Commercial Minute Ratings

In 2006, Nielsen Media Research met with clients to discuss options for providing commercial minute ratings for television advertising. Because different clients require different levels of granularity and flexibility in their ratings data, Nielsen enhanced existing products to provide highly granular data so that clients would have all the data they need to create commercial ratings at the minute level on up and for any interval of DVR playback from one minute to seven days and continue to move forward with developing an average commercial minute ratings file to provide commercial ratings in a format for clients' commonly used legacy software systems. Nielsen made available to clients all the data they needed to create their own ratings for any given minute of the day for any period of DVR playback they want through its All Minute Data File. The same analytical capability was added to Nielsen's NPOWER software, an enhancement that will allow advertising agencies, advertisers, and programmers to develop individualized minute-by-minute ratings of national commercials by demographic group for all national television programs, including DVR playback at any interval up to seven days.

How Consumers are Surveyed to Rate Commercials

First, a sample of the target demographic for the advertising campaign is identified. This sample should be representative of the broader audience the advertiser is trying to reach. It may include a variety of ages, genders, income levels, or other demographic factors relevant to the campaign.

Next, the survey is designed to measure various aspects of the advertising campaign. This might include questions about the viewer's recall of the ad, their understanding of the product or message, their emotional response to the ad, and their likelihood of purchasing the product or responding to the call to action. There may also be questions to gauge the overall likeability of the ad.

These surveys can be conducted through various methods, including online surveys, telephone interviews, or in-person focus groups. The choice of method often depends on the nature of the campaign and the resources available.

Once the survey data is collected, it is analyzed to assess the effectiveness of the ad campaign. The results can provide valuable feedback to advertisers, helping them to fine-tune their marketing strategies and make future campaigns more successful.