Kantar, ComScore Offer Cross-Media Data

ComScore Inc. and Kantar Media today introduced their first joint offering for cross-media audience measurement to key clients. The announcement was unveiled at a joint industry roundtable at the 2015 I-COM Summit. This is the first outcome of the Kantar and comScore strategic alliance announced earlier this year to provide cross-media audience and campaign measurement capabilities to markets around the world.

Both companies have defined a TV and Internet audience measurement roadmap that addresses a range of reporting scopes and the options of available measurement assets and techniques, including panels, meters, tagging, home routers, return path data and census profiles.

The companies said there has been significant interest in the partnership from clients and industry committees around the world. Based on this feedback, Spain has been identified as the pilot market with initial findings expected later this year, and other markets to follow.

“As advertising spend on integrated cross-media campaigns increases, there is a growing demand for solutions that bring together TV and Internet audience measurement to provide cross-media reach & frequency,” said Andy Brown, CEO-chairman of Kantar Media. “We are pleased at the progress our research and technical teams have made in combining different measurement techniques and designing a common approach. Cross-media measurement solutions must be responsive to local needs so we have designed a framework that maximizes the use of existing data sets and commercial considerations in any given market.”

Serge Matta, CEO of comScore, added: “We are delivering on our promise to simplify the deployment of global measurement capabilities and accelerate the creation of new services for the industry. The customer response to our partnership was extremely positive, as the market is eager to see cross-media measurement for both audiences and campaigns.”

The scopes of reporting for an integrated measurement approach, in addition to core broadcast TV, include:

• Extended TV — Content broadcast in simulcast or on-demand on smartphones, tablets desktops and OTT devices.

• Total Video — All video content from online platforms whether broadcast video or not, such as YouTube.

• Total View — All online content whether video or text-based, accessed via a browser or app, on smartphones, tablets desktops and OTT devices. Total View, the companies said, “brings together gold-standard TV measurement and multi-platform online measurement for a complete view of viewers’ media usage on TV and online.”

In response to the needs of broadcasters, content owners and publishers to reduce the operational overhead of measurement, comScore and Kantar Media said they have developed an integrated tagging approach for Web, video and application measurement, “allowing seamless data sharing with explicit client permission but without requiring duplication of implementations.” Both companies will continue to support any tagging deployments under existing contracts.

The option to move to an integrated approach would be a decision for the relevant joint industry committee or user group, the companies added.