Nielsen rolls out enhance identity solution for digital ad ratings in HK

Nielsen is rolling out its enhanced Nielsen Identity System for Digital Ad Ratings in several new markets following the launch in 2022. Among the markets selected include Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Mexico, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Norway, Poland, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, New Zealand, UAE, Czech Republic and Hungary. 

The Nielsen Identity System, which powers the Digital Ad Ratings, is touted to address advertising waste, and help enable advertisers and publishers to measure reach and frequency of their audiences. The company explained that with this system, demographics are duplicated across mobile and PC platforms when a digital ad is viewed. As such, demographic data from multiple data providers will power up the Nielsen Identity System to bring scale for digital measurement of the open web. 

In addition, the system measures digital campaigns for the open web alongside the integrations already in place for the walled gardens. Connecting digital ad impressions for the open web to demographic data from both Nielsen and third-party data providers, the Nielsen Identity System is powered by more than two billion device identifiers across the world, constantly being refreshed.

The launch of the enhanced Nielsen Identity System is in line with the company's global Nielsen ONE strategy, which underpins a strong digital measurement capability, Nielsen explained. Deemed as an important milestone as the company continues to evolve its technologies and methodologies, the enhanced system is said to help with the company's vision of a cross platform that measures across all screens. According to Nielsen, the company is looking to take its enhanced system into more new markets in the next month. 

Arnaud Frade, head of commercial and growth, Nielsen APAC explained that comparability is key in a fragmenting media landscape. As such, the launch of its enhanced Nielsen Identity System in these new markets is critical to "support the evolution of digital ad campaign measurement so that the industry can continue to measure their audiences and ultimately prove the efficacy of their campaigns". 

According to the company, forthcoming cookie deprecation is fundamentally changing the advertising ecosystem. Combined with the deterioration of other digital identifiers, there is greater emphasis on people-first measurement approaches to count and deduplicate audiences across platforms and report on people-based metrics.

"I’m thrilled to see the success of the new identity system launched in markets across the globe and specifically in our region Asia Pacific: Australia, Japan, India and Indonesia. We are excited to have this innovative methodology now available across more markets in the region," Frade added. 

Meanwhile, Nielsen sold the company to a consortium of private equity firms for about US$16 billion including the assumption of debt in March 2022. The consortium was led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, and Brookfield Business Partners together with institutional partners. This acquisition can be thought of as a saving grace for Nielsen which has faced headwinds in recent years when streaming took off and is currently in debt.

At the same time, Nielsen underwent a company refresh in October 2021 to reflect the transformation of its culture and redefined strategy focused solely on the global future of media. In a previous media statement, Nielsen explained that its new look and feel represented a commitment to innovation and its role and purpose of powering a better media future for all people.

The new logo was inspired by the universal play button, as well as ratings. Featuring forms that come together to subtly create the letter "N" in the negative space, which signifies insights revealed by Nielsen's data and the constant momentum in media. In addition, the multitude of colours allude to the diversity and richness in media, representing or containing a piece of data, a piece of music, a show, a content creator, or a member of the audience - all working together to move media forward.

The company also launched a new company purpose statement, "Powering a better media future for all people". Jamie Moldafsky, chief marketing and communications officer at Nielson, said then that while the business has transformed dramatically over the past few years, it became clear that perceptions of the company have not evolved at the same pace. 

“The recompanying marks a new Nielsen both inside the company and out, with a strategy hyper-focused on the global audience and the changing media environment. Nielsen’s core values of inclusion, courage and growth, along with its clear strategy, will power the company’s transformation as we partner with the industry and our clients to help them better understand how evolving audiences consume media and find content," she explained previously. 

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