Nielsen To Incorporate Ad-Id Coding Into Its KeepingTrac Service

New York, NY -The Nielsen Company and Ad-ID, a joint venture of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc (ANA), today announced that they are working together to incorporate Advertising Digital Identification (Ad-ID) coding into Nielsen’s commercial tracking system, KeepingTrac, which allows advertisers to verify that their commercials ran the previous day according to their media plans.

Ad-ID, the advertising industry’s Web-based, complete-code system, includes a database where information about each commercial asset can be entered. Under the ISCI® coding system that Ad-ID replaces, advertisers, agencies and television stations had to enter information about each commercial into many industry systems. Ad-ID establishes one, central database that brings consistency to asset identification and enables the digital exchange of information throughout the industry.

KeepingTrac will leverage the Ad-ID database to allow advertisers to encode their TV commercials with minimal effort and track the performance of their media campaigns.

The joint effort by Nielsen and Ad-ID is the first of its kind since Ad-ID was launched in 2003—and aims to further automate the process of monitoring an advertiser’s television campaigns. Using KeepingTrac and Ad-ID, an advertiser can get next-day feedback to ensure their commercials are airing as ordered, adhering to their buying guidelines and achieving their Gross Rating Point (GRP) goals.

“Nielsen’s KeepingTrac is a step in the direction of improved accountability and transparency in the media industry,” said Mike Donahue, Executive Vice President, AAAA and Co-CEO, Ad-ID. “This integration between Nielsen and Ad-ID is the first of many partnerships that will improve workflow and enable innovation.”

“Incorporating Ad-ID coding into KeepingTrac eliminates the number of steps necessary to issue and track a commercial,” said Terrie Brennan, Senior Vice President New Business Development and Strategy, The Nielsen Company. “This significantly increases the value of KeepingTrac to our clients, who are increasingly requiring greater accountability, faster turnaround and operational efficiencies from the industry.”

Introduced in 2007, KeepingTrac combines Nielsen ratings data with next-day confirmation of television commercial airings, allowing advertisers to monitor whether or not their ads are reaching target audiences and running as directed. KeepingTrac‘s DemoWatch tool enables advertisers to monitor the demographic composition of their advertising audiences and ensure their campaign is not reaching any unintended audiences, such as children or teens.