Specific Media launches unique targeting capability in association with Nielsen: King and Virgin Holidays already on board

London, 28 January, 2014: Specific Media announces the launch of TV Audience Segments (TVAS), a unique targeting solution that allows advertisers to accurately reach online users based on their TV viewing.  By fusing data from the most trusted industry sources, Nielsen and BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board), the solution allows for a truly robust cross-media campaign.

The solution enables advertisers to not only accurately extend TV reach by locating the elusive ‘light’ TV viewers online who may not have seen their TV ad, but it can also provide the means to target online segments based on their ‘offline’ viewing habits, such as high TV sports viewership.  Advertisers can then manage a campaign’s ad frequency and sequential messaging to audiences across both mediums. Virgin Holidays and King have already taken advantage of the new capability to extend their TV reach and target specific TV behaviours within the online space.

Virgin Holidays’ first foray into online video has been executed via TVAS to work in tandem with their TV activity.  Mark Daykin, marketing manager stated that “working with Specific Media using TV Audience Segments allowed us to confidently move into online video in such a way that our TV campaign was complimented by online activity and the messaging was therefore more cohesive.”

Joseph Byrne, global comms planning manager from King said, "TV Audience Segments has allowed for us to connect the TV and online elements of our campaign in a way that we would not have been able to achieve before. This will most likely provide us with learnings that can inform not only future online video campaigns but also broadcast TV strategy and we anticipate that this will deliver increased campaign efficiencies for us."

To create Nielsen TV/Internet Data Fusion, the BARB panel is used as the foundation dataset, with Internet usage fields appended from Nielsen.  The approach is built on Nielsen’s global proprietary fusion methodology that identifies similar respondents from the BARB panel and Nielsen’s online panel. The linking variables that are used are vital to the success of data fusion and are thus carefully selected and constantly revisited by Nielsen’s measurement science team.

Nielsen senior vice president for media analytics in Europe, Matt Dodd:  “Specific Media has built a targeting model  based on their vast proprietary network data onto Nielsen’s online panel, and utilised the Nielsen TV/Internet Data Fusion to most accurately determine TV viewing habits. We work with and validate Specific Media’s modelling to ensure that the market has the highest quality accuracy and prediction available. We have worked with Specific Media for a number of years in the US and are delighted to support them in the UK, helping advertising clients make the most of their digital investments.”

Gavin Johnson, VP of UK sales at Specific Media explained the solution’s inception; “We saw our clients looking increasingly to the importance of how offline consumer behaviour influences their online behaviour. TV Audience Segments is uniquely positioned to join the dots between TV and online, which allows targeting to be seamless and more effective.  This is part of a huge drive at Specific Media to work towards marketing solutions rather than just digital solutions.”