Nielsen may be renowned for its audience analysis of Australia’s print industry, but now the company has turned its focus online with the launch of a new digital measurement currency. The new release - created by both Nielsen and IAB - will see the combination of audiences for both desktop and mobile devices tracked for the first time.
Digital Ratings Monthly is intended to replace Nielsen Online Ratings. The new offering will measure total audience size of varying digital bodies, as well as popularity ranking across PC, smartphone and tablet platforms.
IAB Australia CEO Alice Manners explains of the concept: “DRM is capturing and reporting the real year-on-year growth of unique audiences across key digital devices. It allows the market to understand how much duplication there is across devices.” It’s a necessary next step in analyses of audiences. “This enhancement [enables us to] ensure we maintain market confidence in our trading currency. It’s something we as an Australian marketplace should be proud of,” Manners continues.
The new launch taps into the rising popularity of mobile internet usage, with February’s results revealing mobile-friendly offerings were on top. The data placed Google, Facebook and YouTube as the top three sites by unique audience.
Google recorded a unique audience of 19.627 million with an active reach of 92.43 per cent, while Facebook had a unique audience of 15.477 million with an active reach of 78.86 per cent. YouTube was in at third place with a unique audience of 13.967 million with an active reach of 71.16 per cent.
Nielsen’s head of media Monique Perry says these results reveal the growing influence of mobile: “The sites and the apps that have set themselves apart as being mobile-led, they see that massive growth. You look at YouTube and Facebook and they’ve got more than five million stronger unique audience now because clearly they’re very mobile-led.”
