, you’re almost guaranteed to have massive gaps and errors in your estimates. This may be acceptable if the use case is targeting, but this data on it’s own does not provide the accuracy, objectivity and transparency required to deliver measurement. 

Why it matters

So what does that practically mean? Well, it has a few implications. 

In the case of Comscore’s shift away from our Personal People Meters, which actually affix microphones to ~100,000 real life, verified people and track exactly what they’re watching, 

to a model that uses billing data to provide guesstimates of who within a dwelling might be watching a given program at a given time, the result will be a less accurate read on who is watching what. 

But the possibly bigger implication is that this shift is going to get the industry further away from capturing a true representation of the country. 

We know that many of these types of data sets do a better job of providing data around households when the people living there own their own home and have been there for a long time. And that stands to reason. The problem with that is that long-time homeowners tend to be more White, more affluent and significantly older than the nation as a whole. By design these data sets undercount Black and Brown people, lower income people and younger people, at a time when all of those segments are growing, not shrinking. 

The same is true of data sets built off of set top box data, which tends to overcount more affluent consumers who are willing to pay more for cable packages and thus disproportionately excludes lower income consumers who are important targets for many marketers. 

The media industry has, rightly, made accurately representing Black and Brown communities a central priority. At Nielsen our track record on this going back decades hasn’t been perfect, but today we have the most accurate and advanced view of the nation as it truly is. 

Big data-derived measurement tools that aren’t backed by a representative, validated and audited panel can’t make that claim. Nielsen panels can target many demographics within the census with 1% variability, but the big data-focused options out there aren’t even close to that. The industry needs to be open and honest with itself about the challenges that big data presents when it comes to representation.

A wider problem

To be clear, this is not just a Comscore issue. This is an issue with all the big data sets out there currently. 

In August of 2020 the ANA, in partnership with the MRC and Sequent Partners, used Nielsen data as a benchmark in a study designed to understand the degree to which the multicultural audiences were being accurately represented in media targeting. The study looked at an aggregated collection of high-quality marketing and media data and sought to understand how accurately it was targeting Black, Brown and Asian audiences. The findings were troubling, but not at all surprising to us. 

The study found that the big data sets the industry relies on weren’t up to the task of accurately targeting these critical communities. In part because the data sets weren’t designed to capture rich data about who these consumers truly are, the way robust panels are, there was rampant misrepresentation and underrepresentation in the data. 

Now contrast that with Nielsen’s robust panels, which provide a wealth of directly collected information from real-life people, representative of the entire U.S. population. Who lives in the home?  How old are they? What race and ethnicity do they identify as? Who is watching the television at a given point in time? Nielsen’s panel answers these questions. 

Again, panels on their own aren’t perfect, but there’s a reason other industries, namely pharmaceuticals, use approaches that are similar to panels in approving drugs. That’s because, when the stakes are high, there’s no substitute for real, verified people.  

We know that many industry players are excited about the promise of big data, we are too. But as an industry we need to be honest about what big data can and can’t solve for. And we too understand that the future of media measurement is an approach that combines the reach of big data with the verified personal data of robust panels.

This article originally appeared on Next TV.

With so much discussion in the media industry about equity for the Black community, it’s no wonder that historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have taken center stage. These schools continue to meet the demand for safe space by placing African American culture at the center of their collegiate experiences—and their influence extends beyond their alumni bases. Today, brands and content creators committed to making an impact with their messaging to Black consumers are also demonstrating their commitment by collaborating with—and elevating—the HBCU community. 

In the last year alone, high profile brand partnerships have expanded with professional sports, fashion and beauty campaigns to celebrate the influence of HBCUs. For example, Olay’s “Decode the Bias & Face Anything” campaign garnered over 7.4 million digital impressions in September on social media, Black-owned and Black-targeted digital outlets, according to Nielsen Ad Intel Digital. Additionally, the campaign went a step further to partner the brand with historic publisher Ebony’s HBCU Campus Queens initiative to celebrate women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

And after a three-year void, content creators are starting to catch up. According to data from Gracenote Studio System, four HBCU-themed programs are in development for next season, and three have already been ordered to series. 

The programs fill the gap in scripted content exploring the HBCU experience since programs like BET’s “The Quad” and Netflix’s “Marching Orders” ended in 2018. Even with new programs on the way, fans are still flocking to the original HBCU program, “A Different World,” with 540 million minutes viewed last month across Bounce TV, Amazon Prime and TV One. 

Scripted programming aside, sports content is the primary way that the HBCU fanbase sees programming that showcases their distinct culture today. The increase in HBCU football games airing on national networks included the return of the Orange Blossom Classic between Jackson State and Florida A&M University, which boasted 4x the reach among Black households earning $100,000 or more compared with high-income households overall. 

ESPN continues to tap into the competitive spirit of the underserved HBCU fanbase with its popular show First Take when it heads to FAMU for a star-studded Homecoming Weekend in the program’s first on-site show since January 2020. 

