In an increasingly commoditised digital ad buying environment, it’s time that branding online came of age...

With unprecedented growth in online advertising package options, and the rise of electronic trading of advertising, alarm bells have been ringing for marketers demanding more accountability in optimising the value of their online brand campaigns.

“Much of the current focus has been on targeting the right audience demographics and automating that targeting wherever possible; however, the missing link is that current ad effectiveness methodologies only report on the impact of the various factors (including context, placement, publisher) after the campaign is over. This means agencies can’t assess how much of a role that contextual placement and or the creative is having in real time, and hence cannot make changes mid campaign to optimise the brand impact of a campaign” says Matt Bruce, Managing Director, Media Practice Group at Nielsen.

“Agencies are not alone in facing this blind spot, as publishers risk having their inventories undervalued by media packages bought and evaluated solely on audience delivered, without adequately recognising the additional brand impact generated by campaigns placed within the most relevant content.

The launch of Nielsen’s Real-Time online brand effectiveness measurement platform in Australia addresses this lag in optimising online advertising campaigns, for the first time enabling agencies and publishers to gain an understanding of the true value of advertising placements against branding variables in real time. They can quickly respond to how effective their advertising is impacting brand value optimisation, through daily measurement of consumers’ brand perceptions, relevance and intention to buy. This will also benefit publishers who are not necessarily being remunerated appropriately for delivering above average results on brand impact of campaigns, as they can now demonstrate the real value of contextual placements on their websites.

Previous Nielsen brand effectiveness studies, combining analysis of over 1,500 products and 30,000 ads, have clearly demonstrated that the biggest drivers of brand metrics are (in order of importance):
• Program Factors (e.g. Context and Audience Engagement)
• Creative Factors (e.g. Ad Quality and Size)
• Media Weight
• Placement Factors
• Competitive Activity

Commenting on the US experience with the Real-Time brand effective platform, David Webb, Managing Director of Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen APMEA said: “Our experience in the US market tells us that online media needs the same granular insights as other core media in order to justify to agencies and advertisers that it is the right vehicle for their brand marketing dollars; and our Brand Effect platform is delivering major cost and brand optimisation efficiencies to our clients.

"Australia is the first Nielsen market in the Asia Pacific region to go beyond brand trackers to help clients and their agencies deliver efficient, online ad campaigns and maximise their online media investment. The real time analysis shows our clients which websites and which particular creative executions are driving higher brand engagement than others; thus, they have the chance to optimise their media money across the best performing sites/creative during the campaign.”


About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.