In their heads, American teens know that leading a healthy lifestyle is important, but does that awareness always translate to a healthy body? According to a study from Scarborough Research, 92 percent percent of teens aged 13-17 say that health and a healthy lifestyle are important and when asked to give themselves a “health report card,” 76 percent of teens gave a grade of B- or higher.
“While this self-awareness of how they rate their healthy living seems to contradict statistics on
child and teen obesity published by the CDC and other …

Web sites related to mobile phones – both handsets and services – showed the highest traffic growth in the UK, according to new research from The Nielsen Company.  Overall, the sector posted 58 percent growth on a year-to-year basis.  Visits to Nokia’s site grew by 203 percent, while Vodafone and O2 also posted solid growth (91% and 79%, respectively).  At the same time, schemes that enable consumers to recycle their old mobiles for cash drove more people to related web sites for information. 
Perhaps as a sign of the times, the …

Julie Enzweiler, Automotive Research Director, Online Division

Despite the negative online buzz that the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program received pre- and post-launch of the program, it appears to have been incentive enough to spur many consumers back into their local dealerships and to the Web to discuss and to research both the rebate and the automotive manufacturers themselves. In the two weeks following the launch, overall buzz for the government program increased 123 percent. However, in the last few weeks we have seen buzz levels begin to decline.

Melissa Davies, Healthcare Research Director, Online Division
Just as the offline conversation about health care reform is growing in the U.S., we are watching the online discussion grow and evolve as well. In the past month, health care reform discussions have increased by more than 1,000 percent, outpacing the online talk surrounding Swine Flu and the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program.

President Obama is keenly aware of the important role that bloggers play in sharing information about health care reform. On July 20, the President called for bloggers to help drum up …

It wouldn’t be that strange to see Chuck Berry’s “Johnnie B. Goode,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’” and Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” on someone’s iPod. Each of these tracks was the top downloaded for its respective decade, according to Nielsen SoundScan data tear-to-date ending July 26, 2009.
The top downloaded track of the past year was Flo Rida’s “Right Round.” It has been downloaded 3.69 million times trailed closely by the Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow” at 3.67 million. Predictably, the tracks recorded in the last decade have been purchased …

It used to be that if a mobile phone customer wanted to switch service providers, they had to give up their old phone number.  And if one had a particularly “good” number or had the number for several years, the inability to retain that number was a huge disincentive to switch services.  But several years ago, the ability to carry one’s number from carrier to carrier became a reality in the U.S., spurring greater competition among carriers.  And with mobile number portability (MNP) being contemplated in India, some consumers there …

Rebecca Bley, Research Analyst, Nielsen Company
“Life moves pretty fast,” Ferris Bueller warned us. “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Director John Hughes managed to capture slices of that fast-moving life on film, offering iconic, relatable characters like Ferris and the Breakfast Club kids to an entire generation. When he died suddenly on August 6, the Internet mourned the loss of a great voice in Hollywood. On the day after his death, Hughes was the most-discussed person on the Internet, according …

Roger Entner, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Telecom Practice
While public awareness of Apple’s iPhone has been significant since its summer 2007 launch, its influence on consumer purchasing decisions remains up for debate.
To try to better understand the iPhone phenomenon, I took a look at the most recent data from The Nielsen Company’s Mobile Insights survey, which asks 25,000 wireless users every month (a total of 300,000 per year) about their wireless attitudes and experiences, including why they chose their current wireless service.
When the results of 1st quarter of 2009 …

Interview by Sue MacDonald, Research Manager, Online Division
In a difficult economy of rising unemployment, struggling newspapers and advertising agency cutbacks, Alexa Robinson graduated this year from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill with a degree in… journalism and advertising. But she wound up finding a position that carried an entirely new job title — one that didn’t even exist when she started at UNC — “Twintern.”
As Pizza Hut’s first-ever Twitter intern (Twitter + intern, hence, “Twintern”), the 22-year-old Greensboro NC native has been on the job in Dallas since late …

In his effort to discredit NY Daily News reporter Adam Rubin, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya may have likely given the newspaper a wealth of positive exposure.
On July 22nd, when Rubin first reported that Mets VP of Player Personnel Tony Bernazard challenged players on the team’s minor league affiliate to a fight, the NY Daily News received no spike in online chatter according to Nielsen Buzzmetrics.