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Starcom MediaVest Group and ShareThis Announce Social Quality Index (SQI) Integration into comScore Media Metrix Interface

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:00:16 +0000

Marks Major Shift in Media Buying Strategy and Publisher Evaluation

PALO ALTO, Calif. & CHICAGO - Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and ShareThis announced the integration of ShareThis’ Social Quality Index (SQI) into SMG’s comScore Media Metrix® interface for media planning purposes. SQI is a universal measure of social activity on the web. The integration marks the evolution of social from a networking tool to an industry planning resource. For the first time, media planners will be incorporating SQI scores into their evaluations of publishers to determine media allocations.

“Two years ago, we teamed up with ShareThis to leverage SQI in our media buying approach, and it has been an invaluable media planning and buying metric across multiple verticals and client KPIs. We’ve seen significant increases in campaign results across the board”

SQI provides scoring insights spanning 27 key content categories based on ShareThis’ vast reach across more than two million publisher sites. SQI scores are calculated using a patent-pending algorithm that measures how social a site’s content is, relative to other sites with the same type of content. These indexed scores help advertisers identify the most shared and valuable content and engaged audiences across the web.

Media Planning Insight that Improves Ad Campaign Performance

One of the most basic human behaviors, sharing is affecting and redefining every element of communications in ways that are rapidly altering the advertising and publishing industries. By optimizing toward high SQI-rated sites, campaigns will reach the most social audiences and generate higher user engagement. SMG clients have seen impressive results from integrating sharing insights into their campaigns such as ad interaction increased by 66 percent, newsletter sign-ups by 234 percent, and store look-ups by 236 percent. Brand preference lift was 18 percent while purchase intent rose 26 percent.

“Two years ago, we teamed up with ShareThis to leverage SQI in our media buying approach, and it has been an invaluable media planning and buying metric across multiple verticals and client KPIs. We’ve seen significant increases in campaign results across the board,” said Lisa Weinstein, President, Global Digital and Data & Analytics, Starcom MediaVest Group. “Integrating ShareThis’ social metric into our comScore interface gives us the intelligence we need all in one place and makes our media planning more efficient. We encourage our publisher partners to adopt SQI given its proven merit measuring marketing effectiveness.”

“The integration of SQI with comScore’s audience data is a first-of-its-kind effort to incorporate the value of social-sharing into the digital media planning workflow,” said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of Industry Analysis, comScore. “By collaborating with our clients in this manner to deliver innovative solutions, we help power improved campaign performance.”

Changing the Way Content and Inventory is Valued

This is the beginning of new value of content in an increasing social and cross platform environment. In a world where content selection in media plans is increasingly reliant on machine bidding, SQI gives the industry a measure of what content real people like the most. With this standard social quality measure, sellers can set price floors and buyers can make bids on domain names.

“As the first provider of third party social insights integrated into Media Metrix, we’re enjoying a significant increase in visibility for SQI and continue to push forward with our partners to make it an industry standard,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis. “SQI is a tool for publishers to distinguish themselves as leaders in engaging, shareable content and attractors of high referral traffic. Social acts, page views and incremental traffic have become the new monetizable value of an online publication or website.”

About ShareThis

ShareThis powers the social web, touching the lives of 95 percent of U.S. Internet users across more than two million publisher sites and 120+ social media channels. It makes content more engaging for publishers and marketing more effective for brands by tapping into the purest expression of interest-based social activity. ShareThis is the company for those wanting to make the world more connected, trusted and valuable through sharing. Based in Palo Alto, CA, the company is privately held. To learn more visit http://www.sharethis.com

About Starcom MediaVest Group

Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company. We believe experiences matter. They enhance lives and build brands. We bring brand experiences to life through SMG’s three global agency brands: MediaVest, Starcom, and Spark. Ranked one of the largest brand communications groups in the world, Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com) encompasses an integrated network of human experience strategists, investment specialists, content creators and digital experts. With nearly 6,500 employees in 110 offices worldwide, SMG partners with the world’s leading companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, P&G, Samsung, Walmart, among others. In 2010, Adweek named SMG “Media Agency of the Decade.”

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

comScore Subscriber Analytix Offers New Capabilities to Help Mobile Operators Improve Customer Care and Marketing Strategies

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:00:31 +0000

comScore Awarded Multi-Million Dollar Contract from Tier 1 Operator to Deliver In-depth Views of Subscriber Voice and Data Quality of Services (QoS)

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, announced significant enhancements to its Subscriber Analytix suite for mobile operators worldwide. These first-of-their-kind capabilities allow mobile operators to leverage their own data in conjunction with the power of comScore’s proprietary digital media categorization and segmentation schemes to power unique timely insights for customer care and marketing representatives. Mobile operators will be able to use information on how their customers engage with web services, content, apps, and devices to quickly diagnose customer care issues while developing effective marketing strategies that meet subscriber needs.

“In an era of lightning-fast communication, the capabilities of Subscriber Analytix can allow mobile operators to unlock the full potential of their customers’ big data in seconds, not hours or days,” said Brian Jurutka, SVP of Global Telecom Solutions at comScore. “Users of Subscriber Analytix will have the ability to explore their subscriber data by taking advantage of existing dashboards or intuitively dragging and dropping their way to any required data view. Our intelligence platform delivers insights at scale that can help mobile operators reduce costs and improve their up-sell opportunities.”

