Category: Insights

Digital Research and Data

comScore Unveils Multi-Platform Ratings

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ComScore on Monday officially launched its new cross-platform reporting system combining audience metrics from Web sites, video and apps across PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Unveiled in beta in November, the company’s Media Metrix Multi-Platform reporting aims to provide a more complete view of an online property’s audience as people increasingly access the Web and other content on mobile devices.

The impact of the mobile shift has been especially pronounced for a handful of top 100 sites, especially where combined desktop and mobile U.S. audience in February increased by triple digits, according to the new comScore numbers. That includes mobile-centric properties like Groupon, up 223%, Zynga (211%) and Pandora (183%).

Across the top 100, the unduplicated audience grew by an average of 38%, with 19 properties seeing the reach of their desktop audience expanded by 50% on smartphones and tablets. (comScore mobile figures reflect use on the iOS and Android platforms.)

Among sites in the top 25 that saw a healthy ratings bump from the combined desktop/mobile reporting were Apple and Twitter, both up 54%, Yelp (51%), the Weather Channel (37%), eBay and About.com (both 29%), Gannett sites (32%), and Amazon (27%).

With the exception of properties like Pandora, the ranking of the top sites remained similar to that when counting desktop-only traffic. The top five multiplatform sites in February — Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon — were the same ones as through the standard Media Metrix ratings in January.

comScore said the cross-platform reporting will give publishers and media companies better insight into the nature of their audiences in order to align content and marketing strategies and monetization efforts. For media planners, it can help to optimize audience reach and frequency within and across channels.

Public companies like Pandora, Zynga, Yelp and Facebook have already begun highlighting mobile audience metrics in quarterly reports in relation to steps they are taking to monetize the sharp rise in mobile usage. Pandora, for example, reported earlier this month that mobile revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter surged 111% — even faster than the 70% increase in mobile listening hours.

For now, comScore will continue to publicly release the desktop-only Media Metrix top 50 Web properties on a monthly basis, but will regularly publish the Multi-Platform ratings in some capacity alongside, according to Andrew Lipsman, vice president, industry analysis at the digital measurement firm. He added that other services, like the Video Metrix and Mobile Metrix ratings, will be maintained.

The new cross-platform tracking service overall includes reporting on more than 300,000 digital media entities, including their unduplicated audience size, demographic makeup, engagement, performance within key user segments, and behavioral trends.

Smart devices dominate PCs in the home

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There are now more than half-a-billion devices in US homes that are connected to the web and offer access to apps, according to The NPD Group.

Overall, NPD’s report says the number of connected devices per “US internet household” has grown from 5.3 devices three months ago to 5.7 devices today.

This growth was fueled by increases in the installed base of tablets (nearly 18 million) and smartphones (nearly 9 million).

This doesn’t mean it’s time to close the coffin on the PC, though, as John Buffone, Director/Devices at NPD Connected Intelligence, says PCs are still the most prevalent connected device in US internet households.

“However, when you look at the combined number of smartphones and tablets consumers own, for the first time ever it exceeded the installed base of computers.”

Affluent Consumers take the lead in Social TV

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A new study shows that affluent members of society are leading the charge in media multitasking, particularly when it comes to watching TV and using their tablets or smartphones.

The 2013 Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer from market research specialists Ipsos MediaCT reports that 58 percent of affluent smartphone owners regularly or almost constantly use their smartphones while watching television. An almost equal number of tablet users, 53 percent, admitted the same.

The study included 1,055 adults aged 18 or older who earn more than $100,000 a year. Within that group were 192 “ultra affluent”, those who earn more than $250,000 a year.

The barometer shows that affluent households are more optimistic about the economy, more excited about their future success and more confident about the state of the economy compared to only a couple months ago. They are also adept at integrating mobile technology into their lifestyles.

Media multitasking has moved from the workplace to the home, with more than half of respondents admitting that they have engaged with social media about a television program while watching that program. The study confirms the growing force of social TV, at least among the well-to-do.

Television is becoming a mobile activity, with posts and tweets focusing on everything from game scores to comments on the latest show. This means there is an opportunity for media producers and advertisers to connect with mobile users by providing additional content. Certain shows and networks have already taken advantage of the trend by incorporating real-time contests or providing exclusive content through mobile devices.

Affluent technology users are more lost without their smartphones than without their tablets, with 66 percent responding that it would be very difficult for them to live without their phones, but only 33 percent saying the same thing about their tablet.

Americans streaming more content from game consoles

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Americans are increasingly spending more time streaming video on gaming consoles. According to Nielsen data, 22% of American users’ overall time spent on gaming consoles in 2012 was devoted to watching video via VOD and streaming services.

This is up from 19% in 2011 and 13% in 2010. When broken down by the major consoles, PS3 users spent 24% of their console time in 2012 streaming content (up from 15% in 2011, representing the highest year-over-year growth among the three major consoles).

In comparison, Xbox 360 users spent roughly 13% and Wii owners devoted 32% of their time streaming content, respectively. Nielsen’s report covers US console users ages 13 and above.

Nielsen broadening TV household definition

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If a viewer watches a TV show on a tablet, should that be reflected in its Nielsen rating?

That’s a question at the heart of a complicated decision Nielsen hopes to make by the end of the first quarter regarding a new definition for what constitutes a TV household.

The new definition is almost certain, according to sources, to include for the first time viewing on TV sets that show video via broadband connections, whether from a device like Apple TV or directly into the set itself. In addition, that viewing would not have to come in the form of linear channels, which would open up measurement to on-demand options like episodes posted on a broadcaster’s website.

