It would be an understatement to say that the measurement industry has undergone a lot of changes in the last few years, especially for Nielsen.
In April 2023, the analytics giant regained national accreditation from the Media Rating Council after getting it suspended in 2021. Then, the company added a new leader in late 2023 with the appointment of Karthik Rao as CEO. And ahead of the latest upfront, Nielsen announced that its combination of panel data and big data measurement was available to use as its official currency.
Beyond that, Paramount and Nielsen are in an ongoing dispute following the company’s contract expiring. Though an agreement may still be reached, Paramount continues to work with other measurement companies, including VideoAmp. Complicating the matter more, Nielsen sued VideoAmp earlier this year, stating that it was using patented technology to contribute to its measurement data, which has “irreparably harmed Nielsen.“
It’s been a roller coaster, perhaps exemplified best by Nielsen’s stance on its legacy C3 and C7 metrics (viewership within three or seven days), the industry’s standard currency for advertiser transactions. The company previously noted it would be sunsetting C3 and C7. Then, it delayed that announcement, and now, Deirdre Thomas, Nielsen’s chief product officer, tells ADWEEK that’s not going to happen at all. C3 and C7 are here to stay.
Thomas spoke with ADWEEK about Nielsen’s stance on its metrics, why she’s optimistic about the competition in the industry, and what new innovations to expect from Nielsen in the new year.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Earlier this year, Nielsen announced it would make its panel+ big data measurement available as currency. Have any challenges come from that?
Nielsen’s strategy for measuring audiences today is to use a combination of a big data or a census data with a representative person’s level panel because we believe you need both of those critical ingredients, and they play different roles in the measurement. So what the census data—or the big data—does is it provides you with the scale and the coverage to actually capture everything, given how fragmented people are today and what they consume.