Subscriber Analytix Improves ROI for Mobile Operator Customers

By enriching mobile operator data streams with comScore’s proprietary digital categorization and segmentation, Subscriber Analytix enables mobile operators to maximize the value of their Care and Marketing assets. Through more than 50 established reports, and now through the proprietary Dashboard Builder, individual users can develop ad hoc reporting within each solution. These capabilities provide mobile operators with distinct opportunities for data monetization and improved ROI, including the following:

Immediate Root Cause Analyses of Voice, Data and SMS Quality of Service Issues - The subscriber experience is vastly improved when frontline Care specialists can provide immediate insights and educated diagnoses of any Care issue including device and profile updates, or even overbilling from excessive app usage.

Reduction in Unnecessary Device Returns - Mobile operators can dramatically reduce the need for unnecessary device returns with ready identification of subscriber device, profile or network performance issues.

Enabling Intelligent Re-sizing of Data Plans and Pricing - The ability to resize data allotments and pricing is now simplified with subscriber behavior and data usage information segmented to address these critical marketing questions.

Identification of Rising Star Apps or Partnership Candidates - New revenue streams for services or partnership opportunities are now distinguishable across segments of subscribers, which can be monetized ahead of trends to offer valuable additional sales channels for mobile operators.

comScore Awarded Multi-Million Dollar Customer Deal for Subscriber Analytix Care

The newly redesigned comScore Subscriber Analytix Care solution represents the cutting-edge in subscriber insight and celebrates a Q1 customer win with a Tier 1 U.S. Operator. Subscriber Analytix Care addresses primary operational tasks that include better management of billing inquiries from subscribers, improve account management, increase efficiencies in the overall Care process and ultimately achieve higher customer satisfaction and improved subscriber experience. The full deployment for Subscriber Analytix Care at this operator is expected to save the client at least an estimated 3 percent in total operational Care costs.

About Subscriber Analytix Solutions

comScore Subscriber Analytix Care provides user-friendly insights that empower frontline care specialists from mobile operators to make fast and intelligent quality of service (QoS) decisions that improve the subscriber experience with data, voice and devices.

comScore Subscriber Analytix Marketing provides insights into subscriber digital preferences and behaviors, enabling mobile operators to effectively drive demand for offerings and products.

For more information on Subscriber Analytix, click here to request a demo.

About comScore

comScore Announces U.S. Launch of MMX Multi-Platform to Deliver Unified View of Desktop, Smartphone & Tablet Audiences

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:00:01 +0000

Stand-Alone Reporting of Tablet Audiences Also Now Available in comScore Mobile Metrix®, Providing Critical Component of Multi-Platform Audience Reporting

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, announced the official U.S. launch of MMX® Multi-Platform, the next generation of digital audience measurement and media planning. Building on MMX®, Mobile Metrix® and Video Metrix® from comScore’s Audience Analytics suite, this first-of-its-kind product – originally released to clients in Beta with September 2012 data – offers unduplicated accounting of audience size and demographics that reflects today’s multi-platform digital media environment.

“We are excited to formally introduce MMX Multi-Platform, a revolutionary development that combines comScore’s flagship products to accurately account for unduplicated audiences across the desktop, smartphone and tablet platforms,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore. “This unified view of digital audiences not only establishes a new measurement standard for the industry, but also has the potential to unlock insights that can deliver substantial, currently unrealized value to our publisher, advertiser and agency clients.”

To learn more about MMX Multi-Platform, click here: www.comscore.com/multiplatform. Those interested in requesting a live product demonstration can click here: www.comscore.com/MMX_Multi-Platform_Demo_Request

Multi-Platform Reporting Drives Value for Marketers and Media Companies

MMX Multi-Platform provides unduplicated audience reporting across the various media platforms, in addition to different content delivery vehicles, whether those are websites, videos or apps. The synthesis of these platforms and content assets delivers new value to the digital media ecosystem in the following ways:

Facilitating Content Monetization- Publishers and media companies can now get credit for their entire unduplicated audiences across computers, smartphones and tablets – including the incremental audiences reached only via mobile platforms.
Demonstrating the reach and value of these audiences to advertisers helps facilitate the monetization of mobile channels.
Improving Content & Marketing Strategies– Understanding demographic differences between audiences across channels can help publishers and media companies devise acquisition strategies and develop content that better engages their different audiences.
Enhancing Media Planning Efficiency– Independent media platform reporting in addition to synthesized, unduplicated views of audiences enables media planners to optimize audience reach and frequency both within and across channels. The full palette of media platforms offers more options to maximize efficiency.
Reaching High-Value or Difficult-to-Reach Demographics– Smartphones and tablets can be more efficient at reaching high-value demographic targets, such as younger males and upper-income audiences. The availability of multi-platform audience reporting provides data that supports more efficient ways of reaching these important demographic segments.
Understanding Media Usage Trends– Publishers, media companies and marketers all need to understand how the consumer media mix is changing over time as a result of the continued adoption of mobile platforms. By illuminating the shifting dynamics, particularly within different segments of consumers, businesses can respond to their customers’ changing needs and better plan for the future.

