Using dial meters to track their approval in real time, a group of self-identified Democrats, Republicans, and Independents rated President Barack Obama’s March 24, primetime press conference. Responses were generally split down party lines on major themes and interestingly on the AIG exchange between CNN’s Ed Henry. Those who identified as Republicans spiked with the question and dropped at the President’s response, Democrats dropped at the question and spiked at the President’s terse “I like to know what I’m taking about…” response.
Video: Obama And CNN’s Ed Henry

Other Findings

Based on …

By Julie A. Enzweiler, Automotive – Research Director
One might assume that the unemployment rate at a state level would show a strong negative correlation to the likelihood to purchase a vehicle in the next six months, but this doesn’t appear to be the case. Michigan had the highest unemployment rate at 11.6% in January 2009; however, these residents are slightly over-indexing for the likeliness to purchase a vehicle in the next six months. It’s very interesting that Mississippi is the most likely state to purchase a vehicle and …

Every day, shoppers walk into a store to find that the price of a favorite item has gone up.  These price increases drove dollar growth for retail sales within food, drug and mass merchandisers to 3.6 percent in the 52-week period ending 1/24/2009, although sales slowed in the last quarter.  Much of that growth, however, was driven by inflationary pricing as both retailers and manufacturers raised prices due to rapidly escalating commodity costs.  Every department – except general merchandise – showed dollar …

CBS’s “NCIS” and “The Mentalist” were the number one and two-ranked primetime telecasts on
broadcast TV for Tuesday, March 24, 2009 with 17.8 and 17.6 million average viewers.
ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars Results” rounded out the top three with 16.1 million average viewers respectively.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
NCIS
CBS
17,832,000

2
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
17,620,000

3
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
16,117,000

4
BIGGEST LOSER 7
NBC
9,834,000

5
PRIMETIME:WHAT WOULD U DO
ABC
7,959,000

6
MANANA PARA SIEMPRE TUE
UNI
5,167,000

7
HOUSE SP-3/24 9P(S)-03/24/2009
FOX
4,018,000

8
AQUI Y AHORA TUE
UNI
3,158,000

9
REAPER
CW
2,696,000

10
JAIL
MNT
1,846,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (March 24, 2009).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 17.7 million viewers,
while ABC took second place with almost 12.2 million average viewers. NBC …

The early predictions were gloomy: the recession gripping the U.S. would make for a dismal holiday shopping season for retailers.  And while many retailers certainly felt the effects of the economic downturn, holiday dollar sales in 2008 actually increased 5.8 percent or $99.5 billion across grocery and drug stores, mass merchandisers and convenience stores, according to Nielsen.
Categories that drove the highest sales spikes were musical instruments and accessories, with more than half of the purchases for the year made in the last eight weeks of 2008.  Women’s and children’s fragrances, baking …

During a recession, the conventional wisdom may be that brands suffer as consumers look to reduce costs and save money.  But while private labels have shown solid growth in many categories, brands continue to grow.  According to Nielsen, 75 of Britain’s top 100 brands continue to increase sales.
Britain’s top brand? Coca-Cola, which racked up £969 million in sales in 2008. Following behind – and showing impressive 16 percent growth – was bread brand Warburtons, with sales of £710 million.
“A strong brand, which focuses on its core value proposition, can outperform …

Melissa Davies
Last week brought an exciting new development for pharmaceutical companies interested in social media: blogger Mark Senak (EyeonFDA.com) posted an interview with an official from the FDA/Division for Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications (DDMAC) about pharmas and Web 2.0. Until now, there has been so little mention of social media and the like from the FDA that many pharma companies have come to assume that Web 2.0 is strictly off-limits. The conversation that was started this week — though by no means the final word on whether and how …

According to Nielsen’s recent “Global Faces And Networked Places” report, the biggest increase in unique visitors to Member Community Web sites during 2008 was among 35-49 year olds. The social networking trend has moved well beyond early adopters to become an integral part of most users’ Web experience. However, among adults with more than one social networking profile, the profile still skews young and tech savvy, as revealed in Nielsen @Plan’s Spring 2009 results.
“Although this older segment has joined Member Communities en masse in 2008, most have only a toe …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAY
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
MONDAY
5,359,000

2
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
MONDAY
5,206,000

3
HANNAH MONTANA
DSNY
SUNDAY
4,538,000

4
SATURDAY MOVIE III (NORTHERN LIGHTS)
LIF
SATURDAY
4,531,000

5
SPONGEBOB
NICK
MONDAY
4,277,000

6
NCIS
USA
SATURDAY
4,264,000

7
NCIS
USA
MONDAY
4,236,000

8
SPONGEBOB
NICK
WEDNESDAY
4,208,000

9
SPONGEBOB
NICK
MONDAY
4,142,000

10
SPONGEBOB
NICK
SATURDAY
4,061,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (March 16, 2009 – March 22, 2009)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAY
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY
FOX
WEDNESDAY
23,705,000

2
AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY
FOX
TUESDAY
21,886,000

3
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
MONDAY
21,224,000

4
60 MINUTES
CBS
SUNDAY
17,042,000

5
NCIS
CBS
TUESDAY
15,835,000

6
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
TUESDAY
15,491,000

7
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
ABC
SUNDAY
14,748,000

8
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
THURSDAY
14,606,000

9
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
MONDAY
14,124,000

10
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
WEDNESDAY
13,741,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (March 16, 2009 – March 22, 2009)