Comscore Video Measurement Leading the Upfronts

The rapid shift towards digital video viewing is necessitating a shift in how the industry approaches the process. While such large-scale changes do not happen overnight, it is clear that with each passing year the “upfronts” are morphing into the “allfronts.”

To help buyers and sellers adapt to the emerging realities of the digital video era, they need the right tools and metrics across the core components of the buying and selling process. Specifically, they need:

• Planning metrics to help them evaluate the value of the inventory they are buying and selling
• Real-time campaign evaluation measurement to help them set delivery guarantees
• Inventory insights for media sellers to help them meet guarantees

Comscore’s video measurement solutions, Video Metrix, vCE and vME, solve these needs, and help both media buyers and sellers throughout the process.

Video Metrix for Campaign Planning
Today, several hundred publisher, network and agency clients utilize Comscore Video Metrix for comprehensive video measurement. It was the first to market in 2005 (two years ahead of competing services), and it has since helped to bridge the digital video measurement divide. With the vast majority of leading video publishers having their video content directly measured by Comscore, Video Metrix provides an accurate and trusted measure of the total video viewing universe. We have also continued to innovate with Video Metrix by incorporating measurement of video ads in 2010, and we will have some exciting new enhancements to announce later in the year.

We are often asked by our clients about some of the best ways to use Video Metrix for planning during the upfronts. Here are a few of the better use cases:

• Demographics – Indexing potential media partners against granular demographics allows planning of precise target audiences, or easy pairing with TV and cross media plans.
• Reach/Frequency Planning – Quickly understanding scale, efficiency and overlap of media partners for reaching your audience can inform buying strategies, and it can also help to predict the impact of proposed changes to plans, for the most effective use of budget.
• GRPs - Measurement using GRPs provides a more comparable output when aligning with TV plans.
• Inventory Planning – Understanding the relationship between ad and content consumption for individual publishers reveals audience engagement and also sheds light on the level of ad clutter for an additional indicator of true media value.
• Dayparting – Understanding how audiences and their consumption patterns evolve by time of day can help to tie up with cross media activity, or can help to extend the exposure of those campaigns to the same demographic audiences when they are not with other media.

In addition, Video Metrix provides detailed reporting metrics for specific YouTube channels, an important planning component given that YouTube accounts for a quarter of all online video views. Video Metrix also measures reach and impressions for video ad networks and exchanges.

vCE for Campaign Evaluation
Comscore vCE is used by many of the world’s leading broadcasters, networks and online video companies to deliver audience guarantees for video campaigns. Video leaders, such as Google/YouTube, use vCE to provide audience guarantees AND will also use vCE to get real-time campaign optimization through the DoubleClick ad server. This approach is particularly important because it allows advertisers to significantly reduce wasted ad spend.

According to Google: “Our partnership ensures that the two leaders, Google and Comscore, work in collaboration to create a more robust and consistent metric that benefits both advertisers and publishers. This is an innovative, first-to-market, transparent metric that gives both media buyers and sellers the tools to make the right decision for their customers and to work together to bring more brand dollars online.”

In addition to Google providing guarantees on YouTube using vCE, major brands and agencies are using vCE to evaluate their campaigns. This is why vCE has over 2 and a half times the impression reach as our nearest competitor and why 22 of the top 25 global advertisers use vCE.

vME for Inventory Forecasting and Management
Media sellers around the globe use Comscore validated Media Essentials (vME) to actually meet their video guarantees during the upfronts and throughout the year. This first-of-its-kind service gives media sellers the tools they need to understand the demographics of their video inventory before they offer it to marketers. vME helps them ensure that the inventory they are selling will meet buyer demands and reducing waste in the process. Ultimately, this tool allows them to price and package their inventory according to the value it will deliver to the buy side.

The Future of TV is Digital, Measurement Must Follow the Same Path
The industry knows that the future of TV, ultimately, is digital. Consumers are increasingly platform agnostic in how they view. The majority of viewing will happen in a time-shifted manner. And, advertising will be delivered in a non-linear manner.

It’s time to start adapting to this future reality, and that means leveraging measurement systems and solutions based on a viewer-centric approach that can deliver scalable planning and buying metrics across platforms. Comscore Video Metrix, vCE and vME are available to help you do this during today’s upfront season, and they also provide a the digital foundation for the measurement of all digital video as it follows consumers across devices into the future.