Measuring 2.0

The past few months have been something of a watershed for the Nielsen Company, with the research and media measurement group announcing some major moves on the mobile and online advertising fronts.

The launch of Nielsen Mobile and Nielsen Online in October this year was a significant shift for the company, but not a surprising one.

The move, which saw the company's Nielsen//NetRatings and BuzzMetrics services rolled under the new Nielsen Online umbrella, was a natural progression, says Robert McCann, chairman and CEO of Nielsen Media Research International.

"Nielsen Online and Nielsen Mobile are logical extension of this information paradigm that we started back in the early 1930's. It's not a rethink of our company, it's an evolutionary augmentation of the business," McCann says.

Making sense of this new media landscape might not seem that hard at first glance, but making these two models work in China's highly regulated markets is something else.

Nielsen is certainly no newcomer to the China market, having had a presence there for some 20 years and today employs more than 3,000 people. In what be another sign of confidence for Nielsen in China, McCann has been on a recruitment drive around the region, scouring universities for bright minds.

McCann stresses that unlike many Western companies operating in China, Nielsen is turning a profit and has been turning a profit for some years now.

"You often hear Western companies say that they're struggling to make money in China and that's common. But fortunately we've been profitable for some years now," he adds.

"China is a vita, vital part of our future strategy as global company and we have hooked our wagon onto this Chinese horse and we think China has the ability to run faster than most other countries in the world."

McCann adds that Nielsen clients, including multi-national companies Proctor & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Kraft, have all expressed similar sentiments about China and the desire to push their services and companies more aggressively in the China marketplace.

McCann says this very focused China strategy does not mean its Hong Kong operation will suffer. Hong Kong, he stresses, is a key part of the Greater China chess board.

"People ask are you trading off your presence in Hong Kong or priorities in Hong Kong because of a focus on China. The answer is no. Hong Kong is part of China.

"Hong Kong is a vital, important, critical, significant, substantial ... however you want to say it, element of China."

But what exactly do those plans include? About a year ago Nielsen launched a strategy called A2/M2, which basically means anytime anywhere media measurement. McCann says this strategy aims to provide measurement and analysis of audiences wherever they should land.

For Nielsen this now includes measuring advertising online, video-on-demand, mobile phones, outdoor advertising, consumer-generated media, word-of-mouth and, especially, blogs.

"There was a time when everyone was making so much money from television it didn't matter. Today you hear broadcasters say ‘I want to try and measure media wherever it is and monetise as much of it as I possible can'.

"We're trying to contextualise all this media that is out there and online is just another channel. It's a fast growing, important and vital media channel, no question about it.

The question facing McCann and Nielsen is now how to back up all this talk about mobile, digital and online and, especially in Asia, start producing some results.

"This is not a US phenomena. We have made it clear that we will launch in China, given the enormous penetrations of mobile phones in China as well as Hong Kong, it makes all the sense in the world to launch our services.

But given the sensitivity of monitoring mobiles and other personal communication devices the timing of the launch will largely depend on the government.

"What the sequence of events will be and how quickly that will happen will depend on the government and their permission to go forward. Our view is this is a business we should be able to export around the world.

But still McCann is optimistic about the growth and evolution of Nielsen in this region. Currently, moves are in place to further develop its outdoor measurement system in Singapore and Hong Kong, with a Singapore launch already in motion.

"Advertising is a game of incremental gain, you're constantly trying to find a niche for your brand.

"People frequently as me what business am I in, the logical answer would be we're in the data business. We are not in the business of selling data. We are in the business of selling toothpaste, radio time, television time... we're in the business of helping our clients and that is the only reason why we exist," McCann says.

Imagine if every creative and media agency thought this way.