The Top 50 Digital Media Property Ranking: A New View of the Digital World

Multi-platform audience measurement immediately changes the established view of the digital landscape, with media properties’ audience sizes increasing, in addition to changes occurring within content category rankings. The average property within the Top 100 increased its audience size by an average of 38 percent, and 19 of those properties had incremental mobile (i.e. smartphone and tablet) audiences that extended the reach of their desktop audiences by at least 50 percent. The properties with the greatest incremental percentage gains from mobile were Groupon (223 percent), Zynga (211 percent) and Pandora (183 percent).

MMX Multi-Platform Top 50 Properties February 2013 Total U.S. (Age 18+ on iOS & Android platforms for Mobile) Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform
		Unique Visitors/Viewers (000)
		Total Digital Population	Desktop*	Mobile**	Mobile-Only	Mobile Audience Incremental % to Desktop
	Total Internet : Total Audience	235,855	221,379	127,106	14,475	7%
1	Google Sites	228,084	196,782	107,604	31,302	16%
2	Yahoo! Sites	210,603	186,596	88,876	24,007	13%
3	Microsoft Sites	175,902	166,346	48,867	9,556	6%
4	Facebook	174,800	145,306	99,698	29,494	20%
5	Amazon Sites	147,031	115,363	74,122	31,668	27%
6	AOL, Inc.	130,619	115,202	54,010	15,417	13%
7	Glam Media	126,117	104,517	48,016	21,600	21%
8	Apple Inc.	115,920	75,358	62,104	40,562	54%
9	Wikimedia Foundation Sites	109,523	85,856	49,296	23,667	28%
10	CBS Interactive	100,772	85,783	34,029	14,989	17%
11	Turner Digital	98,311	81,501	38,424	16,810	21%
12	Demand Media	97,250	78,512	35,800	18,738	24%
13	eBay	84,677	65,764	41,355	18,913	29%
14	About	83,743	64,782	30,000	18,962	29%
15	Ask Network	81,430	69,355	20,933	12,075	17%
16	Comcast NBCUniversal	81,275	67,183	32,193	14,092	21%
17	Viacom Digital	79,966	70,446	20,194	9,520	14%
18	The Weather Company	76,642	56,120	37,368	20,522	37%
19	Pandora.com	65,142	23,035	51,977	42,107	183%
20	Gannett Sites	63,055	47,611	27,023	15,445	32%
21	Answers.com Sites	60,861	47,738	17,832	13,123	27%
22	VEVO	58,010	55,953	4,586	2,057	4%
23	Yelp.com	55,641	36,775	27,569	18,866	51%
24	Twitter.com	55,540	35,963	31,372	19,577	54%
25	craigslist, inc.	55,520	46,380	18,839	9,140	20%
26	Adobe Sites	54,840	40,984	19,810	13,856	34%
27	Federated Media Publishing	54,607	39,577	24,297	15,030	38%
28	Hearst Corporation	54,498	41,514	20,967	12,984	31%
29	Linkedin	54,071	45,699	14,978	8,371	18%
30	Wal-Mart	52,857	38,854	22,397	14,004	36%
31	WebMD Health	50,841	32,641	27,614	18,200	56%
32	NDN	46,262	46,260	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	Meredith Women’s Network	45,533	32,253	19,771	13,280	41%
34	ESPN	44,759	30,348	27,735	14,411	47%
35	Tribune Interactive	44,618	32,991	17,982	11,627	35%
36	New York Times Digital	44,206	33,175	19,869	11,031	33%
37	YP Local Media Network	43,191	30,112	17,539	13,079	43%
38	Pinterest.com	41,210	26,972	22,994	14,238	53%
39	Disney Online	39,551	27,621	18,022	11,930	43%
40	Netflix.com	38,987	29,205	21,480	9,782	33%
41	Everyday Health	38,720	27,143	16,141	11,577	43%
42	Intuit	38,029	29,091	15,105	8,938	31%
43	Discovery Digital Media Sites	37,590	30,504	10,622	7,085	23%
44	Zynga	37,459	12,051	29,936	25,408	211%
45	Fox News Digital Network	37,340	29,829	15,276	7,512	25%
46	Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.	37,050	26,514	15,469	10,536	40%
47	Groupon	36,924	11,421	28,722	25,503	223%
48	WordPress.com	36,846	27,964	11,976	8,882	32%
49	Target Corporation	36,061	23,043	18,028	13,018	56%
50	Time Warner (Excl. Turner/WB)	35,142	25,729	13,693	9,413	37%

*Note: Desktop includes audience reached via video and will therefore differ from standard MMX rankings
**Mobile includes smartphone and tablet platforms

comScore Clients Support Multi-Platform Measurement

“Mobile and video are central to how we deliver content to our readers, so having an audience measurement platform that accounts for this was essential. We are excited that comScore’s MMX Multi-Platform will now be providing that for us.”

- Dan Abrams, CEO, Abrams Media Network

“ESPN’s mission is to serve sports fans, anytime, anywhere, so it’s critically important that we are able to represent the audience of our entire digital footprint. Measuring user behavior across platforms provides us better insights to most effectively build products, serve content, market our offerings and develop innovative advertising solutions.”

- David Coletti, VP, Digital Media Research & Analytics, ESPN

“With the growth of tablets and smartphones, media consumption has become fluid throughout the day. These numbers demonstrate how well Gannett has been able to leverage its digital focus to grow our consumer base through our mobile and tablet products. We applaud comScore for addressing the industry’s need for accurate multi-platform audience measurement.”

