Dave Osborn, SVP, Product Leadership, Nielsen Online

Nielsen’s VideoCensus provides timely statistics and insights into how consumers use video online.  This includes the size and demographic composition (age, gender, race, etc) of the viewing audience for each website, as well as important measurements like the total number of streams viewed and the time spent watching by the average viewer. All this information helps content providers and websites more effectively sell their assets and audience, while providing tools for advertisers trying to decide where to …

On June 4, Jon Gibs, Vice President, Media and Agency Insights, Nielsen Online, discussed stickiness, the social networking ecosystem, and online advertising with Fox Business.

Tom Pirovano, Director, Industry Insights
There’s been some buzz in the news recently about Toys “R” Us acquiring FAO Schwartz. I’m confused by some of the perceived pessimism regarding toy retailers struggling to keep pace with mass merchandisers. From my “food guy” perspective, Toys “R” Us and FAO Schwartz have some very strong brand equity that has the potential to be leveraged in several creative ways. Here are a few opportunities I’d love to see Toys “R” Us pursue if they haven’t already been tested or discussed.

First, change the focus from …

As the full force of the economic downturn has hit countries around the world, consumer confidence has taken a dive as people worry job stability and paying their bills.  And while China has not been immune from the recession, Chinese consumers seem to be enduring the challenges better than most, according to new research from Nielsen.
To be fair, consumer confidence dropped 7 points in the March 2009 Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index from September 2008.  But that drop is relatively small compared to most other countries, and China ranks tenth overall.  …

Summer blockbuster movies are marketed to entertain, but what does it take for these flicks to extend beyond flashy car chases and huge explosions to grab a nomination for the biggest night in Hollywood?

On average, NBA playoff viewership is up 18% across TNT, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC thanks in part to a pair of Conference final games. On May 26th, the Cavs and Magic pulled 10.1 million viewers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Championship Series on TNT – the most ever for an NBA Playoff game on cable and the most-watched cable telecast of the year. And the Lakers-Nuggets’ Game 4 of the Western Conference Championship Series delivered 9.7 million viewers - the most ever for a basketball game (college or pro) in ESPN’s history.

Slumdog Millionaire, the Oscar winner for Best Picture in 2008 was not a summer blockbuster.  Nor were any of the other nominees in that category.  But they all had a couple of things in common: they were primarily advertised in the second half of the year with a concentration in the fourth quarter, and they were all released in the months of November and December.  So while the summer blockbusters get a great deal of attention, it is those films that are released – and tend to advertise – during …

Canadians love to dine outside of the home, and when they do, their favorite cuisine is “Canadian.”  Whether that means going to Tim Horton’s or enjoying a plate of poutine is unknown, but according to a recent Nielsen survey, 26 percent say that they favor their own national cuisine.  The second favorite cuisine was Italian followed by Chinese.
Just over one-third of Canadians eat out at least once a week, and 2 percent say they eat out every day.  While 57 percent of Canadians say dinner is the most popular out-of-home …

Creating a cross-media platform footprint is vital to growing audience and market share, but deciphering it to date has been a challenge. Profiling this audience—defined as “Integrators” by CNN—no longer has to be a mystery.

In the first report of its kind, Nielsen Online has released findings on mobile Internet adoption in Canada, showing that 21 percent of Canadian mobile subscribers use their cell phones to browse the Internet. This is up from Q4 2008 with the top sites including portals, e-mail, weather, news & current events and search. Overall, Mobile internet penetration increased from 16 percent in Q4 2008 to 21.3 percent in Q1 2009.

More highlights from Nielsen Online’s Q1 2009 Canadian Mobile Internet Report can be found in the complete media release.