Adobe and Nielsen To Create Industry's First Comprehensive Measurement Platform for Digital Content

Census-Based Digital Content Ratings to Measure Audiences Accurately and Consistently Across Devices; ESPN, Sony Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Univision, Viacom and Others Part of Initial Rollout

Adobe  and Nielsen announced a strategic alliance that is expected to deliver the industry’s first comprehensive, cross-platform system for measuring online TV, video and other digital content across the web and apps. The collaboration will integrate Nielsen’s digital audience measurement products, the most trusted ratings system in the industry, with Adobe Analytics and Adobe Primetime, the industry’s leading digital analytics and online TV delivery platforms. As a result, both companies will jointly market Nielsen's Digital Content Ratings, Powered by Adobe, which will deliver analytics and currency-grade content metrics that enable smarter buying and selling decisions. Customers will have comparable metrics to measure audiences accurately and consistently across every major IP device, including desktops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and over-the-top boxes.

Nielsen’s new Digital Content Ratings will be supported by certified Adobe Analytics census data. The aggregated and anonymous data will measure content of all types, including online TV, videos, games, audio and text. The technology integration is expected to accelerate the adoption of a digital ratings currency, allowing advertisers to better allocate marketing dollars across platforms, and enabling media companies to benefit from insights into the performance of TV and other digital content across screens.

Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings data will be available in the Adobe Marketing Cloud, allowing media companies to better monetize their inventory and brands to better optimize their marketing campaigns. Adobe Analytics customers will be able to quickly activate Nielsen’s insights and link their own analytics data to widely accepted currency-quality metrics to better reach specific audiences. In addition, Nielsen’s measurement data will be embedded in Adobe Primetime to give broadcasters and pay-TV service providers the ability to quickly measure audiences and viewing behaviors across a broad set of devices. The integration also seeks to drive deeper engagement through the delivery of personalized content and ads.

“Online TV consumption is at an all time high and Adobe and Nielsen are two leaders coming together to standardize audience measurement for digital content,” said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager, digital marketing at Adobe. “Major media companies and broadcasters already depend on Adobe to bring TV across screens and better understand digital viewer engagement. Once complete, our partnership with Nielsen will provide analytics tied with ratings—benefitting advertisers, media companies and consumers alike.”

“This alliance is expected to accelerate the adoption of consistent and comprehensive measurement in digital,” said Megan Clarken, executive vice president, global product leadership, at Nielsen. “By integrating our technologies, together we’ll be able to offer our customers a more seamless and efficient way to plan and deliver against their audiences.”

Early Industry Support

Media companies and advertisers will be able to use the new Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, Powered by Adobe, starting in 2015. ESPN, IPG Mediabrands, Sony Pictures Television, Starcom MediaVest Group, Turner Broadcasting, Univision Communications Inc., Viacom and others will be part of the rollout of the new ratings:

"ESPN is excited to be working with Nielsen and Adobe as an early advisor for this initiative,” said Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President Global Research and Analytics ESPN. “We have a close working relationship with both companies as we are deeply invested in cross-platform measurement. 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.”

"This partnership between Adobe and Nielsen signals yet another important milestone in automating the media industry,” said Matt Seiler, global CEO at IPG Mediabrands. “The ability to provide metrics to measure audiences accurately, allowing IPG Mediabrands to better allocate marketing dollars, across every major IP device is an important step in our quest to automate 50% of our media buys by 2016.”

“Crackle is the only premium ad-supported network that lives purely on over-the-top devices and there is tremendous value in understanding how people are consuming content," said Eric Berger, Executive Vice President, Digital Networks at Sony Pictures Television and GM, Crackle. “Being a part of the initial rollout will enable us to present real-time engagement metrics, allowing for advertisers to understand the true return on their investment and match our growing audience on Connected TV with blue chip brands at scale.”

“SMG is also working with Adobe to help clients manage their digital marketing campaigns using its ‘always on’ platform. As cross-screen viewing permeates all marketing, measurement needs to encompass television, desktop personal computers and mobile platforms, and this new relationship between Nielsen and Adobe will hopefully drive that,” said Kate Sirkin, EVP and global research director of Starcom MediaVest Group. "The partnership looks particularly interesting as a way to help measure the total viewing of a television show across digital platforms.”

“As consumers expand their video consumption across screens, the media industry needs stronger digital and cross-platform measurement to accurately track consumers and better monetize cross-screen audiences." said Howard Shimmel, Chief Research Officer, Turner Broadcasting. “Adobe's strength in analytics and history in bringing together video and complementary content across platforms, combined with Nielsen’s strong audience measurement capabilities, will accelerate development and adoption of a single digital currency, which is what the industry needs. We look forward to collaborating with both companies to encourage roll out of this new rating system in 2015."

“We are pleased to participate in this beta in an effort to help develop accurate census based measurement of digital content. Our participation in this beta is further evidence of Univision’s commitment to ensure that our efforts to deliver content across platforms to our tech savvy Hispanic audience are properly and accurately measured," said Marshall Cohen, Executive Vice President, Corporate Research, Univision Communications Inc. “We look forward to working with Nielsen and Adobe on this solution to ensure that all audiences and demographics are effectively measured."