The Nielsen Company, formerly known as AC Nielsen, keeps its fingers on the pulse of media and consumer trends for TV ratings and other mass communications trends. Its business targets an extremely captive and lucrative set of markets and sub-markets among Americans. In the U.S., 20% of the population watches television every day, according to Nielsen.
To reach these markets, Nielsen has expanded its ability to provide timely audience measurement data across different platforms. For advertisers, this precision measurement allows media buyers to target across not only television viewers but computer and mobile phone users.
Nielsen Media Research Yields Valuable Information for Media Buyers
Nielsen dissects media markets, allowing advertisers to pinpoint products, services and trends that can affect product development. For example, insights from this ratings research include:
- Hispanic shoppers tends to spend more items for babies and children.
- African American shoppers tend to spend more on ingredients used to cook from scratch.
- Asian American shoppers are more likely to eat outside of the home.
- Households earning more than $100,000 are more likely to watch major sporting events like the Super Bowl, World Series or World Cup.
- Smaller immediate trips are the greatest share of Americans’ shopping trips. More affluent consumers hit the big-box retailers for more immediate needs such as milk or bakery items like bread.
The foundation of the Nielsen TV ratings is an analysis of consumer viewing behavior and their demographics. Advertisers have access to a treasure trove of this information to find out, for example, family characteristics, pet ownership, who watches TV together and if income and education correlate with television shows watched.
The heart of TV ratings are the qualitative and quantitative mix of research methods and techniques used continuously by Nielsen. Some households choose to participate in panels. Electronic monitors are placed in their televisions to capture viewership of TV programs, who is watching and the time of day when certain channels and programs are clicked.
Television Advertising Rates Based on Program, Channel Viewership
In addition, Nielsen collects more than two million paper diaries kept by TV viewers across the United States during “sweeps” week. Viewers record the shows they watched during a specific week and the diaries are analyzed to create viewing figures for various programs and channels.
These results are important. Networks set advertising rates using this sweeps information. Higher viewer numbers of a channel or TV show increases advertising rates. Lower numbers of viewers generally means the end of a particular TV show as advertising is harder to sell when the number of potential consumers is smaller.
Nielsen ratings are a staple for TV audience measurement statistics. This data is a wealth of valuable information that easily is used to design sophisticated and efficient advertising campaigns for media buyers.
Shelley Aylesworth-Spink - Shelley Aylesworth-Spink has worked in support of communications, marketing and advertising for nearly 25 years in the private and public ...
