Ad Buyers Buying Into TV Show Engagement, Not Just Ratings
There was an interesting article in last week’s Hollywood Reporter titled “For ad buyers, it’s more than ratings” (subscription necessary to view online).
The article is mainly talking about advertisers views on shows like “Lost” and “Heroes“. Both shows are not super strong in ratings relative to other prime time shows, yet advertisers really like to advertise on these shows. The article then goes on to talk about viewer engagement and Optimedia’s new Content Power Ratings.
Content Power Ratings is a metrics system that tries to move beyond typical viewership Nielsen Ratings that we’re used to, and actually try to quantify viewer engagement. To do this they look at three things, total cross-platform audience (television, web and mobile), involvement (active Google searches and other search numbers) and advocacy (press mentions and word of mouth buzz).
“Content Power Ratings 2.0 allows us to better understand the total value that a program represents for advertisers and unearth surprise hits that deliver better value than their audience ratings would imply,” said Greg Kahn, Senior Vice President/head of Strategic Insights for Optimedia US.
Shows like “Lost” and “Heroes” rank well under this type of criteria, because both shows foster a lot of participation and communities online and although smaller in size, tend to develop more devoted and engaged fans.
Looking at numbers this way also gives you a deeper sense of what your audience is connecting to with your product, and what those numbers actually mean. Engagement is key.
You can read the Content Power Ratings announcement here.