comScore Introduces Ad Metrix Social™ for Enhanced Visibility Into Brands Leveraging the Social Side of Display Advertising

RESTON, Va., Oct. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the availability of Ad Metrix Social™, a powerful enhancement to comScore's leading competitive display ad intelligence product, that provides greater visibility into display ads appearing on social networking sites and socially-enabled display ads appearing across the web. This new capability is available for all countries currently reportable in Ad Metrix: U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany.

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"comScore is excited to introduce this new Social module to our Ad Metrix product, offering clients unparalleled visibility into the social side of the display advertising landscape," said Jeff Hackett, comScore Executive Vice President. "Social networking publishers, led by Facebook, not only account for one out of every three display ads appearing online today, but they are increasingly being woven into the fabric of existing display campaigns. comScore now offers advertisers and agencies a unique way to understand the intersection of social media and display advertising."

Socially-Published Ads vs. Socially-Enabled Ads

The core enhancements to Ad Metrix involve detailed reporting and analysis of two different types of social display ads: socially-published ads and socially-enabled ads. Socially-published ads refer to any brand's display ads that appear on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Linkedin. In order to improve brand-level classification of the non-IAB standard hybrid text/image ads that appear on Facebook, comScore developed a proprietary classification technology to assign these ads to the appropriate brands.

Socially-enabled ads are standard IAB display ads that click through to Facebook or other social networking sites, often including an emblem with verbiage such as "Like us on Facebook" or "Follow us on Twitter." Increasingly, brands are utilizing these social calls-to-action in their display ad campaigns as a means of bolstering their social media presence.

Top 10 "Most Social" Display Advertisers

The top display advertiser in terms of its number of socially-published ads in August was AT&T with 3.9 billion. AT&T, the top display advertiser overall, had a share of ads published on social media sites similar to that of the total U.S. online ad universe. Among the top ten social display advertisers, IAC had the highest percentage of ads published on a social media site at 38.8 percent, 31 percent higher than the total Internet average. Each of the other top ten display advertisers on social media sites were somewhat underrepresented on these sites in relation to the total.

Mars Incorporated ranked #1 on the list of the top socially-enabled display advertisers in August with nearly 300 million impressions among its brands, which include popular candy brands M&Ms, Snickers and Skittles. Nearly 30 percent of Mars Inc.'s display ads were socially-enabled – approximately 42 times higher than the total online average. Kraft Foods ranked second with 179 million socially-enabled display ad impressions, followed by Energizer Holdings with 101 million and General Motors at 97 million. Nearly all of the top ten advertisers were consumer packaged goods companies, highlighting an industry segment that is currently demonstrating the heaviest focus on these types of advertising messages.

comScore to Host Webinar on Ad Metrix Social

comScore will be hosting a complimentary webinar on Thursday, October 20, 2011 from 2:00-3:00 PM ET to show how Ad Metrix Social can be used to gain key insights and competitive intelligence about the social side of display advertising. All participants are welcome and may register for the webinar at the following link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/338258400

For more information on comScore Ad Metrix Social, please email [email protected].

Industry Leaders on Ad Metrix Social

"At Digitas, we're working on the next generation of media planning by designing content around audiences in owned and paid venues; we believe audiences will share engaging content and, as a result, generate earned media. With Ad Metrix Social, the industry now has a tool that can enable powerful and actionable insights around how owned and paid drive earned media for individual brands, categories, or publishers."

-Dave Marsey, Senior Vice President of Media, Digitas

"Earned media is more important than ever before in the Paid, Earned, Owned triad, but measurement of its impact and relationship with display can be tricky. comScore's Ad Metrix Social continues to deconstruct the black box around how brands are advertising on social sites, the relationship between display and social engagement, as well as determining which audiences are being reached. It's a great way for brands to stay on top of their social media strategy, and offers tools to optimize their campaigns in this ever-changing media/technology market."

-Chad Maxwell, Senior Vice President of Research, Starcom Worldwide

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, expectations regarding the impact and benefits to comScore of the comScore Ad Metrix Social™, financial or otherwise. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to: the features and characteristics of the products, the rate of development of the digital marketing intelligence, Internet advertising and e-Commerce markets; the growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce, content, advertising and communications; and the acceptance of new products and methodologies by the industry, including existing and prospective clients.

For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to comScore's most recent respective Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and from time to time other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available on the SEC's Web site (http://www.sec.gov).

Stockholders of comScore are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. comScore does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.