Indiantelevision.com Team

(15 October 2007 3:00 pm)

MUMBAI: US media research firm Nielsen has launched DemoWatch, a new feature of its web-based commercial tracking service KeepingTrac that will enable advertisers to monitor demographic composition of their advertising audiences.

DemoWatch links the demographic information
from Nielsen's overnight television ratings with the commercial monitoring ability of KeepingTrac to help advertisers and their agencies make sure that their television commercials reach the intended audience.

For example, this tool would help advertisers of food, alcohol, prescription drug and R-rated movies to adhere to advertising guidelines for children and take immediate corrective action if their commercials violate those guidelines.

Kellogg's North America senior director, advertising and media Andrew Jung says, "I have heard a lot of people talking about KeepingTrac and DemoWatch, and think it will get us one more step closer to true accountability.

"These are services that can benefit both the advertiser and its agencies. Advertisers need to get more involved in this process and should begin to consider encoding all commercials."

Nielsen senior VP new business development Terrie Brennan says, "The recent launch of KeepingTrac, coupled with the new feature DemoWatch, provides advertisers with a unique tool for managing their campaign buys. In particular, DemoWatch helps our clients monitor their advertising guidelines for children, which has become an even greater concern since the new children's obesity guidelines were announced this summer."

KeepingTrac provides next-day confirmation of television commercial airings for National Broadcast Networks, National Cable Networks, and Local Broadcast stations in all 210 designated market areas in the US, and matches the ratings data against the media buy schedule. It also monitors media buying guidelines to be sure that the correct creative is airing during the desired programs and dayparts.

The commercial tracking system, which captures commercials that have been encoded with a digital watermark, is particularly valuable for campaigns where real-time performance evaluation is critical.

For example, the DemoWatch tool helps advertisers and their agencies automatically detect commercials that may inadvertently reach unintended audiences such as children and teens so that corrective action can be taken immediately.

DemoWatch automates this process and is the first industry-wide tool to measure compliance.
In July of this year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Health and Human Services held a workshop on Children's Obesity and Marketing, which resulted in eleven of the largest food companies in the US vowing to adopt new rules governing advertising to children under 12.

The Better Business Bureau will monitor and report on adherence to these new rules using KeepingTrac.