Nielsen Advances Media Research with Video Games Rating Service

By Bob Wallace (xchange Magazine)

Audience measurement kingpin Nielsen Media Research on Wednesday detailed plans for GamePlay Metrics, a new rating service for video games available in mid-2007. It is designed to establish key metrics for buying and selling advertising in these wildly popular offerings.

The service is the first offering from the newly created Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services division and will also track the activities of gamers across other media platforms such as TV and the Internet, the company said.

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.

“It’s a very confusing time with things moving so quickly,” said Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst at Broadbandtrends.com. “Operators are asking for this information so they can really understand how people use different services, independently and combined. It seems the big challenge is identifying how to measure usage.”

The Nielsen efforts are part of a fast-growing trend whereby researchers are racing to provide potential advertisers a great understanding of and information on evolving media opportunities.

Such was the case last month when DVR service pioneer TiVo Inc. and Information Resources Inc. (IRI), launched the IRI TiVo Consumer Insights Suite comprised of two new services to measure the impact DVR technology has on consumer viewing patterns and subsequent product sales, as well as the ability to quantify the effectiveness of specific advertising campaigns and brand recognition programs in households with TiVo.

Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics
Nielsen said its 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 TV 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 new service builds on Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement initiative, which provides integrated ratings for video consumption across multiple media platforms, byharvesting information from existing samples, according to the company. Its national television sample covers more than10,000 households.

“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, in a statement. “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.

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