Nielsen, Catalina Join Forces

Cincinnati -- The Nielsen Co. and Catalina Marketing Corp. have formed Nielsen Catalina Ventures to assist consumer packaged goods companies in reaching a more targeted audience.Essentially, Nielsen Catalina Ventures will merge Nielsen's Internet, TV and household panels with Catalina's purchase data from more than 50 million shoppers to build a single-source panel. "Nielsen and Catalina are very natural partners in this area, with Nielsen being the largest company measuring media across a variety of platforms -- television being the most prominent -- and Catalina having the largest database of shopper data through all their retail partners," says Mike Nazzaro, CEO of the new company. "We're trying to be a single source of what people watch, largely through the Nielsen assets, and what people buy, largely through the Catalina frequent shopper assets."He continues, "This joint venture's mission is to provide solutions that integrate all major media. This will empower marketers and their agencies to better plan, manage and execute more accurate and effective media buys based on consumer behavior."By directly and anonymously linking consumers' television and online usage with in-store purchase behavior, the company will enable CPG marketers and media companies to understand how well media campaigns are driving actual consumer buying behavior."With this data compilation, we can answer questions like, 'What kind of shows do heavy laundry-buying households watch?'," explains Nazzaro.The other area of expertise the venture provides is marketing return on investment (ROI), where advertisers can see consumption data relating to media buys, such as being able to see a difference in short-term and/or long-term purchase behavior.While the new service won't be fully up and running until mid-2010, brands are already signing on to work with Nielsen Catalina Ventures. Thus far, Unilever and Hershey North America are partnering with the company."The ability to understand how advertising influences how consumers shop and what brands they buy continues to be an important question for our company," says John Bilbrey, president of Hershey North America, Hershey, Pa."Now more than ever, we need new approaches to link Nielsen's benchmark view of what consumers watch on television with how they spend their time online, and then understand how that attention to advertising translates into real shopping motivations," agrees Laura Klauberg, vice president of global media for Unilever, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.Other major CPG companies have expressed interest in the venture, says Nazzaro. Currently, companies receive the data via PowerPoint presentations, but that will change to an online automated dashboard system that will allow companies to submit specific queries relating to their brands and advertising efforts."We think we can help brands in two main areas: The best places to invest their media dollars to reach the group they want to reach, and the return on investment generated by their media plan," he says. "When we know the target audience the brand is trying to reach with our system, we can actually say, 'Here's your revised media plan that will provide much more effective delivery against your target audience'."

Nielsen, Catalina Join Forces

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