Nielsen, Facebook execs discuss their big plans

By Andrew McMains

John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen's online division, and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, outlined the broad strokes of the two companies' alliance during an Advertising Week presentation on Tuesday morning at The Times Center in midtown Manhattan.
  "Using our research polls and Nielsen analysis, we cannot only tell you who saw your ad, but more importantly ... what they think of your brand, whether they remember the product and whether they intend to make a purchase in the future," said Sandberg. Burbank said, "Our first effort, as part of this relationship, is trying to answer a very simple question, and that is: How did an ad perform and change the attitudes of the consumer that saw the ad? Did it change awareness, did it build purchase intent?"

  Burbank added that Nielsen, the parent company of AdweekMedia, has "heard from many advertisers that having a reliable tool to measure these questions on the Web is crucially important to building their confidence in using the Internet as an advertising platform. And we all know that Web companies desperately need to have more confidence among the brand advertisers to support their growth."
  The research polls will appear in space on the Facebook site now used for ads and will require consumers to opt in, according to Burbank. In addition, no personally identifiable information will be shared with Nielsen. Finally, the poll results will be available to advertisers within a "couple" of days, Burbank and Sandberg said.

September 22, 2009 in Alliances | Permalink