The Nielsen Company, Facebook form strategic alliance

The Nielsen Company and Facebook have announced a multi-year, strategic alliance to help marketers understand and thus, use the Internet better for developing and marketing new products.

The first product of the collaboration, Nielsen BrandLift, is designed to provide marketers with effectiveness measurement for Facebook advertising. It will launch in the US with select test partners this week and roll out to all Facebook advertisers in the coming months. BrandLift uses opt-in polls on Facebook’s homepage to measure consumer attitudes and purchase intent from display advertising that has appeared on the site.

“Facebook is an increasingly vital link between consumers and brands,” said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen’s online division.  “We will now be able to add deep knowledge of this important social network to our unmatched media measurement and consumer insight across all three screens.  Together we will be able to provide the missing elements to clients seeking better understanding of how Web content and online advertising affect consumer behaviour.” 

“Nielsen is the leader in measurement and is an excellent partner for us as we look to provide marketers with richer ad effectiveness data,” said Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.  “The combination of our unique ability to quickly and effectively poll a sample of our more than 300 million users and Nielsen’s expertise in data analysis will give marketers access to powerful data they can use to understand and improve current and future campaigns.”