Consumers in the northeastern U.S. take their Thanksgiving feasts seriously.
Supermarket shoppers in markets like Hartford and New Haven, Conn., Pittsburgh, and Boston spend significantly more, percentage-wise, on ready-made Thanksgiving-related food products than average American consumers, Nielsen reported Thursday.
Hartford/New Haven residents were the top consumers of stuffing products, spending 44% more than average American consumers during the 52 weeks ending September 6, 2008.
During the same period, shoppers in Pittsburgh dominated sales of canned gravy, spending 119% more than average Americans, while Boston consumers spent 194% more than average Americans on New …

ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was the number one-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Tuesday, November 25, 2008 with approximately 20.6 million average viewers.
CBS’s “NCIS” and “The Mentalist” rounded out the top three with approximately 18.1 and 15.9 million average viewers respectively.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
20,647,000

2
NCIS
CBS
18,118,000

3
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
15,925,000

4
HOUSE
FOX
12,877,000

5
CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGVING(S)-11/25/2008
ABC
11,085,000

6
WITHOUT A TRACE
CBS
10,416,000

7
LAW AND ORDER:SVU
NBC
8,589,000

8
FRINGE
FOX
7,704,000

9
BIGGEST LOSER 6
NBC
6,875,000

10
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE TUE
UNI
5,335,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 25, 2008).

Overall, ABC won the night with an average audience of almost 17.5 million viewers, while CBS took second place with just over 14.8 million average viewers. …

As the world grapples with a global recession and financial markets remain volatile, many people are reminding themselves that money can’t buy happiness. Men however, beg to differ.
Results of a global happiness survey from The Nielsen Company reveal that men are happier with money, while women are happier with friendships and relationships with their children, co-workers and bosses.
“Because they are happier with non-economic factors, women’s happiness is more recession-proof, which might explain why women around the world are happier in general than men are,” said Bruce Paul, VP Consumer Research, …

By Julie Enzweiler, Nielsen Online
Total North American auto sales are down 32% from October 2007 to October 2008 with November’s sales forecast not showing much improvement.
As the stock market continues its downward spiral and economic conditions deteriorate, consumers are talking online about holding tight to their wallets and are less likely to make a big purchase such as a vehicle.
The number of consumers that were seeking vehicle information on sites like AOL Autos, MSN Autos and Yahoo Autos began to decline around the June – July timeframe, which is exactly …

According to data from Nielsen IAG, a McDonald’s tie-in featured during CBS’s “The Amazing Race” was the most recalled product placements during the four weeks between October 20 and November 16, 2008. The reality show featured four of the top 10 placements during that time period.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, an ad’s sponsor.

Rank
Brand
In-Program Placement Description
Program Airing Info
Recall Index

1
McDonald’s
Pedicab driver points out restaurant to Christy and Kelly as they race to next location
The Amazing Race 13 (CBS, Nov. 9)
175

2
Travelocity
Nick and Star win …

Jon Gibs
We’ve spent a good deal of time at Nielsen lamenting some rough news in online advertising. Our estimates suggest that overall spending on display advertising has recently declined. And even the more optimistic estimates from the IAB, which account for additional interactive advertising segments, including search, suggest only a slight up-tick, 2%, on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Although the Internet is not suffering like print media , let’s just say we’ve all been through better times over the past couple of years.
With that said, let’s …

Pete Blackshaw
Is “listening to the unprompted consumer voice” finally going mainstream? Last month, Nielsen co-chaired a sold out Industry Leader Forum delivered by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). Among other things, the event focused on how social media is spurring online conversations about brands, companies, products and services. How do we ‘listen’ to these conversations? And how do we utilize these findings? These insights are expanding the role of research beyond measurement and testing, inspiring a new vision for market research. At this exciting event, I gave a presentation …

According to data compiled by Nielsen for the third quarter of 2008, more than 100 million US consumers – 42% of mobile subscribers – have video-capable cell phones. An estimated 10.3 million of those mobile consumers are watching TV/video on their cell phones. These findings indicate that mobile video viewing has increased 14% as compared with Q2 2008.
On average, viewers are spending an average 17 sessions per month viewing video, spending roughly 15 minutes per session. Apple’s iPhone emerged as the top device among mobile video viewers, with 9% of …

Nielsen’s final look at ad buys by the 2008 Presidential candidates proved one famous mantra: politics really are local.
President-elect Barack Obama placed one-and-a-half times as many spot TV ads than John McCain during the general election season (6/08 to 11/08), and almost twice as many ads dating back to the beginning of January when the primaries were just heating up.

SPOT TV ADS: June-Nov 2008

Barack Obama
419,667

John McCain
269,992

The local numbers show a much bigger discrepancy than those for national cable and network buys. Sen. McCain kept pace w/ President-elect Obama in those …

ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was the number one-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Monday, November 24, 2008 with approximately 21.1 million average viewers.
CBS’s “Two And A Half Men” and “CSI: Miami” rounded out the top three with approximately 15.0 and 14.3 million average viewers respectively.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
21,095,000

2
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
14,950,000

3
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
14,333,000

4
SAMANTHA WHO?
ABC
10,717,000

5
WORST WEEK
CBS
10,153,000

6
BIG BANG THEORY, THE
CBS
10,033,000

7
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
CBS
9,956,000

8
BOSTON LEGAL
ABC
8,157,000

9
HEROES
NBC
7,511,000

10
CHUCK
NBC
6,534,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 24, 2008).

Overall, ABC won the night with an average audience of almost 15.2 million viewers,
while CBS took second place with …