10.24.14

As content consumption changes, so does the way we measure it. In a move reflecting the growing market for advertising on streaming content providers such as HBOGo and Netflix, Nielsen and Adobe have announced a strategic alliance to deliver a cross-platform system for measuring online TV, video and other digital content across the web and apps.

The new product, “Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings, Powered by Adobe,” will deliver analytics and content metrics to measure audiences across all major IP devices, including desktops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and over-the-top boxes.  Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings data will be available in the Adobe Marketing Cloud, allowing media companies to better monetize their inventory and brands for marketing campaigns.  The companies plan to go live with the system in 2015.

The joint venture addresses some fundamental questions for marketers of online and digital streaming content, including: What’s the point of creating and sharing content if you can’t track how many people see it? How do you know if your message is resonating in the universe of potential audiences, from video gamers to traditional cable box viewers?  Nielsen and Adobe are trying to answer these questions with an offering that will deliver analytics and currency-grade content metrics with the goal of enabling smarter buying and selling decisions.

Reaction from the marketing industry has been largely positive.  According to Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President Global Research and Analytics ESPN, “one of the challenges in digital measurement has been the lack of alignment between site analytics and syndicated measurement data, and we will be working with Nielsen and Adobe to help resolve this.”

So think about this the next time you stream a show or see a digital ad on your iPhone: somewhere, right now, a company is quantifying the reach of that content and looking for ways to tailor it to more specific audiences.