Today, the company announced a pilot program for the Nielsen Digital Program Ratings which will track TV content viewed online. The pilot starts with a handful of big-name partners – A+E, ABC, AOL, CBS, The CW, Discovery Communications, FOX, NBC and Univision. The pilot is set to begin in May and run through July, but Nielsen is already announcing that the Digital Program Ratings will see a commercial launch. The pilot program is simply serving to “fine-tune” Nielsen’s methods before they hit primetime, or, later streamed on the internet time – whatever.

“The pilot for Nielsen Digital Program Ratings is a major milestone for the industry,” said Eric Solomon, SVP for Global Digital Audience Measurement at Nielsen. “As a companion product to Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, Nielsen Digital Program Ratings will enable clients to better understand the online audience for their programming by harnessing the same methodology Nielsen already uses to measure the audience for related advertising.”

Nielsen says that they will start by measuring TV content viewed online, on computers. For instance, CBS will be able to see Nielsen’s numbers for how many streams their online content got on their official site. During the pilot, initial results will only be shared with clients, but Nielsen hopes to make the data public when the program sees a full launch later this year.

Of course, Nielsen plans to expand the program to “additional content types and devices” in the future. So we’re talking streams from sites like Hulu or YouTube, made on and iPad or Xbox.

Nielsen already has an presence in online metrics, including web content (YouTube videos and such). They also track websites based on visitors. This pilot program marks their first foray into tracking online streams of traditional TV content, however.

“The potential to measure video viewing of specific programs on linear TV as well as the Internet is significant,” said Alan Wurtzel, President of Research and Media Development, NBCUniversal. “It’s an important step toward reaching the ‘holy grail’ of true cross-platform measurement.”

It’s an interesting move from Nielsen, but the online viewership tracking won’t really come into its true form until Nielsen is measuring all types of online TV streaming across all types of devices. Although Nielsen is just announcing this pilot program, it’s clear that full inclusion is what they envision.

In Nielsen’s 2012 American Moviegoing report, the group found that mobile moviegoers “spend more, consume more content and are more actively engaged in the moviegoing process.” The report found that the moviegoers are increasingly moving to mobile with 69 percent of moviegoers owning a smartphone and 29 percent owning a tablet. It also found that mobile device owners see more movies with smartphone owners seeing nine percent more movies, and tablet owners seeing 20 percent more movies last year compared to their non-mobile device owning contemporaries.

Outside of the theater, tablet owners are the biggest film consumers. The report says that they watched 47 movies on average last year, 10 more than the average moviegoer. Tablet owners are also more likely to spend more, and buy their tickets online.

Being closely tied to mobile, social media’s impact on the moviegoer experience can not be ignored either. Nielsen’s report found that that the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age ranges used social media the most to discuss films. The overall moviegoer population is seeing increases in social media use as well.

From a certain point of view, this is great news for marketers who can take advantage of new advertising venues on mobile to reach a larger audience. I just ask that you turn off your phone during the movie. The annoying warning before the movie starts is there for a reason.

The findings indicate that a mix of media and word of mouth advertising bring about the most success in raising consumer awareness, and the most persuasive awareness drivers include a mix of activities like in-store discovery, TV, print advertisements, advice from family/friends, free samples, searching the Internet, and professional/expert word-of-mouth advice.

“Consumers increasingly find the Internet and mobile are compelling vehicles to get information about new products,” the firm says. “However, potential reach and ease of execution varies substantially.”

As you can see, all other methods listed are more effective than text messages. It appears that marketers may be better off reaching consumers on their mobile devices via Internet channels like search, websites,articles, forums, social media, video sharing sites, and even banner ads.

The AP reports (via ABC), citing Nielsen numbers, that the midseason premiere set a series record on Sunday night with 12.3 million viewers, beating its previous record, which was set when AMC ran the season premiere in October (10.9 million). According to the report, 7.7 million of this past Sunday’s viewers were between the ages of 18 and 49 – a record on its own, for a cable show for that demographic.

Earlier this week, AMC posted a couple of behind-the-scenes videos looking at the record-setting episode. The network also posted a preview of the next episode.

For those who have yet to see the midseason premiere, AMC is offering it online for free until Sunday, March 10th. The network will not be offering other episodes of the series as free online streams, but they want to get fans started off, so if you’re interested, you have a few weeks.

More The Walking Dead fun here.

The multi-year agreement enables Twitter and Nielsen to offer the new metric for commercial availability starting next fall.

“As the experience of TV viewing continues to evolve, our TV partners have consistently asked for one common benchmark from which to measure the engagement of their programming,” says Twitter Head of Media, Chole Sladden. “This new metric is intended to answer that request, and to act as a complement and companion to the Nielsen TV rating.”

“The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating is a significant step forward for the industry, particularly as programmers develop increasingly captivating live TV and new second-screen experiences, and advertisers create integrated ad campaigns that combine paid and earned media,” said Steve Hasker, President, Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen. “As a media measurement leader we recognize that Twitter is the preeminent source of real-time television engagement data.”

“Ultimately, we have one goal for this new metric: to make watching TV with Twitter even better for you, the TV fan,” says Sladden.

The metric will complement Nielsen’s existing TV ratings. The companies say that the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating will give advertisers “the real-time metrics required to understand TV audience social activity”.

Nielsen looked at interactions with social ads and found that Asian-American consumers are much more likely to react positively, all across the board. They were more likely to share an ad, like an ad, and make a purchase based on the ad.

Whites were the least likely to share, like, or buy from a social media ad, with Hispanics and African-Americans falling in between the two.

