With the 2009 tax deadline quickly approaching, Nielsen conducted an audit of its own, looking back at how tax service companies spent their advertising dollars in 2008.
The Tax Services category spent $220 million in 2008 on ads, an increase of 11% from 2007. Over one-third of the 2008 total was spent on Cable TV ($76.9 million), followed by Spot TV ($40.5 million), and Network TV ($35.7 million).
Over half ($125.8 million) of the budget was spent in the first quarter – the three months leading up to the April deadline. That …

UK grocery sales grew at 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009 over the same period a year earlier, according to new research from Nielsen, with Morrisons leading the pack with 6.9 percent growth, followed closely by Asda with 6.7 percent and Sainsbury with 5 percent.  Tesco continued to lose market share, falling to 27.6 percent from 28 percent in the same period in 2008.  So what may be driving consumers to change where they shop?
“Shoppers are now well versed with money saving strategies, making the most of price …

Video games are attracting more people than ever.  Traditionally the realm of younger males, gaming has grown increasingly popular among women, older players and other demographic groups.  And while the weak economy has had an effect on many forms of entertainment, video games have shown an amazing resilience, with sales of both gaming consoles and games continuing to show healthy growth.  These are just a few of the findings of a new comprehensive report on PC game and video game console usage from Nielsen Games.
In addition to gaming consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox, PC …

3.8 million or 3.4% of U.S. TV households remain completely unready for the transition to all digital broadcast that will take place on June 12, 2009. That is an improvement more than 260,000 households in just two weeks. An update from the previous two weeks in March showed roughly 350,000 homes readying for the transition.

% OF HOMES COMPLETELY UNREADY FOR DIGITAL TRANSITION

DATE
Total
White
African
American
Hispanic
Asian
Under 35
Over 55

Mar 29, 2009
3.4
2.7
6.2
5.6
4.4
6.3
1.8

Mar 15, 2009
3.6
2.9
6.6
6.1
4.4
6.5
2.0

Mar 1, 2008
3.9
3.2
6.7
6.5
4.5
7.2
2.2

Feb 15, 2009
4.4
3.6
7.5
7.4
5.1
8.1
2.6

Feb 1, 2009
5.1
4.1
8.7
8.5
6.3
8.6
3.2

Jan 18, 2009
5.7
4.6
9.9
9.7
6.9
8.8
4.0

Dec 21, 2008
6.8
5.6
10.8
11.5
8.1
9.9
5.2

source: The Nielsen Company

Among the …

From 1947 to 1969, nearly 20 percent of the American population moved every year, as they relocated to new areas offering economic growth and opportunity.  Since then, mobility has steadily declined, to 15 percent in 2000, and to 11.9 percent in 2007 — a forty percent decline versus the average year between 1947 and 1969.  What has changed that has led to this decline?
First, the population of the country is getting older – and older people are less likely to move.  Second, the growing incidence of two worker couples impedes …

Whoever said “content is king” was prescient. In today’s world, media is an on-demand experience with an array of platforms delivering rich content to on-the-go consumers via multiple devices. The fight for share of wallet is being played out on three screens: mobile, television and the Internet. So far, TV is winning.

Charlie Buchwalter & David Wiesenfeld, Nielsen Online
More and more researchers are waking up to the reality that mining the growing volume of conversations on blogs, message boards and social networking sites (i. e., “listening” to consumers) can provide timely, penetrating insights on a wide range of issues and brands.
A series of parallel studies we conducted with Procter & Gamble demonstrates that both surveys and listening are often required to tell the whole story. We looked at a number of brands and products: everything from orange juice, to razor blades, to …

A product placement within the show “Survivor” for Charmin topped the Nielsen IAG chart of Most Recalled In-Program Placements for a reality series on the broadcast networks. Similarly, a “hybrid” ad (where sponsor messaging is combined with program or entertainment content) for Dr Pepper during “Top Chef,” was the most-recalled ad of its type. Ads for these top 10 lists were show between February 16 and March 15, 2009.

Nearly 60 percent of Chinese high income consumers are frustrated with the lengthy queues they face when they visit their local bank, according to the latest Nielsen China Personal Finance Monitor.  When deciding which bank to use, Chinese want “easy-to-access banking services,” while strong customer service ranked second.
“Banks appear to be neglecting the most important fundamental – that of customer experience,” said Alvin Huen, Director, Client Solutions at The Nielsen Company China.  “Despite many organizations trying to manage the problem of long queues, it’s still the number one problem affecting …

Melissa Davies
My colleague Pete Blackshaw recently hosted a conference call through Nielsen Online’s Social Media and Advocacy Round Table, focused on how brands can leverage the power of consumers’ contributions to the online community. In the call, Scott Wilder, Small Business Online Communities manager for software publisher Intuit, described listening to customer feedback through Intuit’s call center and realizing that customers thought their problems were unique, and that they felt alone in trying to deal with these problems. The solution: Intuit created an online community to help users connect to …