Data Points Keep Shifting, Another Challenge For Measurement

Michael Hedges July 13, 2020 Follow on Twitter

As the current societal anomie careens on a pathway of uncertainty and anxiety there are a few untouched norms. First, everybody wants data, preferably more data. This includes crazy data, but that’s a subject for psychotherapists. Then, totally related, hedges funds continue doing what it does best, dissembling. These are both good reasons to stay away from crowds.

The Nielsen company measures almost everything related to consumer behavior. Founder Arthur C. Nielsen coined the term market share. The company has a global presence and has grown exponentially through the last decade, largely by acquisition. It is publicly traded.

Last week the company announced an “optimization plan,” consultant-speak for shedding employees. About 8% of its labor force will exit by the end of the year. To further the plan it “will exit several smaller, underperforming markets and non-core businesses,” said the statement by chief executive David Kenny, quoted by AdExchanger (July 7). “These restructuring actions will further expedite our transformation to a more efficient, agile and scalable organization and are designed to drive sustained margin expansion and increased cash generation.”

Details of the plan will be shared during the Q2 investor earnings call scheduled for August 5th. Slipping into company news, however, is the closure of the Nielsen Sports office in Singapore, reported SportBusiness (July 10). “We’re centralising our Nielsen Sports presence for Asia in Japan to leverage deep industry knowledge and expertise across the region while effectively keeping pace with client needs,” said Nielsen Sports international managing director Marco Nazzari. A few executives have been rerouted to other Nielsen offices in Singapore. Others are gone. Nielsen Sports essentially measures sports audiences including fans in the stands.

There is a bigger plan afoot for Nielsen, dividing the company into media measurement - called Global Watch - and retail data collection - called Global Connect. That grand plan was revealed last year, some of which has been put in place, at least for financial reporting purposes. In released Q1 financial results, reported by MediaPost (April 30), Global Watch made a bit of money (2% year on year) and Global Connect lost a bit (2.7% year on year). At that distant point in history, the company said spin-off of Global Connect into a separate company would be completed this November. In the more recent announcement, Mr. Kenny said that plan has shifted into 2021 due to effects of the coronavirus.

Splitting the company into two was backed by hedge fund Elliott Management, which received a board seat and “information sharing” for its effort. Known as an activist investor it holds a 13% stake in Nielsen, sufficient to get about anything it wants. Elliott Management is principally controlled by Paul Singer, referred to as the “doomsday investor” by the New Yorker (April 27, 2018). He is a major contributor to the US Republican Party, has a seat on Twitter’s board of directors and in 2018 acquired Italian football club AC Milan.

Nielsen’s primary rival in the US measurement world is ComScore. It is all about television, however that is defined today or, even, tomorrow. ComScore is known primarily for internet and mobile measurement but as those platforms have become more important to TV broadcasters, not to forget advertisers, its research reports are widely watched.

Nielsen had planned to delay adding out-of-home viewing to its TV measurement menu. “With future uncertainty around how the pandemic will further impact out-of-home viewing, Fall 2020 is not the ideal time to integrate this measurement into currency,” wrote Mr. Kenny to US TV people, reported Deadline (July 10). That went over like a lead balloon. After much stomping of feet, the company acceded to the demands of TV Land hours later to include out-of-home viewing measurement at the start of the fall season. ComScore measures out-of-home TV viewing.

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