A Holistic Blend of 4 Nielsen Data Sets Delivers Unique Fan Insights

Sports fans are among the most ardent of loyalists. Brands that can tap into that devotion have a greater likelihood of winning over and retaining these advocates. A sure way to achieve this is by gaining a deeper understanding of sports fans. Recognizing that opportunity, Nielsen combined several of its data sources to produce a new product for in-depth, fan-related insights.

Nielsen Sports has just announced the launch of a platform called Nielsen Fan Insights to provide, as the press release noted, "sports properties, sponsor brands, and event organizers with a comprehensive view of fans' interests, media consumption behaviors, brand attitudes, and purchasing habits from around the world." The service allows Nielsen's customers to go directly into a dashboard to mine data for insights into the many aspects of fandom.

Nielsen Fan Insights combines four separate sets of data — each of which offers unique viewpoints of sports fan — into one useful tool:

1. Nielsen Homescan household panel, which continually tracks purchases across consumer segments
2. Nielsen Scarborough, which asks people a range of media consumption, purchasing, and attitudes for 210 markets on the U.S. local level
3. Nielsen Winning Brands, which measures a brand's awareness, consideration, and attitude before, during, and after an ad or sponsorship exposure
4. Nielsen Global Fan Survey, which is a new monthly global tracking survey of sports fans that will eventually cover over 30 countries

A brand can use the data to drill down to the fans of a particular league or even a team to better understand their demographic and attitudinal profiles, purchase preferences, and brand awareness. Additionally, global brands can use the data to get insight into the differences from country to country and across different age groups. So, a credit card company sponsoring a tennis event, for instance, can look at a before-and-after activation of a campaign to assess whether it helped to achieve their brand's KPIs — from awareness, to brand affection, to transactions — among tennis fans.

For sports teams and leagues that are trying to sell sponsorships, the platform enables them to target prospective advertisers, as well as show proof of performance after a campaign. It is also valuable for league expansion efforts, discovering global advertiser interest and new fan bases, and ascertaining overall fan interest by country. The NBA, for example, could view fan interest in the U.S, and also review fan interest in China after the exhibition and pre-season games held there.

In crafting new ways to build a fan base, teams can use the insights on fan interests to improve the audience experience. For example, a team that learns that its fan base enjoys a certain type of music could book an appropriate band for a halftime or post-game show to draw in viewers.

Currently, the platform covers China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, the U.S., and the UK. Brazil, Russia, and South Korea will come online at the end of 2019, along with an additional 20-plus countries in 2020. Future efforts will also include linking other datasets to specific athletes, for example. Nielsen's Thought Leadership division will release further insights in the coming months.

This is the first time Nielsen has stitched together different systems for sports. With the variety of Nielsen datasets available, the potential for a range of combinations for networks, advertisers, and genres, appears tantalizingly large and flexible

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Viacom: Authentically Engaging Audiences Viacom Synergy - Rallying around "Fans First"

The fragmentation and increasing complexity of today’s media landscape has resulted in more opportunities but also greater challenges for traditional media corporations. How can you move a company forward in an ecosystem of expanding consumption platforms, fickle consumer tastes, greater viewer control over time allocation and expanding technological and data driven applications?  

For a company like Viacom, it is both internal and external curation; carefully choosing the right team of employees, fostering a culture of collaboration, and forming a rallying point, like Fans First.

I sat down with five executives from different departments at Viacom – Valerie Bischak, EVP, Marketing and Partner Solutions; Deb Brett, SVP, Marketing and Partner Solutions; Sarah Iooss, SVP, Business Development; Gabe Bevilacqua, SVP, Data Strategy; and Kiel Berry, SVP, Co-Head, Viacom Labs – to discuss how to authentically engage audiences as well as synergize this effort both internally and externally. These are their takeaways:

Fandom as a Connector

Fandom as a connector between departments and a unifying concept externally for marketers permeates the organization. For Bischak, her role is to insure that the marketers see how differentiated Viacom is from competitors. “Each of our brands has unique fans,” she stated, “and the brands we are talking to can come along for the ride. We have custom content capabilities to create programs around fandom for a brand.  We work with Gabe and his group to add an additional layer and use data to show we are reaching these fans in a meaningful, targeted way.”

The idea of Fans First ties together all aspects of sales. Brett, Bischak and Iooss all worked together years ago at Viacom running digital, mobile and linear sales. “We saw a phenomenon back then in sales and we thought, we can buy spots and dots, we can run pre-roll online but what we wanted out of Viacom is the ephemeral, the fan engagement. How can we harness that and make it a part of what we are contracting,” Brett said. Over time, the three executives evolved their roles and disciplines, but they still connect via Fandom. “We use Fans First as a guiding principal,” explained Iooss, “It is a core piece of the mission statement for my team. It is something my team and our partners can get behind.”

Her team is not composed of the usual suspects. “Our business development team is made up of some pretty untraditional picks for business development. It’s not all consultants and MBAs. It’s people who come from social media agencies or brands and digital accounts at an agency and some from other cable companies,” she added.

Data and Analytics Are Critical Components

In the areas of data and analytics, the Fans First concept encourages a new way of looking at the audience. “Fandom is an easy way for me and my team to relate as a mission,” stated Bevilacqua. “Let’s not just think of the people who watch TV as Adults 18-49. Let’s think of them reflective of behaviors and attitudes and passions.”

With Viacom Labs, an incubator for the future of fan experience and engagement, “Fans First” is both a mission and an opportunity.  “We have a responsibility to our fans,” stated Berry, “Fans give a large percentage of their time –time being the most valuable resource - to their brands that they really identify with.  And they see themselves in those brands. As fans move at the speed of pop culture, the speed of new technology, it is our responsibility to meet them at these new evolving platforms and give those fans the opportunity to interact with those brands where they are.”

The way Data and Analytics, Viacom Labs, Business Development and Sales work in tandem is an essential advantage for the company. As Brett concluded, “We work closely with Gabe’s team with social analytics so we know that when we put something out there, we know what we are getting back. We also look at things that Kiel’s team has discovered. We bring incubation from the Lab into the infrastructure so we can ignite it quickly. Everything is happening quickly and Viacom is at the forefront of change.”