But what is currently being debated is whether homes that restrict their viewing to smartphones or tablets will also be considered TV households. Those devices may have to wait until their measurement can be integrated into the TV ratings system.

A proposal from Nielsen is currently being reviewed by a special committee comprised of representatives across its client base. Nielsen is said to favor an approach staggered in stages, say sources, the first of which would be ready for the 2013-14 TV season incorporating broadband-connected TV sets — but not include measurement of video consumption on wireless devices.

While the TV industry is in general agreement on the long-term goal — one measurement of all viewing regardless of platform — the dilemma is how best to proceed in the short term.

Either all viewing — regardless of the separate measurements being made on other platforms — gets counted into the TV household total, or only once Nielsen is ready to integrate any one of the separate measurements with the TV data should it be counted into that total.

Nielsen will huddle with the committee before the quarter is over to get input on the proposal before rendering a decision that will give the TV industry time to strategize how best to sell programming at upfronts and for Nielsen itself to make the necessary changes to its reporting software.

Nielsen isn’t leaning in either direction, according to Pat McDonough, senior VP insights, analysis and policy at Nielsen, who indicated there’s no chance the status quo will remain.

“The question we have with our clients is do we do that in stages or do we do that all at once?” she said. “Committee members are in process of discussing with their various companies and we expect to come back after the new year with the direction for the industry that we’re going to take.”

Given criticism the company has long endured over both its current TV measurement and the pace at which new platforms are being tracked, it’s a decision not being taken lightly at Nielsen, where the new policy will likely represent as fundamental a shift, if not more so, as the adoption of people meters or C3 currency.

The current definition of a TV household is a home with both a TV set and video delivered via over-the-air broadcast or a multichannel package supplied by either cable, satellite or telco sevices. Watching on PC, smartphone or tablet isn’t included.

What’s known internally as the “What Nielsen Measures” committee was convened in mid-2012 to reckon with back-to-back declines in the annual number of TV households, which fell from 115.9 million in 2010-11 to 114.7 million the following season — the first such drop in 20 years. An additional 500,000 households disappeared before 2012-13, leaving a total of 114.2 million.

There are various theories as to what accounts for the decline, chief among them that a new generation of viewers are doing without TVs as they embrace digital alternatives.

But while broadening the definition of what constitutes a TV household could shore up that shortfall, advocates for waiting until measurement of viewing on devices can be integrated warn that increasing the number of total homes prematurely runs the risk of diminishing ratings. If the number of screens is increased without a corresponding increase in the measurement of the viewing on those screens, that can inflate the base number against which the number of viewers is calculated — potentially skewing the rating downward.

And yet there are others that are willing to see some destabilization of measurement from year to year in the short term for the greater good of getting a truer reflection of the range of screen across what’s being watched.

At the very least, Nielsen is likely to extend measurement to broadband-connected TV sets. That is good news for companies weighing virtual MSO plays like Intel, Sony and Dish who want to convince programmers that viewing is being measured across their systems. However, in the event they also provide content

Source: Variety

Smart TV Usage Increased 25% in 2012

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eMarketer reports that U.S. households using TVs connected to the Internet rose nearly 25% in 2012, notes MarketWatch. That figure should climb to almost 30% this year.

In 2012, there were about 26.8 million U.S. homes using a so-called smart TV, eMarketer said, up from 21.6 million at the end of 2011. By the end of 2013, the firm expects to see 35.1 million American homes equipped with an Internet-ready set.

The Top 5 Food Trends of 2012

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2012 was a year driven by unusual food trends, below are my top 5 of 2012:

1) Rouge Restaurant Reviews
While restaurateurs bemoaned the influence of Yelp and other social media review sites, 85-year-old Grand Forks Herald restaurant columnist Marilyn Hagerty cut through the noise, heaping near rhapsodic praise on the fine dining at her community’s latest chain restaurant, The Olive Garden. All she wanted to do was get to her bridge game, but her review became a must-read sensation.

Meanwhile, New York Times reviewer Pete Wells scored a celeb smackdown when he slammed Fieri’s New York restaurant, Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar, in a scathing 1,000-word review written almost entirely in questions. Wells took heat for beating on Food Network’s bad boy, but the review – which tore across Twitter the instant it was posted – certainly drove hordes to Fieri’s tables, even if only to rubberneck the culinary accident.

2) Twinkies Expire
Twinkies may not last forever after all. Blaming a labor dispute for ongoing financial woes, Hostess Brands decided to close shop this year, taking with it lunch box staples such as Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder bread driving rabid demand by hardcore fans of the brands. The company said it would try to sell off its many storied brands, so maybe there is hope after all for junk food junkies.

3) Pink Slime
Americans learned more than they wanted to know about their hamburgers in 2012. In March, the Internet exploded with worry over so-called pink slime, or what the meat industry prefers to call lean finely textured beef. Though it had been part of the food chain for years, by the end of the debacle the product had all but disappeared.

4) Kale-palooza
Kale was still the reigning champion of foods in 2012. Meanwhile Americans also fell in love with dark meat, after years of playing second fiddle to its lighter skin cousin, consumers finally realized what chefs have known all along – dark meat is where the flavor is.

5) Micr0-Booze
Craft beer remains a growing market, but hipster drinkers know it’s the hard stuff that’s happening. Barrel aged cocktails and micro distilleries are raging hot. But don’t be caught dead sipping coconut water. That’s so 2011.

P.S. – Food Trucks 
Yes, Food Trucks are still hot. Any food served out of a food truck or from a restaurant that “pops up” is outrageously better than any other food. And eating it makes you impossibly cool. But, could somebody please, please put an end to the cake pop phenomenon?