Nielsen, which has had a turbulent few months as its methodology has been questioned by a range of advertising stakeholders, has unveiled a new brand identity.
The new look is timed to the start of Advertising Week in New York, a hybrid event that will see a number of media and tech firms take part. In an announcement, the company said the revamped brand signals the “transformation of its culture and a redefined strategy focused solely on the global future of media. Nielsen’s new look and feel represents a commitment to innovation and the company’s role and purpose of powering a better media future for all people.”
Last March, Nielsen closed the sale of its Global Connect business, saying it would focus on delivering media solutions in three areas: measurement, audience outcomes and content services. The company is combining and enhancing its measurement solutions into a single cross-media measurement solution, Nielsen One, which is expected to roll out by the end of 2022.
Advertisers and media clients have been growing restless, however. In the early part of the year, industry consortium VAB clashed with the company over its counting of viewership and streaming during Covid and as it started to ease in 2021. Nielsen said it pulled some employees out of the field, which affected the numbers, but insisted the move was aimed at keeping workers safe. In the wake of the Media Rating Council, a non-profit watchdog group, pulling Nielsen’s accreditation over the summer, Nielsen CEO David Kenny conceded the company had room for improvement.
The specific critiques of the pandemic opened the door for more vigorous attacks from major longtime partners like ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal and Discovery. While complaints about Nielsen go back several decades, shifts in technology and the sudden strategic imperative to chart a new course in streaming have intensified the criticism. NBCU introduced a major corporate initiative designed at fostering a “team sport” approach of working with numerous vendors and others to deliver measurement insights to ad buyers and brands. The goal is to reduce reliance on Nielsen, which remains far and away the dominant player in measurement.
“While our business has transformed dramatically over the past few years, it became clear that perceptions of the company have not evolved at the same pace,” said Jamie Moldafsky, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. “The rebranding marks a new Nielsen both inside the company and out, with a strategy hyper-focused on the global audience and the changing media environment. Nielsen’s core values of inclusion, courage and growth, along with its clear strategy, will power the company’s transformation as we partner with the industry and our clients to help them better understand how evolving audiences consume media and find content.”
The new logo is inspired by the universal play button, the company said, and multicolored objects indicating ratings data. The letter “N” is created in negative space by the formation of the colored shapes.
Along with the logo, Nielsen also announced a new “brand purpose statement.” It reads: “Powering a Better Media Future for All People.”
