NBC Olympics Looks To Measure Total Viewers Across All Platforms

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal
report that the exhaustive coverage of the Summer Olympics from Beijing
next month — 3,600 hours on television and online — presents NBC Universal
with a problem: how to give advertisers a portrait of viewership on
seven networks, the Internet (both computers and cellphones) and
video-on-demand downloads. To collect data for online, mobile and VOD
usage, NBC will work with data providers such as research company Rentrak Corp., online measurement firm Quantcast Inc. and Web analytics firm Omniture.

In addition to measuring the Olympics in a new way, NBCU will conduct a
series of research projects to better understand how and why consumers
are using the multiple media platforms available to them. Three major
studies will take place focusing on consumption habits, behavior,
changes, usage, patterns and much more. The results will also help
serve as a template for NBCU’s cross-platform measurement going
forward.

An online survey of 500
Olympics consumers per day, totaling 8500 throughout the course of the
Games will help NBCU understand the total
multi-platform experience, including the amount of time consumers spent
with various media and the time of day and locations of their media
exposure, including out-of-home consumption.

NBCU will also join forces with IMMI to track
the media behavior of a single consumer across all media platforms. Approximately 40 people will carry a special IMMI cell phone that
picks up audio cues from the full range of NBCU platforms airing
Olympics coverage. Special software will also be used to track the
participants’ Internet usage. The study will measure the amount of
time the participants spent with the Olympics across all platforms, as
well as how people followed the Olympics throughout the day and where
their online exposures happened – both in and outside of the home.

NBCU will also conduct a series of studies to help demonstrate to
advertisers the value of their Olympics investment. Using IAG
engagement metrics, NBCU will provide clients with information on ad
and sponsorship effectiveness for their broadcast advertising, and for
the first time, their online advertising as well. The studies will
also provide clients with information on the best “media mix,”
highlighting which platforms, and which combination of platforms, were
most effective.