Nielsen’s position in a multi-currency marketplace was discussed by Scott McDonald, PhD. (President & CEO, ARF); Mainak Mazumdar (Chief Data & Research Officer, Nielsen).
McDonald – “The question on my mind, and other people’s mind: how do you see the transaction with Nielsen going private as effecting the pace of innovation and product launches at this very critical time?”
Mazumdar – “What I can say about the deal is that it does not change our focus from delivering Nielsen One to the industry this year. In fact, we are accelerating that, and we will deliver next generation cross-platform measurement. Also, we are, as you know, relentlessly focused on getting our panel and products certified by the MRC.”
McDonald – “How do you think that we can have multiple currencies for video and still do business? There are like five different companies producing audience estimates for the same target – five different currencies. And they all have somewhat different numbers. Then how does the marketer deal with that, how does that marketplace work?”
Mazumdar – “’Five different currencies!’ That’s a land of confusion. We believe that Nielsen will continue to be the foundation currency for this year’s Upfront and beyond.”
How to manage the transition to multi-currency was discussed by Jon Watts (Managing Director, CIMM); Brian Hughes (EVP, Managing Director, Audience Intelligence & Strategy, MAGNA)
Watts – “As an agency, obviously, you have to make decisions as to how you build out your own systems. I’m guessing you have clients who have wildly different objectives. Tell me a bit about how you are navigating this change from a planning/buying POV.”
Hughes – “It doesn’t really make sense to plan on one data set and buy on another. So, you either have to the have the flexibility of ingesting multiple data sets and switching them on and off as needed or to continue to just use one, which I don’t think anyone wants.”
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