The most successful brands, apps, and websites connect to their audience in ways that fit seamlessly into consumers lifestyles by bridging rich content — like multi-channel video and highly personalized posts — across platforms and devices. A sparkling example of multi-platform marketing comes from startup darling Rent the Runway (RTR), which lets users rent clothes for special occasions. The brand boasts an Apple App Store rating of 4.8, 6 million users, and over $100 million in revenue.
To achieve these impressive stats, RTR creates unique content for each platform that lets users navigate their purchases, engage with the RTR community, and share special moments: a true lifestyle brand. Until this fall, marketers have had a difficult time quantifying how important multi-channel video content – like that featured on RTR – can be. But Nielsen just changed that by adding Facebook, Hulu, and YouTube video views to their standard media publishing metrics.
Neilsen adds multi-channel video to their performance
Nielsen Holdings is considered the gold-standard in performance management in the United States. Nielsen tracks what customers buy, where they buy it, what ads influenced their purchase, and how content impacts consumer experience. Specifically, Neilsen’s Watch let’s marketing agencies and media publishers like BIGEYE measure what and where video content is being consumed. Nielsen has revolutionized performance management with this change, and we are excited to tell you why your business will benefit.
Finally! – Accuracy measuring multi-channel video
Big and small brands look to agency partners to help them craft the perfect multi-channel marketing spend. The seeming witchcraft of choosing how much to invest in a video campaign, a PPC advertisement, and native search optimization is one part art and one part science that most companies simply don’t have the bandwidth for. Accurate measurement and channel ratings – delivered by performance management companies like Nielsen – help agencies make accurate decisions to optimize plan efficiency.
Neilsen’s new digital content ratings are good for publishers and advertisers alike. It showcases how much streaming video content is consumed, informing agency publishers about how their audience is finding and responding to their content so they can improve their creative strategy and corresponding spend. It also supports a fairer marketing landscape. As Nielsen SVP of Product Leadership, Jessica Hogue explains in a corporate blog post, this new measurement provides “a more consistent and transparent view [that] ensures a level playing field with access to the same information across content creators, advertisers, and platforms.”
A more holistic view of cross-channel marketing Hold on to your hats and advertisements – the hottest and most talked about multi-channel video trend of 2018 will surprise you.
Nielsen’s new ratings also allow agencies to formulate a more complete picture of how cross-channel content works together. As an example, understanding the true count of a multi-channel video might allow a content-centric brand such as Buzzfeed to invest more deeply in content creation for one channel versus another, or focus their optimization efforts around a particularly valuable audience segment. In a related press release, Edwin Wong, VP of Research and Insights at BuzzFeed, agrees that “with this new tool at our disposal, we are able to have a clearer view of BuzzFeed’s true reach,” which broadens the traditionally narrow view of how content performs on a given channel.
Anything that allows for more accurately tracked content across channels is a win for us. When backed by a name like Nielsen and their outstanding methodology, you really can’t go wrong. For more information on how your current cross-channel marketing mix is performing or what new insights you might be able to learn from Nielsen’s latest tricks of the trade, reach out to one of our strategy specialists for a free consultation.
