Dive Brief:
- Nielsen on Wednesday (June 14) introduced its own Media Data Room (MDR) in order to better position itself as a data leader within the measurement industry, according to a press release.
- The MDR is a cloud-based platform which allows customers to obtain and share large data sets in a privacy-forward way. The technology was built with Snowflake, with the Media Data Cloud product serving as the underlying technology.
- First-party data has become of increased importance to advertisers, especially as Google moves forward with its plans to phase out third-party cookies. The unveiling comes as Nielsen continues to struggle to maintain its hold on the measurement landscape.
Dive Insight:
Nielsen’s MDR is the first step in the firm’s data modernization strategy and builds on the foundation of its Media Data Lake, a cloud-based repository that stores all of data used by the company for audience measures. The first data set made available under the initial implementation will be the Nielsen Respondent Level Data, a modeled subsample of 35 million homes for U.S. national linear TV.
The use of Snowflake for the new data tool will allow for minimized set-up by existing Snowflake users, as the company’s technology is already frequently embedded in client workflow, per release details. Nielsen will continue to enhance data delivery though its forms of data distribution, including FTP and custom applications, will be replaced by MDR.
The MDR is meant to play a central role in Nielsen’s transition to its Big Data+Panel National TV measurements, with an end goal of Individual Commercial Metrics, per release details. The firm has been working on ways to improve its metrics for years, meant to coincide with the launch of Nielson One. Notably, the launch of One Ads came just two days after four of the largest TV networks came together to form a committee meant to explore multiple streaming measurement solutions.
As streaming continues to be a major player in the media consumption landscape, Nielsen has been in the crosshairs of updated viewership metrics. While Nielsen has not been entirely shut out of discussions surrounding the future of measurement, its future role remains unclear. Recently, it was revealed that the measurement company miscounted the viewership of Super Bowl LVII.