- Matt de Ganon, VP, Mobile Product and Operations, Gannett Digital

“Given the trends we’re experiencing in this new multi-screen world with more of our audience engagement with us across mobile devices, it’s critical to our future to capture this activity accurately. comScore is leading the industry in methodologies to realistically represent all the audience who’s coming to our sites across all these new devices.”

- John Denny, VP, Marketing, Advance Digital

“comScore’s new Multi-Platform service provides invaluable data to help navigate today’s tumultuous digital landscape. It is crucial to holistically quantify the unduplicated exposure and engagement of all our digital assets moving forward.”

- Michael Gratz, VP, Research & Insights, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

“Consistent multi-channel reporting of audience reach and demographics is an important underpinning of cross-platform media planning. We look forward to leveraging MMX Multi-Platform to improve side-by-side comparisons and gain a more holistic view of audiences that will help increase the efficiency and performance of our clients’ campaigns.”

- Brian Quinn, Chief Revenue Officer, Triad Retail Media

“With mobile representing such a large segment of our digital audience, we knew that traditional web-based audience measurement was not giving us credit for the significantly larger audience we’ve been delivering to our advertisers. By addressing that critical piece of the landscape, this product is bringing a more realistic view of the true digital media universe to the market.”

- Radha Subramanyam, EVP Insights, Research & Analytics, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment

About comScore

comScore Releases ’2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus’ Report

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:39:00 +0000

Russia Has Europe’s Largest Internet Audience, Whilst Turkey Counts the Youngest Users

Highest Penetration in Europe: 2 in 3 Dutch Internet Users Visited Banking Sites

London, UK – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, released the 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus report. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the European market and identifies the prevailing trends in web usage, online video, mobile and search. There is also a special scorecard section, which shows the top sites for all 18 European countries measured by comScore as well as an overview of top news, retail and online banking sites per market.

“European consumers are more digitally-engaged than ever before and their usage of mobile, internet-enabled devices is re-defining the media landscape,” said Paul Goode, Chief Advisor Industry Relations for comScore in Europe. “Advertisers, agencies and media owners need to understand the rising number of multi-platform consumers and the more complex digital ecosystem that has developed over the past years. Insights about key trends and underlying drivers enable clients to manage their digital investments effectively.”

To download a complimentary copy of the 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus report, please visit: http://www.comscore.com/FutureinFocus2013

Key takeaways from the 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus (#FutureinFocus) report include:

408.3 million people in Europe used the desktop-based internet in December 2012, a 7 percent increase over the past year.Turkey has the youngest European internet audience with nearly 70 percent under the age of 35. Source: comScore MMX
Russia widens the gap to Germany as Europe’s country with the largest online audience (61.3 million), while Italy’s internet audience grew the fastest over the past year (up 17 percent). Source: comScore MMX
57 percent of EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK) mobile users owned a smartphone in the 3 month average ending December 2012. Spain’s mobile audience showed the highest adoption of smartphones with 66 percent.Source: comScore MobiLens
In the EU5 region, Samsung leads the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) market with a 32 percent share, whilst Google is the operating system of choice for 50 percent of EU5 smartphone users. Apple was the smartphone manufacturer with the 2nd largest user base and also ranked as the 2nd most popular smartphone operating system (OS). Source: comScore MobiLens
EU5 online video audience grew 5 percent over the past year, whilst the number of mobile video viewers jumped by 162 percent since December 2011. Leading online video platforms across Europe are YouTube (Google), Dailymotion, Facebook and VEVO. Source: comScore Video Metrix
Yandex Web Search captured a 10 percent share of the European search market in December 2012. Source: comScore qSearch
1 in 3 display ad impressions were never seen, according to comScore’s European validated Campaign Essentials(vCE) charter study conducted between March and August 2012.
Time spent on news/information sites increased by 10 percent amongst European internet users. The most visited news/information resource was Yahoo!-ABC News Network (34.6 million), followed by the BBC (27.4 million). HPMG News, which includes sites such as Huffington Post and TechCrunch, ranked as the 3rd largest news/information site and saw the strongest audience growth amongst the top 10 over the past year (up 60 percent). Source: comScore MMX
19.2 million EU5 smartphone users purchased a product or service via their device in the 3 month average ending December 2012 (14.1 percent of EU5 smartphone owners). Source: comScore MobiLens

Please note that the 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus report is part of our Future in Focus series. To get more detailed insights into mobile trends or the digital landscape for major markets around the world, please visit www.comscore.com/FutureinFocus2013. Furthermore, French and German language reports, highlighting their respective country-specific trends, are also available via the above link.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behaviour that enable clients to maximise the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

comScore Announces Divestiture of ARS Non-Health Copy-Testing and Equity Tracking Assets to MSW Research

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:20:47 +0000

RESTON, VA – comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, announced the divestiture of its non-health copy-testing and non-health equity tracking assets of ARS to MSW Research (formerly McCollum Spielman Worldwide).

MSW is a global leader in advertising research, brand health, advertising tracking, neuroscience and strategic research. The new firm will be called MSW●ARS. comScore will retain the health-based copy-testing and equity tracking assets following the divestiture.

