Nielsen To Incorporate Ad-Id Coding Into Its KeepingTrac Service

March 6, 2008- New York, NY -The Nielsen Company and Ad-ID, a joint venture of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc (ANA), today announced that they are working together to incorporate Advertising Digital Identification (Ad-ID) coding into Nielsen’s commercial tracking system, KeepingTrac, which allows advertisers to verify that their commercials ran the previous day according to their media plans. 

Ad-ID, the advertising industry’s Web-based, complete-code system, includes a database where information about each commercial asset can be entered.  Under the ISCI® coding system that Ad-ID replaces, advertisers, agencies and television stations had to enter information about each commercial into many industry systems.  Ad-ID establishes one, central database that brings consistency to asset identification and enables the digital exchange of information throughout the industry. 

KeepingTrac will leverage the Ad-ID database to allow advertisers to encode their TV commercials with minimal effort and track the performance of their media campaigns.

The joint effort by Nielsen and Ad-ID is the first of its kind since Ad-ID was launched in 2003—and aims to further automate the process of monitoring an advertiser’s television campaigns.  Using KeepingTrac and Ad-ID, an advertiser can get next-day feedback to ensure their commercials are airing as ordered, adhering to their buying guidelines and achieving their Gross Rating Point (GRP) goals.

“Nielsen’s KeepingTrac is a step in the direction of improved accountability and transparency in the media industry,” said Mike Donahue, Executive Vice President, AAAA and Co-CEO, Ad-ID.  “This integration between Nielsen and Ad-ID is the first of many partnerships that will improve workflow and enable innovation.”

“Incorporating Ad-ID coding into KeepingTrac eliminates the number of steps necessary to issue and track a commercial,” said Terrie Brennan, Senior Vice President New Business Development and Strategy, The Nielsen Company. “This significantly increases the value of KeepingTrac to our clients, who are increasingly requiring greater accountability, faster turnaround and operational efficiencies from the industry.”

Introduced in 2007, KeepingTrac combines Nielsen ratings data with next-day confirmation of television commercial airings, allowing advertisers to monitor whether or not their ads are reaching target audiences and running as directed.  KeepingTrac‘s DemoWatch tool enables advertisers to monitor the demographic composition of their advertising audiences and ensure their campaign is not reaching any unintended audiences, such as children or teens.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com.

About ad-id

Advertising Digital Identification, Ad-ID, is an Internet-based, digital identification system that generates a unique identifying code for all advertising assets (TV, radio, print, Internet, etc.).  Each Ad-ID stores critical metadata related to an advertising asset.  The system has open Web services for the interchange of metadata related to advertising assets, enabling advertisers, agencies, media and others throughout the marketing-communications landscape to improve upon current ad-related processes and capitalize on emerging technologies and marketing opportunities.  Developed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), Ad-ID is the only advertising asset coding system authorized and supported by the AAAA and ANA.  For more information, visit www.Ad-ID.org.

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