[mkdf_dropcaps type=”normal” color=”#f55549″ background_color=””]T[/mkdf_dropcaps]he Melbourne Storm have become the first Australian sporting team to invest in Nielsen’s Social Measurement platform for Sport.

Melbourne Storm chief commercial officer, Nick Haslam, said the deal will see the Storm use the new platform to measure the club’s impact and compare against their competitors.

“In today’s connected world, fans use social media to instantly share and engage with their favourite teams and athletes,” Haslam said.

“Now more than ever, as restrictions post-pandemic are easing, it is crucial for us to be able to measure and monitor our fan’s engagement while games are played behind closed doors.

“Thanks to this platform we will be able to quantify the impact of our social engagement strategies and benchmark against other NRL teams and Melbourne-based AFL teams,” he said.

Through the new Nielsen platform, Social Content Ratings data is available next-day, along with insights and strategy optimisation tools, based off leveraged Gracenote TV data and official partnerships with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for all televised sports events and 24/7 sports activity.

Nielsen Sports Pacific head, Scott Gillham, said the Storm will see great value from their use of Nielsen’s platforms.

“Nielsen Social Content Ratings delivers one comprehensive solution to help Melbourne Storm measure, understand and act upon social conversations with fully syndicated metrics for benchmarking and social performance insights across leagues, teams and athletes to demonstrate fan engagement and sponsor value,” Gillham said.