“The divestiture of certain of our ARS assets will allow us to better focus our attention on comScore’s core growth opportunities,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO. “We thank the employees of ARS for their service and dedication as part of comScore, and wish them every success with MSW.”

The financial impact of this divesture is unchanged from expectations provided in comScore’s fourth quarter earnings announcement.

About comScore

comScore Releases the “2013 Canada Digital Future in Focus” Report

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:00:18 +0000

Report Features Insights on Key Trends from 2012 and What They Mean for the Year Ahead

TORONTO, CA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the 2013 Canada Digital Future in Focus report. This annual report examines how the prevailing trends in web usage, online video, digital advertising, mobile, social media and e-commerce are defining the current Canadian marketplace and what these trends mean for the year ahead.

“2013 will be defined by the new media landscape that presents marketers with more opportunities to connect and engage with consumers than ever before,” said Bryan Segal, Vice President, comScore Canada. “The growing number of digital platforms and continued adoption of mobile devices has brought to fruition an evolved consumer and more complex digital ecosystem. Advertisers, agencies and publishers alike must have a holistic understanding of how these puzzle pieces fit together if they are to prosper in the year ahead.”

To download a complimentary copy of the 2013 Canada Digital Future in Focus report, please visit: http://www.comscore.com/FutureinFocus2013

Key takeaways from the 2013 Canada Digital Future in Focus include:

Canada continues to be a leader in engagement, with users spending more than 41 hours per month online on their desktop computers, representing the 2nd highest engagement across the globe. Canada ranks 1st in terms of monthly pages and visits per visitor.

Online video is of growing importance to the digital ecosystem as long-form viewing and premium programming migrates online. Canadians rank 2nd worldwide in terms of monthly hours of video viewing (25) and number of videos per viewer (291). The Entertainment category saw the largest growth in number of videos viewed versus year ago.

The digital ad market is healthy and growing in Canada, with 724 billion display ad impressions in 2012, up 17 percent year-over-year. Social Media, Entertainment and Portal sites continue to account for the highest share of impressions.

The rapid adoption of internet-enabled devices is contributing to a more fragmented digital media landscape. Smartphone subscribers grew by 17 percent in 2012, with Google Android now accounting for 40 percent of the market. Subscribers watching video on their mobile phones has increased 21 points in the last year, while search is the fastest-growing mobile content category.

Social Media players are increasing their visitor base and engagement, while Facebook maintains its strong lead in the category. There are several rising stars to watch in 2013 – Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram are all seeing strong visitor growth rates.

Major industry verticals are experiencing growth in digital channels. Retail e-commerce reached $22.3 billion dollars in Canada in 2012, up 10 percent versus year ago. Banking and Automotive content consumption and digital advertising are also experiencing gains across both desktop and mobile channels.

Webinar – Canada Digital Future in Focus 2013: Trends Every Marketer Needs to Know

Join Darrick Li, Manager, MMX Canada on Tuesday March 19th at 2 PM ET, as he shares key insights from the 2013 Canada Digital Future in Focus and discusses what these trends mean for the year ahead. For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.comscore.com/cdfif13.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Solve Media Collaborates with comScore to Introduce Native Insights Research

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:57:21 +0000

Groundbreaking Initiative Creates Measurement Tool That Improves Efficiency, Effectiveness and Cost of Optimizing Digital Campaigns.

NEW YORK – Solve Media (www.SolveMedia.com), the leader in guaranteed, performance-based online branding, today announced its collaboration with comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, to launch a first-of-its-kind method to accurately measure online advertising in a native manner. Native Insights research is collected in the flow of a user’s experience, similar to native advertising, and allows advertisers to leverage unbiased results into actionable insights in order to optimize their digital campaigns.

An online survey conducted by Solve Media revealed that brand marketers and market research professionals are dissatisfied with the current state of digital campaign research. 40.6% of online marketers reported feeling that online surveys take too long to show results. In addition, 60.6% of market research professionals believe sample groups are heavily biased. Native Insights research was developed to address these issues.

Solve Media’s Type-In network of over 6,000 publishers, across multiple verticals, creates an ideal setting for Native Insights research. Key benefits include:

· Survey Targeting – the ability to create and target specific audiences by brand preference and demographics.
· Brand Lift – by presenting users with brand attribution questions on a control versus exposed basis, Native Insights natively measures awareness, perception and purchase intent targets.
· Creative Optimization – advertisers using Native Insights can quickly determine changes in perception and sentiment on a per creative basis, and optimize messaging accordingly.
· Publisher Specific Targeting – by limiting the audience to a specific site or group of sites, advertisers can hyper-target an audience type.

Solve Media’s Native Insights research tool leverages a unique methodology that aligns with comScore’s rigorous standards and benchmarking requirements. In early studies, this approach has proven to be 200 times more effective at generating survey responses, and four times faster at data collection, when compared to traditional, non-native research methodologies. As a result, Solve Media now optimizes digital campaigns faster and more efficiently. In addition, by presenting research questions in the flow of a user’s experience, Solve Media eliminates the “natural born clicker” effect, which can sometimes produce user bias in online advertising research.

