I-COM worldmeasurementnews

In US, TRA Inc. Awarded New Patent For Television Advertising Targeting

New York, NY - February 9, 2012 - TRA Inc., a leading media marketing and analytics software company, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued on February 7, 2012 the company’s fourth patent, entitled, “Using Consumer Purchase Behavior For Television Targeting” (U.S. Patent No. 8,112,301).  Affirming the validity of TRA’s unique system for matching television viewership and consumer purchase behavior for targeting television advertising, the Patent Office also approved claims covering a number of future integrations of various data sources.

“No other company has the ability to use Big Data to target television programming as accurately as TRA, and the newest member of our patent family confirms our leadership and commitment to innovation,” said Mark Lieberman [pictured], CEO and co-founder, TRA, Inc. “We are very pleased that the patent was issued after a thorough and comprehensive review by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which included all recently cited prior art.”   Download the full report..

The Future Of Media Metrics Is Interoperability

Bill Wise [pictured], CEO of MediaBank writes: The rate of media upheaval means we’ll be melding older and newer generations of media channels for a very long time -- whether that’s social media and blogs, or the desktop and mobile Web. And for as long as we’ll face these pairings of older and newer technologies, advertisers and agencies will need to think seriously about how they can merge data across old and new worlds, too.

It’s a problem of allowing different data cultures to work together across older and newer media, and a problem of making new technology interoperable with old systems. More...

Viacom Promotes Kurz for Wider Insights Role

mrweb posts: Multimedia entertainment group Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has promoted Christian Kurz [pictured], to the post of Vice President of Research, Insights & Reporting, expanding his current management of Nickelodeon’s international research to cover all VIMN brands.

He is based in New York and reports to Willem Schelling, SVP, VIMN Brand Management & Operations, who comments: ‘Research is an integral part of everything we do, and the expansion of Christian’s role reflects our on-going commitment to knowing our audience and better serving them across every demo and platform around the world.’ More...

In US, IPG Mediabrands and Networked Insights Announce SocialTV Analysis Partnership for 2012 Upfronts

Partnership illustrates how real-time consumer data from social media is improving media planning and buying for major brands

New York – Dec 20, 2011 – Real-time data and media analytics are increasingly important to major brands in expanding the reach of their existing TV media dollars. IPG Mediabrands and Networked Insights have teamed up to provide a solution that will help brands get the most value from their TV advertising dollars based on a TV show’s social profile at this year’s upfronts. To date, Networked Insights’ clients have seen at least a 10 percent increase in media spend efficiency from this approach. As a result, Networked Insights is offering a guarantee that clients will see at least 10 percent better return on their TV investments.

“We see a big disconnect between the TV shows a brand advertises on and the percentage of their audiences that are truly watching those programs,” said Dan Neely [pictured, left], Chief Executive Officer, Networked Insights. “We have yet to see a single brand get this right, which is why we can offer a guarantee on our results. Enabling a brand’s TV media budget to get more reach for the same dollars spent is a win all around.”

“The more we can know about what our customers want, the better we can be at delivering it to them. Networked Insights has the tools that help us to do just that…and to better align what we do with our clients’ business outcomes” said Matt Seiler [pictured, right], Global Chief Executive Officer, IPG Mediabrands. More...

In Belgium, Nielsen Wins ‘TV Events’ Contract

22 December 2011. mrweb posts: CIM, the Belgian Joint Industry Committee responsible for the country’s audience measurement, has awarded Nielsen a four-year contract to supply its ‘TV Events’ measurement system, from 1 January 2013.

Alain Couttolenc [pictured], European MD for Nielsen Watch said his firm is ‘delighted’ with the opportunity to work with CIM. More...

In UK, Kantar Media Lands the Television Measurement Contract for Switzerland

LONDON, 12 DECEMBER 2011 - Mediapulse, the joint industry committee for electronic audience measurement in Switzerland, has announced that Kantar Media has been awarded the contract for the provision of Television Audience Measurement. This six year contract, which will commence in 2013, follows a competitive three-way pitch. The current contract has been operated by GFK since 1985.

Keld Nielsen [pictured], Global Business Development Director, Kantar Media Audiences, commented: "This prestigious contract is an important endorsement of our approach to delivering high quality audience data but also to investing in the future and we will be building a system able to deal with a changing TV eco-system." More…

In APAC, Media Monitors Group continues Asian expansion

The Media Monitors Group, Asia-Pacific’s largest media intelligence company and owned by Quadrant Private Equity, was pleased to announce this week two further acquisitions in Asia, MediaBanc and ChinaClipping, providing an even stronger base for the company to expand in the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing economies.

Media Monitors Group CEO John Croll [pictured] said: Bringing the skills and resources of these two companies into the Group will allow us to stay ahead of our clients’ media intelligence requirements in a dynamic media landscape, providing them with even better service and a more comprehensive range of products. These acquisitions add over 1,300 clients and a strong presence in Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam as well as adding considerable market strength in our already established Asian markets of China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.  More...

In US, ABC Interactive to Accredit Adobe AudienceResearch

Neal Lulofs, Executive Vice President and General Manager of ABCi posted in the ABCi News Bulletin: I’m pleased to announce that ABC Interactive is now collaborating with Adobe Systems Inc. on new audience measurement and verification initiatives.  Part of our relationship involves ABCi auditors reviewing and accrediting Adobe’s AudienceResearch, a new digital audience measurement tool that captures and filters key online usage metrics via Adobe SiteCatalyst, the company’s flagship analytics application.

So many of our newspaper and magazine members rely on Adobe for digital publishing tools, web analytics and online audience data. When the accreditation is complete, we hope to offer a new, more efficient approach to audits of Adobe metrics.  More…

WOMMA's Steve Hershberger joins I-COM Programme Board Global Summit

 Geneva & Carol Stream IL, October 27, 2011. I-COM is pleased to announce WOMMA’s appointment of Steve Hershberger [pictured] to the I-COM Programme Board Global Summit. Hershberger will be representing the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) alongside peers from 18 associations on this Board. More...

In US, comScore Releases July 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings

comScore Announces Availability of New YouTube Partner Reporting

RESTON, VA, August 22, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in July for an average of 18.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions.

YouTube Partner Reporting Now Available in Video Metrix

comScore is now able to provide YouTube Partner Reporting within the Video Metrix offering, for a never-before-seen look at viewership across hundreds of YouTube partners and their channels. This new feature provides a comprehensive and granular view of the unique audiences within different YouTube partner channels, enabling advertisers to more-easily create and optimize campaigns across specific channels to reach desired target audiences. The July data release for YouTube Partner Reporting includes dozens of beta partners, while comScore and Google plan to initiate reporting of more partners with the release of August data. More…