Other highlights of the World Cup’s popularity include:

• In the U.S., 112 million people, or 37% of the viewing public, watched part of the games. This is 27% higher than 2006.
• In addition, about 64 million people – or about a third of all U.S. Internet users – visited a World Cup-related website such as ESPN.com, Univision.com, FIFA.com, or Yahoo! Sports.
• In the blogosphere during the three months May-July 2010, 6.2 million people were exposed to World Cup buzz on blogs and chat rooms, and they saw 15.1 million buzz impressions.

The World Cup presents tremendous opportunities for reaching a large number of consumers, but perhaps even more important, a large number of very engaged consumers. The intensity of consumers’ involvement in the World Cup is extremely high and as Nielsen has shown in the past, a viewer’s engagement with a program is a good indicator of how engaged he or she will be with a commercial message.

Nielsen’s ad effectiveness business looked to see whether there was any link between being an official World Cup sponsor and viewers’ engagement with those ads. In fact, Nielsen found that Official sponsors had a higher net “Likeability” on average compared to commercials from other, non-sponsor World Cup advertisers. The insights from Nielsen’s ad effectiveness research were borne out by our research into online conversations. Most of the official World Cup sponsors became the most buzzed-about brands online.

The World Cup was a great laboratory to test out new ways of gaining insight into how consumers interact with the World Cup. One of the many innovative projects Nielsen undertook for the World Cup was our Life360 digital ethnography initiative, which gave us an intimate, revealing true-to-life view of how people used media during the games.

In our Life360 projects, we ask a specially recruited panel of consumers to record their engagement with media, purchase behavior, or other activities for a limited period of time. In South Africa, for example, we recruited a panel of 420 respondents, equipped them with mobile devices and asked them five times a day to answer surveys that measured their interaction with media, brand awareness and select expenditures — along with their mood and a photo. Surveys were collected at homes, work, fan parks, stadiums and other venues, yielding a trove of data and 54,000 images.

In the U.S., our Life360 work involved equipping 100 respondents with video cameras and asked them to record their engagement with the tournament across platforms (for ESPN & Univision). Nielsen Life360’s research demonstrated the intensity with which viewers interacted with the games. It also showed that viewing among Hispanics was an all-family affair, with women tuning into games in high numbers and creating fútbol parties – with special dishes, team colors and cheerleading of their favorite teams.

Local market rankings for the telecast were well represented by the cities who most coveted LeBron’s services. His former hometown Cleveland topped all other markets with a 26.0 local household rating, followed by nearby Columbus, OH, with a 14.2 rating. Miami–Ft. Lauderdale won the LeBron Sweepstakes, but placed third in the local rankings with a 12.8 rating. Chicago, whose Bulls were in the running until the very end, placed sixth (10.7 local household rating) , while a disappointed New York market placed seventh (10.4 local rating).

LeBron’s announcement was one of the more memorable televised news events featuring a prominent professional athlete. Most recently, Tiger Woods’ live public statement on February 19th, 2010 - his first since the flood of reports on his extramarital affairs – drew nearly 22 million viewers across 18 networks.

Keep it Simple
Bodenheimer noted that ESPN’s mission is simple: To Serve Sports Fans. In accordance with this mission, the philosophy and strategy of the company is to adopt early and see what works – what works, improve it, what doesn’t, stop doing it. This goes for the production of live events to the adoption of new device applications. The biggest threat to the business is being complacent.

While TV is still the “Mack truck” of sports, with 80% of all sports programming consumed on TV, producing for TV vs. mobile vs. Internet is very different and understanding what works for each is critical to ESPN. A great example is the coverage of the World Cup in South Africa, where 10% of viewership in the opening weekend is not taking place on TV.

Usage of the second and third screens aren’t cannibalizing TV, but rather increasing consumption. And social media is being used to drive traffic to the ESPN website – predominant sites used include Twitter and Facebook.

Making it Work
Having one single point of contact for all content is critical. “At ESPN, there are no silos,” says Bodenheimer. One digital center allows a collaborative and seamless delivery of programming across TV, digital, mobile and online devices.

The idea that viewership now spreads across multiple screens is no longer a big deal. ESPN has been researching and experimenting in this sphere for the past 12 years and will continue to explore new methods to meet their company mission.

