Nielsen Wire » Mercedes-Benz

Finalists Announced for Nielsen’s Automotive Green Marketer of the Year

Nielsen Wire — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:29:40 +0000

Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota are the finalists for the first ever Automotive Green Marketer of the Year, which will be presented at the Los Angeles International Auto Show on November 18, 2010. The award recognizes the brand that made the greatest strides in gaining consumer awareness and positively shifting consumer perceptions for the automotive industry’s environmentally friendly initiatives. Auto manufacturers that ran any national TV ads with “green” themes between October 2009 and September 2010 were eligible for consideration.

To determine the finalists and winner, Nielsen leveraged three research studies to incorporate awareness levels and perceptions across media types. The studies included:

A custom survey of nearly 7,000 consumers’ cross-media awareness and perceptions of environmental messages by automotive brand
Response data from 2.5 million viewers of national television advertising collected by Nielsen’s ad effectiveness measurements service, focusing on green automotive ads
Measuring social media “buzz” sentiment within green-related discussion threads

The results showed that consumers have definite high awareness of environmentally friendly ad campaigns, with eight in 10 consumers in the cross-media awareness survey reporting seeing “green” auto ads recently. Also notable is the generally positive nature of discussion surrounding green topics for auto brands in consumer-generated media (CGM). Less than 1 percent of discussion was negative on average. This is also reflected in the number of consumers who said green ads shift their opinion of the brand, with two-thirds saying their opinion was more positive after seeing these ads.

“We have seen a heightened awareness among consumers for environmental initiatives in the auto sector,” said Lois Miller, President of Nielsen Automotive. “The key benefit is that with this awareness is also a more positive view of the brand and ultimately, this can help auto manufacturers reach consumers that may not have considered their brand before.”

Price of Diesel Fuel, Along with Diesel Buzz, Goes Down

Nielsen Wire — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:20:26 +0000

Nielsen’s latest automotive industry overview tracked the online conversations, and the steadily declining price, of diesel over the last 12 months. Though diesel has been a hot topic within alternative fuel buzz at times, a downward trend in discussion over the past year speaks to a decline in consumer interest.

Findings & Analysis:

Total diesel buzz decreased 28% from June ‘08 to June ‘09, while diesel fuel fell by $2.15 per gallon or 45%
Domestic trucks and German cars are most prominently mentioned within diesel buzz
Mercedes-Benz and BMW are gaining share of diesel discussion
Some consumers believe there is more potential opportunity for diesel in the U.S. market, particularly if original equipment manufacturers repurpose their small, fuel-efficient European offerings.

For more, download Nielsen’s Automotive Industry Overview: Diesel Focus

10 Most-Recalled Drama/Sitcom In-Program Placements: Sept./Oct. 2008

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:56:44 +0000

According to data from Nielsen IAG, an Apple iPod product placement in the CW television show “Supernatural” was the most recalled placement in a scripted series during the four weeks between September 15 and October 12, 2008.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the brand/product featured in an in-program placement.

Rank	Brand	In-Program Placement Description	Program Airing Info	Recall Index
1	Apple iPod	Dean asks Sam about music player hooked up to a jack in his car	Supernatural (CW, Sep 18)	230
2	Tupperware	Miriam’s belongings are found in a cardboard box containing company name	Cold Case (CBS, Oct 12)	225
3	Playboy	Jake reads an interview conducted with Jimmy Kimmel in men’s magazine	Two and a Half Men (CBS, Sep 29)	222
4	Boeing	Jonas, Bob, and Tom attempt to stop terrorists from hijacking a 767 plane	The Unit (CBS, Oct 5)	218
5	Scrabble (Hasbro)	The gang plays a board game in Stella’s basement	How I Met Your Mother (CBS, Oct 6)	209
6	Crown Victoria (Ford)	Chuck wonders whether the car barreling towards him is a Crown Victoria	Chuck (NBC, Sep 29)	199
7	Pecan Sandies (Keebler)	Kim discovers a box of cookies in the cabinet and Kath takes them away from her	Kath & Kim (NBC, Oct 9)	195
8	Harley-Davidson	Betty tells one of the models to get on a Sportster bike at publicity event	Ugly Betty (ABC, Sep 25)	195
9	Mercedes-Benz	Bridget tells Molly that her car has arrived; Molly drives car to see Kim a gas station	The Unit (CBS, Oct 5)	193
10	Dodge	John and Derek drive Ram pickup truck to the military academy	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX, Oct 6)	189
Source: The Nielsen Company (September 15, 2008 – October 12, 2008).
Note: Nielsen IAG’s ranking of the Top 10 Most Recalled In-Program Placements focuses on brand/product placements occurring in dramas and sitcoms on broadcast networks. In-program placements were only considered if the occurrence had visual elements or both visual and auditory elements (i.e., was both “seen” and “mentioned”). Only first-run episodes were considered. Both planned and incidental exposures were included.

A placement’s “recall score” is the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the brand/product they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing dramas and sitcoms on U.S. broadcast networks.

Recall scores are indexed against the mean score for all new product placements occurring in the scripted drama and sitcom genres during the time period to calculate a placement’s “recall index.”

A recall index of 100 indicates average recall. A recall index of 230, for example, means that the in-program placement has proven to be 2.3 times as memorable as the average placement during the four-week time period.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age’s “Madison + Vine” and Product Placement News.