Webinar: Driving Business Outcomes with AI

Leaders in the area of machine learning and AI talk goals and workflow:

On-Demand Webinar

Enterprises understand that driving business outcomes with machine learning and AI will soon become a critical driver for success. Yet, many struggle to connect together siloed data pipelines and artisanal data science experiments into agile and repeatable processes to drive scale and impact.

Hear Nielsen’s Chief Research Officer Mainak Mazumdar and Forrester Senior Analyst guest speaker Kjell Carlsson, PhD share experiences and perspectives into unifying data science and engineering with business needs. Learn how teams operationalize machine learning models and AI more rapidly, with insights into:

- Improving model development performance from 1 week to less than 2 hrs 
- Transforming data science workflows and deepening team collaboration
- Accelerating the end-to-end machine learning lifecycle  .... " 

Nielsen and Microsoft Strategic Data Alliance

Making data more intelligently available to analytics.   Integrating data assets.

Nielsen, Microsoft Unveil Strategic Data Alliance

Nielsen and Microsoft have jointly developed an enterprise solution that brings the former’s consumer data set to life through the latter’s intelligent cloud platform.

The strategic alliance seeks to “democratize” the vast Nielsen Connect data set through the global-scale Microsoft Azure platform. The goal is to help consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retail companies find growth and accelerate innovation within an open data environment. 

Already, Nielsen Connect is inspiring companies to glean more value from their data and sparking a movement for the industry to reimagine its approach to data strategy. Through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence services built on Azure, Nielsen Connect is helping companies integrate data assets to more easily spot emerging trends, diagnose performance gaps, and act faster on opportunities to grow. Most notably, this platform enables clients to use their data as an enterprise asset across all parts of their organization.  ...  "

Ad Attention Research

In Think with Google:

Ad Attention Research: Effectiveness Hinges on More Than Just Reach

If a million trees fall in the forest and nobody hears them, do they make a sound? They might, but does it matter? New research from Nielsen and Ipsos proves that attention differs across screens and mere exposure isn’t enough—ads need to be noticed, watched, and heard to maximize impact. ... "

Nielsen Launches Everyday Analytics

Another company launching into the power of analytics.     Here focusing on consumer goods applications.  

Nielsen makes science-based decision making more accessible with launch of Everyday Analytics

NEW YORK, March 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) announced the launch of Everyday Analytics. This new suite of analytics will enable fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers to keep up with the constantly changing, daily conditions of today's fragmented marketplace. By reducing the time, cost and resource demands of traditional analytics, coupled with simple and intuitive tools, the new offering will make sophisticated analytics more accessible for everyday decisions across all FMCG growth drivers, including price and promotion, advertising and innovation.

"Our clients have always valued advanced analytics to guide their annual strategic planning, but scaling these analytics to the level of everyday decision making has been a challenge," said Jeanne Danubio, Head of Marketing and Sales Effectiveness for Lead Markets at Nielsen. "Through our more scalable models and easier-to-use tools, it's now possible for clients to give more of their people access to high-caliber analytics for their everyday decisions. As a result, they can be more nimble and more adaptive to changing market conditions with the benefit of fact-based decision-making whenever and wherever they need it." .... " 

Consumer Neuroscience at Nielsen

Had reason to look at what Nielsen was now doing in the area,  and revisited their site.  They have assembled an impressive  number of technologies to gather biometric data  and map it to decisions. .  No mention of  the term 'neuromarketing', the term seems to have been abandoned, but they generalize the abilities possible.   I worked with an enterprise and a startup in this area.   Good details at link below

"  ... Consumer Neuroscience at Nielsen ...
Capture a more comprehensive view of the non-conscious aspects of consumer decision-making with the most complete set of neuroscience tools at a global scale. ... 

Our brains react to our world in milliseconds—faster than we’re consciously aware. And much of what drives our everyday decisions, including what we’ll watch, talk about and buy, are the emotional responses that can’t be measured through traditional self-report methods. ... 

By using the latest neuroscience technologies in combination with traditional survey methods, we help brands understand consumers’ non-conscious and conscious emotional responses, memory activations and attentional patterns, empowering them to better navigate the increasing complexity of modern consumer behavior. Our insights provide actionable results and an unprecedented understanding of consumer related decision-making, allowing our clients to build deep, lasting connections with their target audiences.  ... ." 

Retail Algorithmic Merchandising

 In the Gartner blog:  On algorithmic merchandising.  Good thoughts in the importance of data, process and analysis used with more concise and repeatable algorithmic methods.

" ... By 2020, merchant leaders will be algorithms, prompting the top 10 retailers to cut up to one-third of headquarters merchandising staff. 

