Process over many years

The development of NMO Online did not happen overnight. The first discussions about setting up a new online reach survey took place many years ago. This eventually resulted in its introduction in early January 2024.

The first phase of this study included all the major online news platforms in the Netherlands, as well as online platforms of major magazine brands. This provided an insight into the reach of dozens of online brands.

Reach is essentially a combination of three sources:

• Router meters that can measure all online devices in the home have been installed in households in the NMO Online Panel.
• Additionally, the NMO Multimedia Panel app records online traffic as well as listening behaviour.
• The information from these panels is supplemented by census data from the ‘measurement tags’ that publishers have placed on their platforms.

Using data science, the panel and census data are then merged into a single data file for the market to work with.

What can it be used for?

The new data cannot be compared with the data from NOBO, the predecessor in online reach research, for many reasons. The NMO Online data is much more detailed. Interestingly, for example, reach and visit figures for specific sections and types of content can be retrieved (such as ‘news’ or ‘finance’).

At the launch of the new study, NMO’s Patricia Sonius and Martijn Brinkhoff gave attendees some practical tools and interesting perspectives. For example, you can analyse brands for:

• Content types: What’s the best way to reach those interested in economics, investing, and personal finance?
• Overlap/duplication: Which brands combined provide the best performance in your target market?
• Reach throughout the day and week: When is your target audience online and when is it not?
• Dimensional profiles: Brands are contrasted on two axes. Who achieves the best performance in relation to men in the higher income bracket?

How do FD and BNR emerge?

Initial analyses show that the FD is the most selective of all online news platforms among target audiences such as Business Decision-Makers, Social Class AB1, Highest Affluence (W1) and 25-54 year olds. Interestingly, BNR is, after FD, the number 2 in the market in the Business Decision-Makers target group. It therefore makes sense not to lose sight of both digital platforms when putting together the ideal media mix for business campaigns!

In addition, there is hardly any overlap between the two digital brands. The NMO Online data for the year 2023 shows that the duplication between FD and BNR (in both cases web and app) is only about 6%. All the more reason to include a digital media deployment of both titles in the 2024 plans.