Visible Measures Unveils New Social Indicator of Consumer Brand Preference

BOSTON, Nov. 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Visible Measures, the independent third-party media measurement firm for online video advertisers and publishers, today announced Share of Choice™, a measure which reveals how often consumers choose to watch brands and their competitors in online video advertising. Share of Choice is analogous to the more traditional media metric share of voice. While share of voice is ultimately a measure of media spending power among brands, Share of Choice from Visible Measures is the first video-based, objective, comparative, social indicator of consumer brand preference.

"When consumers can watch whatever content they want and still choose to watch and interact with a brand advertisement, it demonstrates genuine brand interest and preference," said Visible Measures founder and CEO Brian Shin. "Leading brands have recognized the unique opportunity online video provides to drive purely voluntary, self-initiated interactions with consumers. These advertisers are planning, launching, and investing in campaigns to influence this choice, as we see every week on our widely read Top 10 Viral Video Ads Chart."

Share of Choice reveals the brands consumers choose to watch in social video, a segment of online video that allows consumers to watch whatever content they want, such as music videos, film trailers, webisodes, user generated content, brand advertising, and more. Unlike traditional advertising channels such as television and radio, where ads interrupt content, ads in social video are the content. As a result, Share of Choice is the only measure of advertising that consumers choose to watch, summarizing relative brand performance in specific industry categories.

"In the business of online brand building, creatively engaging consumers and building brand advocates is critical," said Nancy Go, brand manager for Gillette, a Procter & Gamble brand. "But it's too easy to get tied up with narrow metrics, and Visible Measures has created a single key metric to track whether your online activities are a drop in the bucket or a big splash."

In addition to revealing consumer brand preference, Share of Choice also highlights the increasingly competitive nature of social video. For example, a Share of Choice report for the consumer mobile technology category, which includes smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and MP3 players, shows that only four brands were active in social video in Q4 2009. As of Q3 2010, the number of active brands more than doubled and category views have increased by over 600%. With help from new campaigns for products like iPad® and iPhone 4®, Apple is the current mobile tech leader with 55% Share of Choice, followed by Nokia at 22% and Amazon at 9%.

Available immediately and priced on an annual subscription basis, Share of Choice allows advertisers to measure consumer interest and preference by understanding the brands consumers choose to watch. Available Share of Choice industry reports include:

• Alcoholic Beverages
• Apparel & Accessories
• Automotive
• Community & Activism
• Electronics
• Food
• Health & Beauty
• Male Personal Care
• Mobile Technology
• Non-Alcoholic Beverages
• Quick Service Restaurants
• Telecomm

More segments are planned in the coming months. Customized industry views are also available.

To learn more about Share of Choice, and to download a sample Share of Choice Report for the Consumer Mobile Technology category: How Apple Reset the Mobile Tech Category in Social Video and What We Can Learn From It, please visit: www.visiblemeasures.com/share-of-choice or e-mail [email protected].

About Visible Measures

Visible Measures is the independent third-party media measurement firm for online video advertisers and publishers. The company's patented approach has been designed from the ground up to meet the unique challenges of measuring Internet video reach and engagement. Visible Measures provides its customers and partners with unprecedented visibility into their online video audiences and how they choose to engage with both content assets and advertising placements. Visible Measures is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) Digital Video Committee and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). To learn more about Visible Measures and explore its industry-wide data for viral video ads, online film trailers, webisodes, automotive, and more, please visit http://www.visiblemeasures.com.

SOURCE Visible Measures