Representative content combined with inclusive advertising is a lucrative and impactful combination for the 67% of Black audiences who are more likely to watch content featuring someone from their identity group, according to Nielsen research*. The good news for brands is that Black viewers are also twice as likely to buy from brands that advertise in content that gets representation right. Purposeful collaboration with specific segments within the Black community, like the HBCU alumni, is proving to be a winning play for brands and content creators.

COVID-19 has tested the world—and in many ways the media industry. Early in 2020, the industry faced uncertainty, a lack of confidence and an overall pull back on spend. While digital sustained the pandemic—with social, search and video emerging as the primary focus areas—marketers are even more clear on the importance of seeing a return for their ad dollars.

To help, Nielsen has identified advanced ways marketers can drive winning outcomes in this space—after an analysis of the key trends in the industry and evaluating new areas of opportunity. In APAC, there has never been access to so much access to engaging and varied content—from global blockbusters to hyper-local, relevant content to breakout hits that find a universal audience. After 18+ months at home, audiences are consuming more content than ever before, and they’re continuously looking to be entertained. Within the Southeast Asia markets of Thailand, Philippines and Myanmar, digital penetration increased by upwards of 15%, essentially creating an entirely new audience.

• Philippines: Internet usage has increased in the last two years from 70% during pre-pandemic Q2 2019 to 87% in Q2 2021. Smart TV increased from 7% to 17%, video on demand (VOD) viewing increased from 6% to 27%

• Thailand: Internet penetration increased 15% during the pandemic, accelerated by rural population and the elderly generation

• Myanmar: Amid pandemic and country instability, Myanmar internet usage has risen to +17%, bringing the people from lower middle class households in urban areas with an increase of 6% 

For the direct to consumer perspective, technology has driven this trend—utilizing digital to achieve increased engagement. Media companies, content creators and their advertisers now have newer and more direct ways to reach their consumers with engaging content and ads via streaming platforms, over-the-top (OTT) platforms, broadcaster VOD and connected devices. For example, in the Philippines, smart TV penetration increased from 7% to 17%, and VOD viewing increased from 6% to 27%. 

The recovery of confidence

We can now see an industry confidence; a confidence that reflects the willingness to spend on media. “We believe there has never been a more exciting time in the media industry.  And that is particularly the case here in Asia Pacific,” said Steven Lindsay, Executive Director, Head of Digital Measurement APAC at Nielsen during TikTok’s recent The Stage event.  

Overall, there is a healthy, dynamic and diverse ecosystem with marketers able to build a varied media plan to reach the audiences desired. With more than half of the worlds’ population, APAC is a large and diverse region. So, it is no surprise that dominant content platforms differ by market. There is a mix of global players—and local choices. Additionally, the development of each market is different: 

• China and Korea: an ecosystem with seamless integration of e-commerce, online payment systems and content

• India and Australia: a well-established and diverse video ecosystem

• Southeast Asia: a whole new audience has emerged, with a real shift in viewing behavior toward digital, as evidenced in the 15% increase during the pandemic

The proof of the power of influencers

In the midst of this variety among markets, digital is the constant. And as recovering ad budgets are more focused on social, search and video, one of the fastest growing touchpoints for brands is now influencer marketing. Nicholas Bruce, Head of Consulting and Research for Asia at Nielsen, believes that influencers are incredibly powerful in connecting to the fragmented audience. 

“Where influencers are really fitting in is how they are able to deliver and reach the specific audiences they are engaged with,“ says Bruce. “Brand recall for influencer content is 4x up versus traditional digital content.” This ultimate proof point for the power of influencer marketing can best be understood by exploring the entire landscape.

Types of influencers

Overall, the growth of the influencer market is incredibly complex, with influencers at every different  level. The key to success is choosing the best roster of personalities and maximising the effectiveness of this roster.

So how do brands know which influencer is right? Nano can help reach a particular audience; a particular niche, while Mega can help with the larger campaigns. With the APAC region accounting altogether for more than 15 million influencer profiles, the majority of them are Nano influencers, or 87% of the total influencers. Instagram is the platform with the largest number of influencers, collecting 67% of the total influencers within the region. Within the cluster, Indonesia is the country with the highest number of influencers with over 7 million personality profiles.

Influencers are also gaining traction because they appeal to younger demographics. With the millions of hours they spend each week on watching ad-free SVOD services, advertisers are looking for newer avenues to find these audiences and engage. Many are doing so via influencers, and they’re seeing incremental revenue gains along the way.

Importantly, influencers also drive key insights—through either in-campaign efforts in order to move the needle internally or via a thorough post campaign evaluation. Ultimately, being able to optimize the influencer and iterate throughout the campaign delivers better results. 

Previously, brands found it difficult to measure the sales or other brand KPIs outcomes attributed to influencers due to lack of quality data. Now, with access to quality data, models and consultancy to inform the Nielsen marketing mix modeling, brands have a scientific approach to calculate influencer marketing ROI—to continuously assess against benchmark and media types to drive real business outcomes.

For additional insights, watch “Winning in the Influencer Era” session from the TikTok event.