Nielsen also found that of those who made a purchase after viewing an ad, most obtained a coupon first. Check out their mini-infographic below:

Nielsen also had this to say on the current state of social media advertising:

“Consumer attitudes towards advertising on social media are still evolving, though a third of social media users agree that ads on social networking sites are more annoying than other online ads. More than a quarter of users say they don’t mind seeing tailored ads based on their individual profile information. Not only do consumers not mind certain ads, they also engage with them by liking or sharing an ad (26% and 15%, respectively), or actually making a purchase (14%). As attitudes towards advertisements evolve, and ads become more accepted based on consumers’ responsiveness level, social media platforms can become more and more like traditional, ad-supported media.”

Another recent study from Adobe/Edelman Berland painted a still pretty bleak picture of online ad credibility. Over half of respondents said that most online marketing was “a bunch of bullshit,” and 68% said they were “annoyed” by online ads. In fact, people said they were 7 times more likely to pay attention to their dentist than pay attention to an online ad.

According to Nielsen, Americans spent a total of 121.1 billion minutes on social media sites during the month of July. Make a few calculations and we find that over 230 millennia was spent on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networks in a four week span. That’s just incredible. Nielsen’s stats include sites like Blogger and Tumblr, so were really talking about social networking and blogging here – but still, it’s pretty unbelievable.

Year-over-year our total time on social media increased a whopping 32.7 billion minutes.

Nielsen also determined that our socia media obsession is moving more toward mobile. While 87.8 uniques accessed social media via mobile (web and apps combined) in July of 2011, 166.9 did so in July of 2012. When you look at who is doing the most social networking, Nielsen’s findings echo previous claims that say young women are the most active.

Facebook remained the top social network, followed by Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, and LinkedIn. Pinterest saw the biggest increase from 2011, with users spending 1.25 billion minutes via web, 120 million via app, and 720 million via mobile web.

You can check out Nielsen’s full social media report here.

That’s the takeaway from a recent Nielsen study into the wishlists of children. They looked at kids “interest in buying in the next 6 months” (interest in their parents buying, more like it) and found that iEverything is on their minds.

The top product was the iPad, with 48% expressing interest. That’s up 4% from last year. 36% of kids aged 6-12 expressed interest in the iPod Touch and the iPad mini and another 33% are interested in an iPhone. In fact, Apple products hold 4 out of the top 5 positions in the study – the lone non-Apple product being the Nintendo Wii U with 39% saying that want one in the next 6 months.

When Nielsen looked at older kids (aged 13+), Apple products were still popular – but there was a larger variety in their desires. The iPad still topped that list, with 21% expressing interest. The next three spots were held by any computer, a tablet other than the iPad, and the Wii U. Apple’s iPhone came in fifth with 14% expressing interest.

This marks the second straight year that Nielsen has found an affinity for iProducts among kids. Last year, for kids aged 6-12, the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone topped the list.

Apple recently launched a holiday gift guide page and announced that they will once again be holding an online/in-store Black Friday sale.

This acquisition is part of Nielsen’s recent commitment to cross-platform advertising measurement.

Vizu’s unique solutions will be integrated into Nielsen’s growing product portfolio and offer clients real-time feedback on ad exposure and performance.

Steve Hasker, President of Global Media Products and Advertising Solutions at Nielsen comments on the acquisition of Vizu:

“We are committed to providing a complete understanding of a brand’s end-to-end advertising campaign impact,”

“Vizu has developed a best-in-class solution for measuring and optimizing brand advertising effectiveness online, which offers a powerful complement to Nielsen’s cross-platform solutions for the advertising industry. We are pleased to welcome Vizu’s talented team to Nielsen and are excited to work together to further evolve our Brand Effect product suite, and provide unparalleled capabilities to advertisers, publishers and agencies.”

Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu comments on the acquisition by Nielsen Ratings Group:

“Through quality measurement, publishers and advertisers can harness the power of online advertising and understand its true value in connecting with consumers,”

“Nielsen is committed to cross-platform measurement and advertising solutions that enable better understanding of the consumer and greater advertising efficiency. We’re confident that combining our advertising technology with Nielsen’s capabilities and expertise creates a stronger proposition for our clients and the industry.”

Vizu’s capabilities will immediately be incorporated into Nielsen’s product offerings. No financial aspects of the acquisition have been disclosed nor was there a tentative closing date mentioned. It appears Vizu’s staff will now become part of Nielsen’s company and continue on as they had before the acquisition.

One question you might ask is, “How can I invest the least and get the most?”.

Nielsen, the television ratings people, wondered the same thing.

While asking how to invest the least and get the most was a little too broad a question, they set out to examine what type of ads seem to work the best regardless of economic conditions.

To do this, they looked at ad performance before, during, and after the great recession. Essentially what they wanted to know was, “To what extent, if any, has the tumultuous economic climate and subsequent attitude shifts impacted consumer responsiveness to various creative tactics?“.

They looked at over 4,000 U.S. ads that were categorized as either humor, narrative, sentimental, product, or promotional and value. The study took place between 2006 and 2011. Pre-recession was ’06 to 07, Recession was ’08 to ’09, and post was 2010 to 2011.

The Key Findings:

* Humorous ads have consistently resonated best with viewers, regardless of the economy or year

* During the recession, there was a notable lift in effectiveness of sentimental and value-oriented ads

* Ads focused on product features and promotion/price do not resonate with viewers . . . . even during tough economic times

* The performance of narrative and sentimental ads has improved since 2006

So, if you are looking for the most bang for your buck, go with humor, it wins every time. Promotion, which seems like it would speak to people most often, interestingly loses almost every time. Very interesting. I don’t always advertise, but when I do, I use humor.