New Service Introduces The First GRP Measurement Of Online Ads And Offers Capabilities For More Granular Advertising Planning And Analytics By Agencies And Publishers
RESTON, VA, October 30, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the introduction of Comscore Extended Web measurement (CXW), a major extension of its flagship MMX audience measurement service. Extended Web measurement allows the tracking of distributed Web content across third party sites, enables more precise measurement of publisher ad packages, and introduces a granular Gross Ratings Point (“GRP”) measure for online ads in order to facilitate the comparison of online media with traditional media. This new capability is available to clients on a global basis.
“In today’s Internet landscape, a Web page has evolved to become a platform for distributing content and advertising inventory originating outside the confines of the publisher’s Web server,” said Linda Boland Abraham, Comscore executive vice president. “With so much distributed content being leveraged for syndication or advertising delivery, both advertisers and publishers have demonstrated an interest in better understanding the reach of these extended content offerings and the nature of their audiences. Comscore Extended Web measurement addresses those needs.”
What is Distributed Content?
Distributed content, commonly referred to as widgets, gadgets or applications, is any content that is viewed by the end user on a Web page not owned by the content publisher. Distributed content often includes multimedia content, such as video, music, games or photos, but may also include news, information, and other updates.
Some examples of content that could be included in Comscore Extended Web reporting are:
Extended Web reporting will be available for platforms and publishers of distributed content that cooperate with Comscore to identify the technology and objects used to distribute this content. Companies interested in having their Extended Web content measured can immediately participate by visiting http://www.comscore.com/cxw to enroll and provide the classification information necessary for tracking these new entities, or they can contact Comscore at http://www.comscore.com/contact. A flexible set of tools is available to accomplish the classification, ranging from URL coding, to embedding tags in query string of the content URL, or beacons embedded in every page.
Extended Web Reporting Enables Measurement of Ad Packages
Another important benefit from participating in Comscore Extended Web measurement is the ability to report the actual delivery of ads on one’s site or within one’s network. Through tagging of ads, Comscore will be able to verify the actual delivery of ad packages. Instead of relying only on reach numbers that measure the full audience of the site or the sites in a network, advertisers will be able to get an actual reach metric for the specific sections of a site that are included in a targeted ad buy. For example, an advertiser considering a “College Football” ad package from a site or network will be able to get a highly granular estimate of the reach and audience demographics of that specific ad package.
GRPs Metric Added to MMX
Comscore is also adding a measure of GRPs to facilitate the comparison of online media with traditional media. This new metric leverages Comscore’s unique ad identification technology and the ability to measure ad impressions at the level of an individual Internet user. This is the first time a GRP metric will be available for online media at this level of granularity.
“This new functionality demonstrates Comscore’s commitment to offer the most powerful, granular and innovative audience measurement services,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, president and CEO of Comscore. “Our focus on added value and actionable information is aimed at helping us attract new clients, expand our relationship with our existing clients, and strengthen our competitive position in the marketplace.”
Additional Perspective from Around the Industry
“We have witnessed a deportalization of the Web over the past few years. Users of many Web services are now accessing them away from the destination site, whether it’s reading the New York Times on Google Reader, playing Texas Hold’em Poker on Facebook, watching a YouTube video on a MySpace page, or listening to an imeem playlist on my blog,” commented Fred Wilson, Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures. “This trend is accelerating and it’s wreaking havoc on traditional Web measurement methodologies. Once again Comscore comes to the rescue with its extended Web offering. This is an important development, and I hope that web services that have large extended Web audiences will join this new service.”
“Smart publishers who have leveraged the distributed web as a way to extend their audience can now use Comscore to demonstrate that value” said Eric Porres, Partner and COO of Underscore Marketing. “No site is merely an island anymore; the distributed web is more like an archipelago, and this service should tie those audience islands together.”
“Glam Media’s Application Platform ‘Atako’ is being built to help brand advertisers plan, target and reach audiences engaged in extended web of widgets, applications and services,” said Samir Arora, Chairman and CEO of Glam Media. “With Comscore’s new granular reporting, Glam will be able to offer the same level of reporting, monitoring and measurement it has at the web sites and network level with MMX, providing an essential service for advertisers and agencies. “
“As a video advertising platform, it is critical for YuMe to have a clear understanding of the size and characteristics of audiences, and be able to measure delivery and effectiveness against their intended targets,” said Michael Mathieu, CEO of YuMe. “Comscore now provides the unique solution in the digital marketplace that will enable us to quantify the impact of ad delivery through our platform and demonstrate YuMe’s value to advertisers.”
“Mochi Media powers an extensive catalog of games that are played on tens of thousands of sites across the Internet,” said Jameson Hsu, CEO of Mochi Media. “Comscore's Extended Network reporting provides Mochi Media and our advertisers with vital information about the audience playing games on our network that is unavailable in any other third party tool.”
“Comscore is taking a big step forward here to provide more relevant counts of audiences that run beyond the Web site of origination like syndicated articles and widgets. Translating the numbers to advertising-based GRP metrics allows us to more easily plan the digital channel against the same reach benchmarks that many of our clients use in their traditional media efforts. Comscore continues to innovate and enhance their offering based on what we need, and that’s why we rely on their data,” said Gerard Broussard, VP, Media, Group M.
“The distributed Web is where the growth is for publishers and advertisers; user distributed content is now an important part of the syndication landscape, and measurement and accountability is being demanded by all parties,” said Ted Leonsis, Chairman, Clearspring Technologies; Chairman, Snagfilms.
“Comscore’s Extended Web reporting represents a significant innovation in digital audience measurement and proves once again that Comscore is at the forefront of addressing today’s audience measurement challenges,” said Bill Wilson, EVP Programming of AOL. “This new service gives the industry a much needed third-party perspective on understanding the scope and composition of the highly valuable Extended Web audience.”
“This new product will finally validate for audiences some of the amazing innovations that media companies have been investing in for the last year. The mass fragmentation of the web has created many challenges and opportunities for media companies. Without quality third party measurement from the market leader, advertisers will never be comfortable buying these new audiences. We believe many of the 150 networks on Adify’s platform will adopt this new service,” said Russ Fradin, CEO, Adify.
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate.