MUMBAI: Nielsen, a global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, has taken a major step forward for cross-platform advertising measurement by launching Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings.

Leveraging the Media Rating Council-accredited Nielsen Online Campaign RatingsTM and proprietary national TV panel, Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings will deliver reach of video advertising across screens. The solution will be commercially available beginning 1 October.

Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings has been through extensive trials with a number of the industry’s biggest players across the advertising ecosystem. ESPN, Facebook, GroupM, Hulu and Unilever are among the dozen industry leaders who participated in trials for this service, which provides unduplicated and incremental reach, frequency and GRP measures for TV and Internet advertising.

"Sports fans are on the cutting edge of changing consumer media behavior," said ESPN Vice President of Integrated Media Research Glenn Enoch. "ESPN's participation in the Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings trial reflects our constant exploration for new ways to measure cross-platform usage."

“Better understanding of the ads consumers see across all media is critical for marketers to build great campaigns - and for publishers to demonstrate the true value of their inventory,” said Facebook Head of Measurement and Insights Brad Smallwood. “Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings is the first product that truly addresses this issue. Having a holistic, consumer-centric view of a campaign is a big step forward for the industry."

"As consumers watch their favorite TV shows across Internet-connected devices, measurement in this area becomes critical to the long-term health of the entire industry,” said Hulu Senior Vice President, Advertising Jean-Paul Colaco. “We are supportive of Nielsen's approach in advancing the reliability of cross platform measurement and look forward to continuing our collaboration with them."

"Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings helps us determine who is seeing our advertising on TV compared to our digital advertising. This is increasingly important as we discuss how to spend our money across these critical media platforms," Unilever, Director of Media Investment and Partnerships Jennifer Gardner.

In addition to online video advertising, Nielsen’s approach measures online display and rich media advertising in combination with TV. Industry trials, run between March and August 2012 have demonstrated the power of a high-quality, third-party solution that provides directly comparable metrics across TV and digital, measuring unique audience on each, along with overlapping audience and total combined unique audience.

“Creating a way to reach, measure and monetize inventory across screens and platforms advances the industry toward the high caliber, seamless standard that can provide new opportunities for players across the industry,” said Nielsen President, Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions Steve Hasker. “Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings is an exciting step in helping advertisers, agencies and publishers further understand the impact of their campaigns, wherever they run – across platforms and markets around the world.”

The Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings launch comes as more and more consumers are living cross-platform lives. According to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report, in addition to watching 34-plus hours of TV per week, the average American spends nearly five hours online on the computer. More than half of Americans now watch video online, with online viewing increasing average weekly video consumption to roughly 35 hours.