DAR is powered by anonymous information, demographic databases, and Nielsen’s calibration sources. It provides demographics, unique audience, reach, frequency, and gross rating points (GRPs) for a campaign’s total digital audience across computers, tablets, and smartphones. This is also in a comparable manner to TV, enabling advertisers, media agencies, and publishers to maximise advertising reach across digital platforms.

Nielsen South Africa watch head Terry Murphy says, "DAR provides transparent, actionable audience measurement for digital advertising. Audience measurement has thus far been limited to impressions served, or unique audience and demographics, from panels that do not necessarily represent the digital landscape."

"The tool empowers clients to measure campaigns, irrespective of size or where they are placed, from a neutral, independent stand point. DAR also brings standardisation and accountability and helps advertisers and agencies gauge return on investment for every Rand they spend online. In addition, publishers and platforms can also show their performance to clients based on the actual audience they reach, rather than click-throughs," she adds.

Independent third-party verification

Nielsen launched DAR in the United States in August 2011, and is now available in 29 markets, with South Africa being the first on the African continent to launch the tool. The DAR currency provides an independent measurement service to the industry.

It aims to provide greater transparency by preventing ad fraud and allows for better audience targeting. It also enables tracking of publishers on their performance in terms of their accuracy in reaching the desired target market. These norms are based on industry data, over cumulative campaigns, run over time.

"The norms are based on a large number of campaigns measured globally and are a good benchmark to assess one’s campaign. Using the DAR metrics, one can now optimise investment based on performance to achieve the stated targets," Murphy adds.

Anytime, anywhere access

The DAR interface gives users access to data and the ability to analyse, assess, and apply that data in a strategic manner. Clients and agencies have access to overnight data, which provides transparency via a Live Dashboard. The web-based interface allows users anytime, anywhere access, through a unique login that doesn’t require any software installation for its use.

It also provides over-night details of a campaign’s full digital audience across computers, tablets, smartphones, and connected devices (Smart TV, PS4, apple TVs, etc.) as well as the ads specifically served on these platforms. It gives users the options to view audience by age as well as gender.

Looking at the context that DAR operates within, Murphy says that digital initially went through something of a ‘honeymoon phase’, which saw a lot of advertisers hopping on to the digital bandwagon. 

She concludes, "The advantage of DAR is that it brings the same rigour and accountability to digital that exists in TV advertising and measurement, thereby creating accountability and comparability for brand marketers, advertising agencies, and publishers who have been seeking measurement to better understand the true audience of their digital campaigns across devices."

For more information, visit www.nielsen.com. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.