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NIELSEN TO PROVIDE VIDEO GAME RATING SERVICE
All-Electronic Measurement Service from New Nielsen Division
New York, NY – October 18, 2006 – Drawing on its extensive resources in media audience
measurement, Nielsen Media Research today announced that it is launching GamePlay Metrics,
a new rating service for video games. The all-electronic ratings service will establish new metrics
for the buying and selling of advertising in video games, while also tracking the activities of
gamers across other media platforms, such as TV and the Internet.
GamePlay Metrics will be the first offering from the newly created Nielsen Wireless and
Interactive Services division. The new data will enable the video game industry to develop an
advertising business model to offset the steep development costs of new titles for next-generation
consoles. In addition, the metrics will give advertisers a greater level of precision for targeting the
digital consumer.
Nielsen’s new measurement service will provide advertisers, agencies, hardware manufacturers
and game developers with independent, high-quality, quantitative demographic data for
negotiating the buying and selling of in-game and around-game advertising.
Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics service also will provide advertisers with comprehensive analysis on
how video game play affects or complements the use of other electronic media. For example, the
data will show what television programs gamers watch when they’re not playing games. This
unified data source increases the precision of advertisers’ target marketing, and enables them to
allocate their ad dollars in a more efficient manner.
“The value of an entertainment medium is directly proportional to how well it is measured,” said
Jeff Herrmann, Vice President of Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services. “A reliable and
accurate standard of measurement for video gaming will drive advertising investment in this
medium and help convert video game advertising from a discretionary advertising experiment to a
must-have option. Nielsen’s unmatched resources, including its portfolio of intellectual property,
extensive technology infrastructure and decades of media measurement expertise, are the
foundation of the Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services business.”
"For games to gain prominence as both a medium and a communication platform, the gaming
industry must deliver the tools brands need to leverage it most effectively," said Saneel Radia,
Group Director at Play, the gaming division of Denuo. "A credible set of data and learnings such
as those provided by Nielsen's GamePlay Metrics Service will provide marketers the confidence
they demand, expanding the size and type of deals in this burgeoning space."
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Collecting Video Game Data
The new service builds on Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative –
which provides integrated ratings for video consumption across multiple media platforms – by
harvesting information from existing Nielsen samples.
Nielsen’s national television sample of more than 10,000 households currently collects
information on video game use through existing People Meter technology. Nielsen GamePlay
Metrics will use a patented approach to harvest this existing information from current and nextgeneration video game consoles within these sample households. The new service will passively
record the titles of games while capturing key demographic detail about players. Moreover,
because it is based on Nielsen’s national TV ratings sample, Nielsen GamePlay Metrics also will
provide advertisers with valuable data on what TV programs are consumed by active gamers.
Nielsen GamePlay Metrics will begin providing video game ratings data in mid-2007. Subscribing
clients will receive, on a weekly basis, easy-to-access ratings charts and rankings which show the
most-played video games. Clients will be given necessary elements —titles, platform, genre,
daypart and demographics – from which to base their advertising and planning decisions.
Nielsen has been working with major clients in the video game industry, including the
manufacturing and advertising sectors, to develop the specific metrics that will be used to
measure game playing. In order to process the data to be collected from game consoles, the
Nielsen GamePlay Metrics service is developing a new audio system to process data on video
game, movie, music, video and other media usage. This system builds on Nielsen’s existing
experience with its Active/Passive metering technology, and eventually this same type of
collection system will be leveraged by Nielsen’s other A2/M2 initiatives.
In preparation for the launch of the service, Nielsen is also building a reference data base of
game titles to be measured, while creating the system for reporting information to clients.
Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services
Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services was launched today as a business unit to provide
measurement services to the video game and wireless industries. The new unit will draw upon
the resources within VNU’s Media Measurement and Information (MMI) Group, including Nielsen
Media Research and Nielsen Entertainment, which recently reported the Nielsen Active Gamer
2006 study.
The key client base for Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services will include wireless carriers,
handset manufacturers, application providers, technology and infrastructure companies, video
game console manufactures, publishers/developers, agencies and advertisers.
The new unit is led by Mr. Herrmann, who has held various senior marketing and product strategy
roles within Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen//NetRatings. Most recently, he served as Vice
President Business Development and Strategy for the VNU Media Measurement and Information
Group responsible for evaluating new business opportunities as well as mergers and acquisitions.
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About Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is the world's leading provider of television audience measurement and
advertising information services. In the United States, Nielsen's National People Meter service
provides audience estimates for all national program sources, including broadcast networks,
cable networks, Spanish language networks, and national syndicators. Local ratings estimates
are produced for television stations, regional cable networks, MSOs, cable interconnects, and
Spanish language stations in each of the 210 television markets in the U.S., including electronic
metered service in 56 markets. For more information, please visit www.nielsenmedia.com
Nielsen Media Research is part of VNU Media Measurement & Information Group. VNU is a
global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in
marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business
publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Computing, Intermediair) and trade shows. The
privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the
Netherlands, and New York, USA. VNU employs nearly 41,000 people and had total revenues of
EUR 3.5 billion in 2005. For more information, visit www.vnu.com.
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