ComScore to debut first ad product under new CEO
Firm to launch a new tool to measure ad views across platforms in beta this September
ComScore Inc. is preparing to launch a new product that measures ad views across platforms like TV and mobile, the first big move by new Chief Executive Bryan Wiener, who has been charged with turning around the beleaguered business.
With the new Campaign Ratings tool, comScore aims to provide advertisers with a more realistic report of who is watching their ads by measuring viewers who see an ad on any device. The product aims to strip out duplication, meaning that it will count a viewer who might watch a video on their TV and phone only once.
As more people eschew traditional cable packages and TV screens to watch their favorite shows through streaming subscriptions and mobile devices, advertisers and media companies are looking for new ways to capture and measure those viewers, pressuring Nielsen and comScore, the two biggest TV measurement companies, to offer new metrics.
Mr. Wiener joined comScore about two months ago, on the heels of a series of corporate struggles involving accounting irregularities, as well as a management shake-up. While comScore was distracted with those issues, rival Nielsen expanded its portfolio to include more digital and cross-platform measurement products.
The new offering from comScore, best known for its digital ad measurement, signals a move to compete with Nielsen as a bigger player in cross-platform video metrics.
Previously, comScore’s TV and digital measurement tools were “more siloed,” said Mr. Wiener.
“We had the assets,” he said. The problem was that comScore, which “was long on vision and short on strategy,” didn’t combine them. Shortly after he joined, Mr. Wiener had more than 60 meetings with customers to figure out what media buyers and sellers needed. They wanted better crossplatform measurement that eliminated duplication, he said.
The product will launch in beta this September, with support from nearly all media companies and existing customers, including ABC, CBS, Fox, Viacom Inc. and Hulu, among others.
ComScore launched Xmedia a few years ago to measure and deduplicate viewers across screens, but that product didn’t specify how many people saw the actual ads.
Nielsen has similar tools within its “total audience” portfolio, including a product that measures digital ad impressions and views across platforms. Still, Madison Avenue is anxious to have more options and had high hopes for comScore before its problems derailed its momentum.
ComScore, with its digital focus and acquisition of digital measurement company Rentrak a few years ago, should have a product competitive with Nielsen’s, said Ed Gaffney, director of implementation research and marketplace analytics at WPP media agency network GroupM.
“We love the idea of competition that spurs innovation,” he said. “It’s about time.”
New cross-platform measurement resources like comScore’s ratings pilot and tools from OpenAP, a TV ad consortium, “will help to propel the industry’s transformation towards new currencies, products and consumer experiences,” said Bryson Gordon, executive VP of advanced advertising at Viacom.
“The fact that [Mr. Wiener] really recognized, by listening to clients, what has been a pain point and is really trying to solve it is a right step in the right direction,” said Julie DeTraglia, head of research at Hulu. “We’re looking forward to participating and seeing the data.”