“We are proud to work with comScore. Together we are changing the way agencies, marketers, and publishers measure campaign effectiveness data,” said Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media. “We guarantee performance for brand campaigns, and we’re excited to turn brand data into actionable insights in order to deliver campaign success in a faster, more economical, and efficient manner. “

“We’re pleased to play a role in bringing this new application of online branding effectiveness measurement to the market,” said Bryan Goski, Director of Marketing Solutions at comScore. “By organically integrating with the flow of the user experience, ‘Native Insights’ has shown the ability to quickly deliver superior sample sizes and help advertisers evaluate campaign effectiveness almost immediately.”

Study Methodology
Solve Media surveyed 600 professional market researchers and online marketers in the United States from February 1-14, 2013.

About Solve Media
Solve Media (www.SolveMedia.com) was founded by veteran entrepreneurs and technologists focused on innovative Internet advertising solutions and security. The Company’s proprietary online advertising platform, the TYPE-IN™, was designed to create new and highly effective opportunities for brands to advertise online. With the platform, Solve Media guarantees brand message delivery, brand lift and return on investment for advertisers. Additionally, the security platform creates new revenue opportunities for publishers and saves time for consumers. Backed by First Round Capital, New Atlantic Ventures, AOL Ventures, Bullpen Capital and prominent angel investors, Solve Media is based in New York City and Philadelphia.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on the web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

comScore Releases the “2013 Mobile Future in Focus” Report

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:58:44 +0000

Report Features Insights on Key Mobile Trends from 2012 and What They Mean for the Year Ahead

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, released the 2013 Mobile Future in Focus report. This annual report examines the U.S. mobile and connected device landscape in 2012, highlighting trends that have shaped mobile media consumption and shifted market dynamics across mobile networks, platforms, and OEMs. The report also includes key mobile market insights from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, and Japan.

“2013 was a watershed year for mobile, with smartphones surpassing 50 percent penetration and tablets continuing to gain traction,” said Mark Donovan, comScore SVP for Mobile. “As consumers incorporate these devices into their daily diet of digital media consumption, marketers and media companies are challenged to confront this emerging multi-platform paradigm. Having a clear view of today’s digital landscape – and particularly the rapidly expanding usage of mobile devices – will be critical to success in the year ahead.”

To download a complimentary copy of the 2013 Mobile Future in Focus report, please visit: http://www.comscore.com/MobileFutureinFocus2013

Key insights from the 2013 Mobile Future in Focus include:

Multi-Platform Dynamics Shape the ‘Brave New Digital World’

With smartphones surpassing 125 million U.S. consumers and tablets now owned by more than 50 million, we have crossed into the Brave New Digital World – a new paradigm of digital media fragmentation in which consumers are always connected. comScore MMX® Multi-Platform (Beta), which provides an unduplicated view of digital media audiences and consumption across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets, reveals that more than one out of every three minutes online is now spent on devices beyond the PC.

Smartphones Surpass 50 Percent Penetration and Break Into ‘Late Majority’ of Adopters

2012 was a milestone year for the U.S. smartphone market as it finally surpassed 50 percent market penetration and now enters the “late majority” stage of the technology adoption curve. The number of smartphone subscribers has increased 29 percent from a year ago and 99 percent from two years ago. Not only does the market’s current ownership profile reflect a smartphone majority, but 72 percent of all newly-acquired devices are now smartphones.

Android and iOS Control U.S. Smartphone Market

Google’s Android OS, which has been adopted by multiple OEMs, and Apple’s iOS, which is carried exclusively on iPhones, have come to dominate the U.S. smartphone landscape with nearly 90 percent of the market today. This market share dominance is being reinforced by the two platforms’ well-developed app ecosystems, making it even more difficult for the competing platforms to narrow the gap.

Samsung Makes Splash in Smartphone OEM Market

Apple continues to gain ground as the leading smartphone OEM, but Samsung has seen the most explosive growth in this market over the past couple of years with a year-over-year increase of more than 100 percent and a two-year increase of more than 400 percent. While Apple maintains a healthy lead over #2 Samsung, the gap has been steadily narrowing during a year in which the rivalry heated up between the two smartphone OEM leaders.

High-Speed Mobile Connectivity Has Unleashed Mobile Content Consumption

The improved availability of high-speed Internet access has significantly enhanced the average user’s media consumption experience, contributing to a rapid uptick in mobile media consumption. Default Wi-Fi accessibility for smartphones and tablets has not only off-loaded bandwidth from networks, but has also contributed to a better on-premise (e.g. in-home) browsing experience for users. While Wi-Fi usage has become more prevalent, networks speeds have also improved with 4G and LTE technology as an increasing number of phones on the market are enabled for these speeds.

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comScore Releases January 2013 U.S. Online Video Rankings

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:23:08 +0000

Facebook Streams Record Number of Videos with More Than 425 Million

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that nearly 180 million U.S. Internet users watched 36.2 billion online content videos in January, while the number of video ad views reached 9.1 billion.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in January with 150 million unique viewers, followed by Facebook.com with 57 million, VEVO with 50.1 million, NDN with 49.1 million and Yahoo! Sites with 43.7 million. Nearly 36.2 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 12.3 billion and Facebook reaching an all-time high with more than 425 million. Google Sites had the highest average engagement among the top ten properties.

Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties Ranked by Unique Video Viewers January 2013 Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations Content Videos Only (Ad Videos Not Included) Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property	Total Unique Viewers (000)	Videos (000)*	Minutes per Viewer
Total Internet : Total Audience	179,515	36,194,133	1,140.2
Google Sites	149,959	12,307,568	391.2
Facebook.com	56,953	425,859	17.0
VEVO	50,096	578,937	38.6
NDN	49,078	578,065	72.1
Yahoo! Sites	43,713	349,708	56.6
Viacom Digital	43,636	466,339	39.9
AOL, Inc.	42,151	766,470	63.1
Microsoft Sites	36,055	500,039	47.5
Collective Video	33,274	145,029	21.2
Turner Digital	30,636	256,857	34.9

*A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, including both progressive downloads and live streams. For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream.Video views are inclusive of both user-initiated and auto-played videos that are viewed for longer than 3 seconds.

Top 10 Video Ad Properties by Video Ads Viewed

Americans viewed 9.1 billion video ads in January, with Google Sites ranking first with 1.8 billion ads. BrightRoll Video Network came in second with 1.5 billion, followed by Hulu with 1.4 billion, Adap.tv with 1.1 billion and LiveRail.com with 957 million. Time spent watching video ads totaled 3.5 billion minutes, with BrightRoll Video Network delivering the highest duration of video ads at 849 million minutes. Video ads reached more than 50 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 58 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 57, while CBS Interactive delivered an average of 21 ads per viewer, earning it a spot on the chart as it drew increased viewers for specialty programming such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and several awards shows such as the People’s Choice Awards.

*Top U.S. Online Video Ad Properties Ranked by Video Ads Viewed January 2013 Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations Ad Videos Only (Content Videos Not Included) Source: comScore Video Metrix**
Property	Video Ads (000)	Total Ad Minutes (MM)	Frequency (Ads per Viewer)	% Reach Total U.S. Population
Total Internet : Total Audience	9,094,551	3,494	58.4	50.5
Google Sites	1,815,062	151	19.4	30.3
BrightRoll Video Network**	1,539,675	849	12.1	41.4
Hulu	1,368,352	543	56.9	7.8
Adap.TV†	1,128,671	568	10.6	34.4
Liverail.com†	956,723	415	12.3	25.2
Specific Media**	839,924	349	7.4	36.7
Auditude, Inc.**	814,600	178	13.8	19.2
TubeMogul Video Ad Platform†	632,580	208	8.3	24.7
CBS Interactive	566,675	211	21.2	8.7
Tremor Video**	498,036	231	7.8	20.6

*Video ads include streaming-video advertising only and do not include other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, etc.
**Indicates video ad network
†Indicates video ad exchange/DSP/SSP

Top 10 YouTube Partner Channels by Unique Viewers

The January 2013 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channel VEVO maintained the top position in the ranking with 48.9 million viewers. Fullscreen held on to the #2 position with 35.4 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios Inc. with 34.8 million, Warner Music with 25.9 million and ZEFR (formerly MovieClips) with 25.6 million. Among the top 10 YouTube partners, Machinima demonstrated the highest engagement (66 minutes per viewer), followed by Maker Studios Inc. (46 minutes per viewer). VEVO streamed the greatest number of videos (552 million), followed by Machinima (473 million).

*Top YouTube Partner Channels Ranked by Unique Video Viewers January 2013 Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations Content Videos Only (Ad Videos Not Included) Source: comScore Video Metrix**
Property	Total Unique Viewers (000)	Videos (000)	Minutes per Viewer
VEVO @ YouTube	48,875	552,443	37.6
Fullscreen @ YouTube	35,409	242,739	20.5
Maker Studios Inc. @ YouTube	34,760	446,899	46.2
Warner Music @ Youtube	25,949	144,377	18.7
ZEFR @ YouTube	25,615	112,028	12.0
Machinima @ YouTube	24,322	473,355	66.4
BroadbandTV @ YouTube	15,523	98,394	19.0
UMG @ YouTube	14,655	38,955	7.5
The Orchard @ YouTube	13,636	41,410	8.0
rumblefish @ YouTube	10,878	20,716	4.5

*YouTube Partner Reporting, starting with January 2013 data, gives credit to YouTube Partners for views of their single-claimed user-generated content.

Other notable findings from January 2013 include:

83.5 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
The duration of the average online content video was 5.7 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
Video ads accounted for 20.1 percent of all videos viewed and 1.7 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

U.S. Consumer Online Travel Spending Surpasses $100 Billion for First Time in 2012

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:35:12 +0000

Total Online Travel Spending Up 9 Percent to $103 Billion, Led by Air Travel

Southwest, Expedia and Marriott Led Respective Travel Sub-Categories in 2012 Web Page Views

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released its Full Year and Q4 2012 U.S. travel e-commerce sales estimates. For the full 2012 year, U.S. travel e-commerce sales reached $103 billion, an increase of 9 percent versus the prior year. Air Travel accounted for nearly two-thirds of all travel spending while growing 10 percent vs. year ago.

2012 Travel Spending by Sub-Category Full Year 2012 vs. Full Year 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Computers Source: comScore E-Commerce Measurement
	Spending ($ Millions)	Share of Travel Spending	Y/Y % Chg
Total Travel E-Commerce	$102,951	100%	9%
Air Travel	$66,529	65%	10%
Hotel Reservations	$19,384	19%	7%
Car Rental	$9,698	9%	6%
Travel Packages	$5,140	5%	10%
Other Travel	$2,200	2%	10%

“Travel is a leading online commerce category, and despite being a pioneer in the sector 15 years ago it is still growing at nearly double-digit growth rates and remains very competitive,” said John Mangano, VP of comScore Marketing Solutions for Retail and Travel. “With the online channel driving such a high percentage of dollars within the broader travel industry, understanding the competitive landscape is essential to determining the most effective sales and marketing strategies.”

