Contact:
AOL: LaToya Drake, 917-606-4931, latoya.drake@teamaol.com Nielsen: Marisa Grimes, 646-654-5759, marisa.grimes@nielsen.com
NEW YORK, NY (April 16, 2012) – AOL, Inc. [NYSE: AOL] today announced it will offer marketers guaranteed audience delivery for online video advertising campaigns bought across its properties. This is the first time that online GRPs – based on audience demographics, rather than clicks or impressions – are being used as the basis for advertiser guarantees on the Web. AOL will leverage Nielsen Online Campaign RatingsTM reach, frequency and gross rating point (GRP) measurement to determine how well it delivered ads to the desired target audience. As the digital content NewFronts approach, AOL is the first major publisher to use a TV-based guarantee model for its online video inventory. Online video ads are one of the fastest-growing formats: eMarketer predicted a 52% increase in online video ad spend for 2011.*
“As marketers and advertisers increasingly shift dollars from traditional television advertising to the Web, partnering with Nielsen puts AOL in a unique position to offer a more cost effective mechanism for reaching targeted audiences and a better or equal brand lift, reach and recall,” said Ran Harnevo, Senior Vice President, AOL Video. “AOL has a significant volume of high-quality content valued by advertisers and we are excited to take the lead on showing marketers the value and differentiated results we can guarantee.”
“With online video increasingly playing a role in traditional TV Upfront buying and selling, consistent cross-platform metrics are becoming more and more critical to proving the true value of advertising on a site, in terms that are familiar to brand marketers,” said Steve Hasker, President, Media Products and Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen. “This is the first time that online GRPs – based on audience demographics, rather than clicks or impressions – are being used as the basis for advertiser guarantees on the Web. We are pleased that AOL, the first major publisher to use an audience demo-based guarantee model for its online video inventory, turned to Nielsen’s highly accurate reach, frequency and online GRP measurement to drive increased confidence in their platform as a brand medium. We look forward to working with them to demonstrate their ability to effectively deliver on their clients’ goals.”
AOL will host clients at its Digital Content NewFront presentation on April 24 in New York, NY, and will premier significant video opportunities on sale to marketers and advertisers. As one of the largest online video platforms with original programs including Sessions, Heidi Klum on AOL, Moviefone’s Unscripted and The Engadget Show, it breadth and volume across audiences including women, teens & young adults and influencers.
Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings launched in August 2011 providing the first-ever Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited GRP for online advertising campaigns of any size with metrics similar to those used for TV advertising, enabling cross-media planning and analysis. Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings is part of the Nielsen Campaign Ratings suite, which provides a full range of premiere advertising audience measurement. Nielsen’s full suite of solutions also includes Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings, which integrates media planning and measurement across television and the Internet to provide clients with total and overlapped reach and frequency of their marketing campaigns, and a Breakthrough metric for web campaigns for a more complete view of campaign performance, including how much of the total audience actually recalled the ad. Since its launch, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings has run more than 600 campaigns for over 50 brands, across more than 400 websites. The service will be expanded to international markets, beginning with the United Kingdom, later this year.
*eMarketer, US Online Ad Spend Poised to Grow 20% in 2011
About AOL
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.
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.