Their advanced testing facility in Austin Texas uses biotechnological methods to monitor the consumption of sports and advertising. And at the Walt Disney facility in Orlando, there is a large sports center where athletes come to compete – this gives ESPN the advantage of testing their extensive production facility to continue to improve their editing methods across all mediums.

The Next Big Thing
With the iPad having launched a few months ago and two million already out there, what could be the next big thing? The most honest answer to that question, is “I don’t know,” commented Bodenheimer. The answer will come from the 6,000 ESPN employees who have their ear to the ground and adopt new devices early. ESPN is committed to pedaling as fast as they can to serve fans across the globe in all manners. “Technology keeps us on our toes,” concluded Bodenheimer.

So what’s driving the data? There are no doubt a multitude of factors: exciting games, compelling storylines, and perhaps even the economy. But one that may go unnoticed is the NBA’s two year old advertising campaign: “Where Amazing Happens.”

Debuting in 2007, the “Where Amazing Happens” commercial spots featured still photos of NBA action accompanied by a signature piano riff. The ads were also supplemented with internet banner ads, print and outdoor extensions and are streaming on Youtube, NBA.com and other online video sites.

This season, “Where Amazing Happens” commercials evolved into CGI replays of some of the most memorable moments in NBA history. By slowing down the action, the commercials highlight the drama embedded in professional basketball that may occasionally go unnoticed with the game moving at such high speeds.

According to Monitor-Plus, Nielsen’s advertising tracking service, the NBA ran more 30-second spots within nationally broadcast games than any other advertiser. The league used this inventory, which is negotiated into the network contracts, to promote “Where Amazing Happens” and is expecting the promotion to help increase viewership and deliver more eyeballs to its official sponsors and network advertisers.

Whatever the reason for the ratings renaissance, a Nielsen Sportsquest survey finds that buzz in the NBA is definitely surging. As of April 2009, interest in the NBA was at it’s highest point since July ‘07, with 33% of total persons aged 12+ identifying themselves as avid NBA fans. The data also revealed that NBA fan interest is spilling over to increased awareness for their sponsors: NBA fans are 50% more likely to name official wireless sponsor T-Mobile as a cell phone provider and 37% more likely to have a favorable opinion of Nike.

Viewership is also higher among patrons of Nike and T-Mobile. Nielsen’s MRI fusion data shows that in Q4 2008, NBA viewership on TNT, ESPN, and ABC, was 47% higher among Nike Shoe wearers, and 23% higher for T-Mobile subscribers.

In a day and age where advertising campaigns often come and go very quickly, the NBA has stuck with “Where Amazing Happens” and its persistence looks like it’s paying off for the league and its partners.

Additionally, video streaming on CBS Sports saw massive gains during the tournament, with nearly a 300% gain in unique users watching video. Those viewers racked up more than 380 million minutes of viewing time in March.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing advertisers and web sites is the plethora of sites competing for scarce advertising dollars with little to offer in the way of differentiation.  Unfortunately, no single formula or strategy has emerged to guide advertisers looking to build brand loyalty, share of mind or unit sales when it comes to the online world.

Regardless, online media continues to have a tremendous amount of unrealized potential.  Roughly 57 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies advertised online in at least half the quarters from the past three years.  But the way they have been doing so points to a scatter-shot approach: 20 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies are distributing ad dollars across 32 or more web sites, while another 20 percent are hitting 8-31 outlets.

A number of companies are finding success: ConAgra, Exxon Mobil, Clorox, Cisco Systems, Foot Locker and Barnes & Noble each bought millions of online impressions in the fourth quarter of 2008, and got the most bang for their buck by concentrating more than 90 percent of their digital dollars on a single web site.  On the web site front, ESPN.com recently overhauled their entire site, moving easy-to-use streaming video and advertising to the forefront. The results have been impressive: 45 seconds per page, an audience of 19.5 million visitors and 29 percent of advertising utilizing non-standard formats.

Learn how to deploy effective online advertising strategies, including Nielsen’s four-point plan, in the current issue of Consumer Insight.

“The NCAA Tournament is very attractive to sports marketers even in tough economic times,” said Tom Ziangas, SVP for Nielsen Sports. “The games playing out over several weeks make it a sort of mini-series for viewers. There’s always some unexpected drama or Cinderalla story – like Davidson College last year – that makes March Madness a compelling reality show as well as a prime sporting event.”