Top Airline Sites in 2012

Once again, Southwest Airlines led all airline sites in 2012 with 20 percent of category page views, up slightly from the prior year. Delta Airlines ranked second at 15.5 percent of page views, followed by United Airlines at 14.7 percent (up 4.9 percentage points), American Airlines at 13.2 percent and US Airways at 3.4 percent.

Top Airline Properties by Share of Page Views Full Year 2012 vs. Full Year 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Computers Source: comScore MMX
		Share (%) of Category Page Views
		2011	2012	Pt Chg
	Travel Category – Airlines	100.0%	100.0%	0.0
1	Southwest Airlines Co.	19.8%	20.0%	0.2
2	Delta Airlines	15.9%	15.5%	-0.4
3	United Airlines*	9.8%	14.7%	4.9
4	American Airlines	13.8%	13.2%	-0.6
5	US Airways Group, Inc.	3.4%	3.4%	0.0
6	Continental Airlines Sites*	6.4%	2.7%	-3.7
7	JetBlue Airways	2.6%	2.5%	-0.1
8	Alaska Airlines.com	3.1%	2.5%	-0.6
9	Allegiant Air.com	2.6%	2.1%	-0.6
10	AirTran Airways	2.6%	2.0%	-0.6

*Continental Airlines began re-directing traffic to United Airlines in early 2012, accounting for much of the gains at United Airlines and much of the declines at Continental over the past year.

Top Online Travel Agent Sites in 2012

Expedia Inc. (which includes Hotwire) ranked as the top property in the Online Travel Agents category with 31.6 percent of all category page views, followed by Priceline.com Inc. (17.3 percent) and Orbitz Worldwide (12.9 percent). Fareportal Media Group, which includes CheapoAir, ranked fourth at 9.2 percent, while Travelocity rounded out the top five at 7.6 percent. Recent 2012 IPO Kayak.com was one of the biggest share gainers in the category, jumping 2.2 percentage points to 6.9 percent share of all page views.

Top Online Travel Agent Properties by Share of Page Views Full Year 2012 vs. Full Year 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Computers Source: comScore MMX
		Share (%) of Category Page Views
		2011	2012	Pt Chg
	Travel Category – Online Travel Agents	100.0%	100.0%	0.0
1	Expedia Inc	37.6%	31.6%	-6.0
2	Priceline.com Inc	15.7%	17.3%	1.6
3	Orbitz Worldwide	12.9%	12.9%	-0.1
4	Fareportal Media Group	8.5%	9.2%	0.7
5	Travelocity	10.0%	7.6%	-2.4
6	Kayak.com Network	4.7%	6.9%	2.2
7	BookingBuddy Sites	0.0%	2.3%	2.3
8	CheapCaribbean.com	1.0%	1.4%	0.5
9	BookIt.com	0.9%	1.1%	0.1
10	AppleVacations.com	0.7%	0.6%	-0.1

Top Hotel & Resort Sites in 2012

Marriott led the Hotels & Resorts category in 2012 with 11.7 percent of all category page views, roughly on par with its share in 2011. InterContinental Hotels Group ranked second with 7.9 percent share (up 3.5 points), followed by Wyndham Worldwide at 7.5 percent. Hilton Hotels (7.0 percent) and VRBO.com (6.5 percent) rounded out the top five.

Top Hotel & Resort Properties by Share of Page Views Full Year 2012 vs. Full Year 2011 Total U.S. – Home & Work Computers Source: comScore MMX
		Share (%) of Category Page Views
		2011	2012	Pt Chg
	Travel Category – Hotels/Resorts	100.0%	100.0%	0.0
1	Marriott	11.8%	11.7%	-0.1
2	InterContinental Hotels Group	4.4%	7.9%	3.5
3	Wyndham Worldwide	7.9%	7.5%	-0.4
4	Hilton Hotels	9.0%	7.0%	-2.0
5	VRBO.com	3.2%	6.5%	3.3
6	Disney Parks & Travel	6.0%	5.7%	-0.3
7	Choice Hotels International	8.0%	5.4%	-2.6
8	TotalRewards.com	2.6%	3.3%	0.6
9	Expedia Hotels	N/A	3.1%	N/A
10	BestWestern Hotels	2.7%	2.8%	0.2

“Interestingly, not all sites are equally effective in turning page views into transactions,” added Mangano. “In some instances we see that sites require greater engagement to get to a booking, while others serve more as a venue for comparison pricing but lose out on the sale as their visitors go to other sites to book. So while winning the traffic battle is an important part of customer acquisition, travel companies who optimize their strategies at other phases of the funnel are the ones who ultimately drive the greatest conversion.”

About comScore Online Travel Solutions

Those interested in learning more about comScore Online Travel Solutions, including detailed competitive intelligence on online site visitation, consumer demographics & behaviors, and sales conversion, please contact John Mangano atjmangano@comscore.com.

About comScore

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