Sport24 Takes a Swing at Major League Measurement
This MLB post-season Repucom International, in partnership with Nielsen, will launch Sport24 - an ROI database that aims to "capture every second of televised brand exposure in major U.S. sports."
Repucom Sport24 says it will analyze every brand exposed in every second of every major league televised (a total of approximately 19,000 hours annually) in the country including: NFL, NASCAR, NHL, NBA, PGA Tour, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball and many others. Not stopping at the primary broadcast, Sport24 aims to also aggregate and take into account media coverage such as ESPN's SportsCenter highlights.
"The sports industry is ideally positioned to capitalize on its ability to deliver brands 'DVR-proof' media value within its content. Repucom Sport24 will provide stakeholders on all sides of this equation with a robust tool to measure the performance of this prime media real estate in a media context," said Paul Smith, CEO and Founder of Repucom International, which has already launched a similar sport-specific global product for Europe, Football24 (covering English Premier League and UEFA Champions League matches plus highlights).
Sport24 will utilize Nielsen ratings and audience data on local and national levels to establish media equivalencies on a media-based Cost per Thousand model for audiences and specific demographic segmentations.
Will creating an open database of brand exposure analytics work? There are a couple glaringly apparent issues, and we look forward to seeing how Sport24 addresses these. First, TV as a medium is only one piece of the sponsorship exposure puzzle. The medium is so fragmented these days that even must-see sports receive only a fraction of TV's overall share. Take the U.S. Open for example, which has boosted ratings 18% this year to an average 2.0 household rating. Aside from television, fans get exposed to sponsors through many other mediums including mobile, online and on-site. Does a TV-centric measurement model still work and how will these other forms of media be accounted for? Secondly, there are still many variables that dictate varying values of exposure such as how viewers feel towards the teams on display on any given day.
Nevertheless, the best tool wins out - even if it's not bulletproof. Does Sport24 have a better mousetrap?