In 2008, the tournament reached nearly 100 million viewers in the US, with basketball hotbed Louisville, KY, delivering the highest ratings for a local market in the last five years.

Most Avg. Viewers, NCAA Championship Game (millions)

1979 – Mich St. vs. Ind. St. – 35.1
1992 – Duke vs. Michigan – 34.3
1993 – UNC vs. Michigan – 32.9
1994 – Arkansas vs Duke – 32.7
1983 – NC St. vs. Houston – 32.1

Top Local Market Rating, NCAA Tournament 5-year Avg.

Louisville – 19.0%
Raleigh-Durham – 13.0%
Memphis – 12.9%
Cincinnati – 12.9%
Columbus – 12.7%

March Madness On The Web

ESPN and Yahoo! were the two most-visited sports sites last March with 19.8 and 19.4 million unique users, respectively. Traffic on the CBS Sports web brand shot up 59 percent in March 2008 over the previous month. Online buzz spiked dramatically in March for last year’s Cinderella team, Davidson College. This year, there’s an additional mobile phone angle as CBS March Madness On-Demand is now available via an iPhone application as well as the desktop.

Download the Nielsen’s Guide To March Madness.

According to a new study by Nielsen PreView, ESPN ranks among the top networks and programs in its ability to draw both men and women to the same programming, allowing for these types of Valentine messages to have the greatest impact.

The study analyzed co-viewing data for cable and broadcast networks during the last quarter of 2008, with an emphasis on how males 25-34 and females 25-34 watched prime time TV programming together.

Compared to other networks, ESPN offered both above average reach for males and females as well as a high percentage of women co-viewing with a male counterpart. In fact, on average, over 40% of females 25-34 who watched ESPN during the time period analyzed were watching with a male 25-34.

While ESPN, in aggregate, outperformed most other networks for % co-viewership, individual programs on some networks were able to garner two times the co-viewership % of ESPN.

Nielsen’s Danny Monistere Discusses The Report

Read the full report.

Since ABC obtained NBA broadcasting rights in 2002, the network’s Christmas Day games have averaged a 4.1 rating and 6.9 million viewers nationally. The highest mark came in 2004 when the Lakers and Heat (featuring a much-anticipated reunion between Kobe and Shaq) pulled a 7.3 rating and 13.2 million viewers.

The San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns officially tip off ABC’s broadcast season at 2:40pm ET Christmas Day.  Last year, the NBA on ABC averaged a 2.2 national rating, up 10% from 06-07.

Aside from the two ABC games, the NBA offers a few Christmas stocking stuffers, with the Hornets-Magic at noon on ESPN and two nightcaps (Wizards-Cavs and Mavs-Blazers) on TNT. The NBA’s cable ratings remain steady through the first two months of the season after ESPN and TNT boasted 20% and 10% increases in viewership last year, respectively.

First it was the thrilling September 15th matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.  The Cowboys prevailed in a 41-37 shootout watched by 18.6 million viewers, the most ever for a cable program.

Then on Sunday, the Cowboys scored another television record, defeating the New York Giants in front of 23 million viewers on NBC – the most-watched game in the network’s three year history broadcasting Sunday Night Football.  And which team played in each of the next two most highly rated SNF games this season? The Cowboys, of course.

Love them or hate them, Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, and their traveling football soap opera are delivering huge audiences for the networks this season. NBC’s SNF and ESPN’s MNF viewership are up 4.3% and 4.1 % respectively compared to the same time period last year, thanks in part to the power of the Cowboys’ national brand.

NFL Network
Meanwhile, the NFL Network is banking on the Cowboys’ primetime appeal as Dallas takes on the Baltimore Ravens Saturday night in a game that has playoff ramifications for both teams.

With college football on the sidelines, this weekend’s game is NFLN’s first Saturday night telecast of the season. Thursday night games on the network are so far proving to be a success for the league’s cable outlet. According to Nielsen’s latest coverage estimates, the network is available in 37% of television households across the country, with Thursday night games attracting an average of 3.4 million viewers, despite stiff primetime competition on other networks. Leading the way was a mid-November tilt between AFC East rivals New England Patriots and New York Jets, which pulled in 4.4 million viewers.

Updated 12/23/08:The trend continues! The December 20 game between the Cowboys and Baltimore Raven drew 5.76 million viewers making it the highest viewership for an NFL Network game this season, and the network’s second highest all-time.