How content consumption is changing media buying
Kristina: Digital content consumption has seen a dramatic climb since the beginning of the pandemic. Are you seeing a slow as more businesses open and people are “stuck at home” less?
Jay Nielsen, SVP of Global Planning Products, Nielsen: There isn’t data that supports the idea that the streaming consumption has dipped at all. According to our Streaming Video Ratings data, since the beginning of the year, and a continuation of the prior year, time spent streaming to the TV set continues at high levels of about 155 billion minutes a week. Initially, part of the consumption patterns were a result of the pandemic and people having more time at home. However, a new behavioral pattern may have also emerged in terms of how people consume media. While overall time spent with digital media may see a plateau, there is no reason to believe that streaming has slowed down. There are more options than ever for content – and services to watch that content – and consumers are taking advantage. Nielsen’s The Gauge reports that 28% of television time is streaming video content.
Kristina: What does this increase in digital content consumption mean for media buyers/planners?
Jay: More digital content consumption means more specific targeting opportunities for planners and buyers because the amount of data will inform better decisions. On the flip side, it also creates a much more confusing marketplace for a planner to understand the total impact or reach of a potential campaign because the industry is working towards getting comparable measurement across the various delivery vehicles for content and ads. What Nielsen Media Impact can do is help align media planners’ decisions with consumers’ choices helping them find insights into target audiences, media preferences, and more. We also have Nielsen Marketing Cloud which gives media buyers/planners access to a universe of audience data to digitally activate against, while evaluating success and adjusting in real-time to make everything more effective. To close the loop, marketers can measure their digital campaigns across screens through Digital and Total Ad Ratings and then utilize this data for planning their next campaign.
Kristina: You say advertisers should be focused on data that isn’t always demographic-specific? What does this mean?
Jay: The latest trend shows us that with such rich consumer data available beyond just traditional demographic data – for instance, age and gender – advertisers can begin better targeting consumers they want to reach. Looking at inputs such as credit card transaction data using Nielsen Buyer Insights, loyalty purchase card data using Nielsen Catalina Solutions, or mass qualitative lifestyle survey data like Nielsen Scarborough, and then overlaying that on cross-media behavior will more precisely target those audiences. Through our partnerships with groups like Quotient Technologies, and many others, we overlay this data onto Nielsen media consumption – therefore making it plannable and ultimately transactable upon. This has been a large part of digital programmatic buying since the beginning, but by expanding into linear television, then adding cross-media with a proper understanding of audience deduplication will make more informed choices on media spend.