Exclusive comScore Interview and Release of Hispanic Video Data

From YouTube to Facebook to CBS Sports, and really any type of video online, comScore is the measurement tool that helps brands, ad networks and publishers reach their audience online and measure results. Videos are not free, and advertising is what pays for most of your entertainment and free video upload services such as Vimeo, Daily Motion, Blip.tv. During an exclusive interview with Dan Piech, comScore’s Product Manager for video measurement tools and services, he explained “We’re making an economic market more efficient by increasing the quality and quantity of data about the market.” Most video publishers will research comScore data whenever preparing proposals for brand advertisers that include information about the who, when and where videos are being watched online. At the end of this story, you’ll also find an exclusive sneak peak at comScore’s "data gem" on the Top Online Video Properties by Percentage of Videos Consumed by Hispanics that will be released tomorrow.

During a Digiday Video Upfront conference panel last week in Los Angeles with video experts, including Dan from comScore, one of the speakers asked the audience, “How many people have watched a video today?” and over half the audience raised their hand. When they asked, “How many people have clicked a banner ad today?,” no one raised their hand. What does this all mean to videos online? We can count on advertisers looking for new opportunities to promote products and services through video so most websites will remain free to consumers.

To get the video numbers, comScore is the only provider that reports the whole picture with 21 measures. This data can include unique viewers, unique viewers per day, and how long the video is being watched. Dan expanded, “These numbers help advertisers understand where their desired audience is viewing content online, and gives publishers competitive insights.” comScore releases a Monthly Syndicate Report that gives data for the previous month that the online industry watches closely. The March report was released on April 12, 2011, with the Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers with Google, AOL and Yahoo! Sites in the top three.

comScore’s Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) is what enables them to bring both Panel and Census-based data worlds together and create “the most accurate picture” of online activity. Here’s how the Panel and Census-based data work.

comScore Panel Data – A panel with approximately 2 million global and 1 million US opt-in internet users allows comScore to gather specific intelligence on demographics and personal-level data. Dan emphasized, “We are very careful to make sure it is opt-in, and that our panelists are well aware of our presence. We hold ourselves to the highest quality and use best practices.” The numbers are then weighted using complex algorithms to represent the entire US population so that the 1 million most accurately represents 300 million.
Census-based Data – Regardless of whether someone is on their panel, comScore measures everything online worldwide using Census-based data gathered from tags placed on content. Dan explained, “We work with many of the largest publishers to tag their content. Anytime someone goes to a tagged website, or watches a tagged video, or consumes any type of tagged digital media, a brief announcement is sent to comScore servers to say someone just watched this video, downloaded this content or was exposed to this ad for Nike.” This tag gives the exact number of interactions, but comScore doesn’t receive personal information or demographics. By combining this Census data with insights gathered from the panel, comScore is able to provide advertisers with a total scorecard of online interaction. For example, Toyota could not find out if 10% if their users are in the market to buy a car.

Dan added, “We’re open about our methodology. We would rather that our clients are aware of how we do measurements. Our perspective is that it’s better to be transparent than to be a closed box that people don’t know about.” Using their UDM methodology, comScore can then provide Syndicated Data and Custom Reports to their Business-to-Business (B2B) Customers: advertisers, publishers, ad networks, and Wall Street.

Syndicated Data Reports – comScore reports all activity in the digital space, regardless of whether the company works with comScore as a client. These reports include information such as how many visitors went to Amazon and how many viewed ads from the Brightroll network. Dan added, “Most publishers are using UDM and tagging with us. We provide a complete picture of the digital landscape.”
comScore Custom Projects – To take a deeper dive into the data, comScore also does custom projects for clients. These special projects may include creative tests to see the effectiveness of advertising in custom studies. For example, comScore can gather data for people exposed to Creative A, Creative B and people who didn’t see an ad at all (Control Group) to help advertisers better understand which messages connect best with their audience. If you get a pop-up survey online, consider taking it next time because it helps advertisers and keeps websites free for us.

comScore also just released a new report based on ethnicity. Advertisers can now use comScore data to find out how many MTV viewers are Hispanic, English only, bilingual, etc. Dan explained, “With 1 in 6 Americans being Hispanic, advertisers can understand how Hispanics are interacting with video.” We got an exclusive release of the comScore Hispanic Video data gem that will be released tomorrow, April 26, 2011. If you look at the chart below, you’ll find the top sites where Hispanics are watching video. For example, out of the videos watched on Hispavista Sites, 92% are viewed by Hispanics. This data can help advertisers better reach their target audience.

Top Online Video Properties by Percentage of Videos Consumed by Hispanics *

92% Hispavista Sites

87% Univision Communications Inc

84% Batanga

71% RCS Media Group

66% Terra - Telefonica

54% SAY Media Sites

40% OPRAH.COM

39% Mevio Network

32% Groupe TFI

31% DIRECTION.TV

* comScore Data, April 25, 2011

Moving forward, comScore is developing measurement for Mobile and TV, which you can hear more about in this Exclusive CNBC Interview with comScore’s CEO Magid Abraham. For more comScore product updates, you can also follow Dan on Twitter @DanPiech. While these comScore reports may seem too much like “big brother” watching, they are extremely helpful in making our digital economy efficient and mostly free for consumers.