Predicts 2016: Digital Business Uproots Traditional Retail Revenue Generation

Analysis by Robert Hetu

Key Findings:

An explosion of digital business opportunities will cause retailers to increasingly rely on algorithms to manage complex business opportunities that will exist for as little as a single moment ... 
Smart machines using algorithms will make complex decisions, such as merchandise assortment and distribution, product pricing and marketing messages.

The algorithmic economy is coming alive for multichannel retailers as they continue to seek better ways to drive decisions through advanced analytics. Some algorithms will be ubiquitous, and shared for the betterment of the industry. Others will be more directly aligned with the interests of the retailer, “the secret sauce,” and, as such, kept confidential. As the number of algorithms grows, and the quality variations expand, retailers will find that the management of algorithms will require an expert to oversee how they are cared for (which ones can be shared), and which ones provide even momentary competitive advantage. ... " 

Nielsen and Programmatic Advertising

Interesting collaboration of players in advertising, retail, measurement and loyalty systems.

Nielsen Partners with I2C on Porgrammatic Venture
UK — Nielsen is collaborating with Sainsbury's and Nectar card owner Aimia's partnership i2c on a venture to demonstrate the impact of digital ads on shopping behaviour.  ... " 

Nielsen on CPG Innovation

In FoodNavigator:

Nielsen unveils 2016 breakthrough innovation winners: There will be more change in CPG in the next five years than there was in the last 50

In 2015, the top 25 food and beverage companies generated 45% of category sales in the US but drove just 3% of total category growth from 2011 to 2015, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 0.1%, according to Nielsen data. So if they are not driving growth, who is?

Private label drove 23% of the growth and grew at a 2.6% CAGR, while mid-tier companies drove 25% of the growth and grew at a CAGR of 3.2% over the same period, says Nielsen in its 2016 breakthrough innovation report. But it was the “long and mighty tail” of 20,000 companies below the top 100 who drove 49% of all category growth, with a CAGR of 6.3%.

“Our belief is that there will be more change in CPG in the next five years than there was in the last 50. Successful firms of the future will master consumer experiences, not just consumer goods.”  ... .
'

Following Neuromarketing Beyond the Hype Cycle

In Adage:  Interesting view of the apparent advance of the use of neuromarketing, especially by Nielsen.  Often covered here.  Have followed this progress for some time, sometimes quite closely by being involved with companies that have experimented with the idea.  Still unconvinced.  There is always quite a bit integrated bias going on in high hype domains.  Ask me about it.  

Nielsen Doubles Down on Neuro

Roger Dooley in Forbes.  Precisely the phrase I thought of when I read of Nielsen's acquisition of Innerscope Research.  At first surprised,  since more recent results have led to less credibility in neuromarketing methods.  But looking more closely at Innerscope, this integrates a number of less dramatic methods, like facial coding and other biometrics to their tool mix. So there will be some tools in their box when they come to visit or renew their contracts that must certainly be relevant.  Probably also brings clients to Nielsen.  Following.

Neuroscience Methodologies

Innerscope's methodology page.    Nicely done summary of neuromarketing techniques.   They were just acquired by Nielsen.

Also, very late to this, but discovered through another look at the technology players,  Sands Research and Neurons Inc. have merged.   We worked with Sands Research for some time.  More about Neurons Inc.

Traditional TV Watching Falls

In the Washington Post, reporting on Nielsen  studies:

" ... Traditional television watching is declining faster than ever as streaming services become a mainstream feature in American homes, according to new research by Nielsen.

Adults watched an average of four hours and 51 minutes of live TV each day in the fourth quarter of 2014, down 13 minutes from the same quarter of 2013, according to Nielsen’s fourth-quarter 2014 Total Audience Report. Viewing was down six minutes between the fourth quarter of 2013 and 2012. And between 2012 and 2011, viewing time actually increased for live TV. .... " 

Nielsen and Measuring Media Change

In Adage:  Nice piece that covers what Nielsen can and cannot measure.  " .... Nielsen at a Tipping Point? Accelerating Change Confronts Methodical Researchers ... Viewers Falling Out of Nielsen's Core Competency: Live TV  ... ".    Points to the value of being able to do analytics against a rapidly changing advertising environment.

Nielsen Tracking

In Adage:  How Nielsen tracks almost everything, with some mini case studies of how it works. Instructive.

Nielsen Behavior Tracking and Prototype Store

A good descriptive overview of behavioral tracking in stores by Nielsen. See a previous post about the project called Prism. Also mentioned, Nielsen's use of a test store facility, similar to other immersive innovation centers I have known:

" ... Nielsen has built a secretive 3,000-square-foot prototype grocery store inside its Oldsmar data center, complete with grocery aisles, checkout lanes, shopping carts and thousands of dollars in products. (The site is closed to all but a half-dozen Nielsen employees.) Boxes of Tide detergent, cartons of Folgers coffee and rows of cereal boxes pack the model store so technicians can mimic shopping to see if Nielsen's array of sensors can secretly track people as they shop ... "