In the nine weeks leading up to its release, “The Dark Knight” had almost twice as much television advertising (2,401 units) as “Batman Begins” (1,287 units), according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
The strong advertising push for “Dark Knight” may have contributed to the film’s record-breaking opening weekend.  “Dark Knight” earned $158.4 million last weekend, while “Batman Begins” took in just $46.9 million in its first weekend.
Nielsen’s data included TV advertising units for approximately nine weeks leading up to the release of both films: May 9, 2008 – July 6, 2008 (”The Dark Knight”) and April 3, 2005 …

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the number of televisions mounted atop gas pumps have skyrocketed since their introduction in 2006. 
Programming at the pumps varies by location and TV provider, but all offer heavy rotations of 15-second ads.
The story cited a recent study by Gas Station TV and Nielsen, which found that 70% of people who watched the gas station ads remembered the products advertised, while 89% of consumers surveyed were willing to buy a product after seeing an ad on televisions attached to gas pumps.

On Monday, the Los Angeles Times ran a feature on television product placement and Nielsen’s efforts to measure this fast growing new segment of the advertising industry.  
The story focused on Nielsen’s Product Placement Service, which tracks product placement occurrences, and Nielsen IAG, which measures the effectiveness of advertising and product placements.
Alan Gould, Co-Chief Executive, Nielsen IAG, told the LA Times that Nielsen aims to provide the first comprehensive service for tracking product placement.  “If we do our jobs correctly, we will become the dominant way in which the industry measures …

Adweek reported Monday that a Marco Polo-inspired commercial for the Nissan Rogue crossover SUV was the “most liked” Spanish-language TV commercial for the first half of 2008, according to Nielsen IAG.
A commercial’s likability score reflects the percentage of TV viewers who recall the brand advertised and report liking a particular ad “a lot.”  Nielsen IAG’s panel includes almost 20,000 mostly Spanish-dominant Hispanic viewers living throughout the U.S.
Barbara Zack, managing director, chief strategic officer, Nielsen IAG told Adweek that, in general, humor “usually resonates well with viewers.”  

In 2007, U.S. advertisers placed $5.78 billion of advertising in Spanish-language media, according to a report issued Thursday by Nielsen’s Monitor-Plus advertising service.
That’s a 3% increase over the $5.63 billion spent on Spanish-language media in 2006.  Overall in 2007, U.S. advertising spending rose 0.6% over 2006.
Broadcast Media Partners Inc. (Univision’s parent company), which spent $205.9 million on advertising in 2007, was the largest advertiser across all Spanish-language media.  Lexicon marketing, which increased its ad spending by 38% from 2006 to 2007, showed the largest percentage increase.
The Automotive category, which spent just over $659.4 million …

The International Herald Tribune reported Sunday that the current deluge of environmentally conscious advertisements is fueling consumer skepticism of “green” marketing. 
Jonathan Banks, business insight director, Nielsen, told the Tribune that a huge volume of “green” ads and the flimsiness of the claims in some of the campaigns are fueling the current backlash.
“After 18 months, levels of concern on any issue tend to drop off,” Banks noted. “I fear that something similar may happen with this.”
View Nielsen Online’s recent Webinar on “Greenwashing”.

Taco Bell’s Fruista Freeze spot, which features a giant talking turtle, topped Nielsen IAG’s list of the 10 most-liked new TV ads featured in Advertising Age on Wednesday. 
The Ad Age list also ranked the 10 most-recalled ads for the four-week period from May 19 to June 15, 2008.  Cymbalta’s “Where does depression hurt; Who does depression hurt?” ad topped that list.
Nielsen IAG measures consumer engagement with television programs, national commercials and product placements.

MarketWatch and The Los Angeles Times reported that NBC will become the first television network to make online streaming data available for specific programs.
The data, which will be released via Nielsen Online’s VideoCensus service, will allow advertisers to compare NBC.com’s audience numbers, show by show.
The move could help to make advertisers “more comfortable” with online video advertising, the LA Times reports.

The Nielsen Company announced today that Sony Pictures Television (SPT)’s television and Internet properties reach households that account for 83.2% in annual spending for consumer packaged goods products.  This accounts for $346 billion in annual consumer spending.  The extensive analysis of media consumption and consumer behavior was conducted by NielsenConnections.
Nielsen found that households reached by SPT’s television or Internet properties at least once a month spend an average of more than $3,700 on consumer packaged goods per year, seven percent higher than households not reached by their television or Internet …

Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the competitive advertising information service of The Nielsen Company, recently revealed that advertising spending for the first quarter of 2008 remained essentially flat compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary figures.
Advertising was mixed across media with gains in some mediums and declines in others.  Overall despite a continued softening of the economy, several media and companies are showing healthy growth in advertising for this quarter.
Advertising in National Sunday Supplements saw the largest growth, with an increase of 19.2% over Q1 2007, while Local Sunday Supplements fared …