• by Joe Mandese , February 3, 2005

In its most aggressive marketing effort yet aimed at boosting consumer awareness of the importance and validity of its TV ratings, Nielsen Media Research this month will kick off a multimedia advertising campaign built around the theme: "Every View Counts." The effort, which will include radio, magazines and newspapers, but no television, was created, planned and bought by multicultural marketing specialist agency Burrell, and will include components aimed at specific ethnic groups including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and even people of Arabic origin.

While a Nielsen spokeswoman would not disclose the campaign's budget, or schedule, she said it would begin with local advertising in Detroit, as well as other local people meter markets and would expand into national media later this year.

"It's pretty extensive and aimed at the public as opposed to the industry, which is a little different for us," she said.

Actually, this is the third time Nielsen has utilized advertising in an attempt to educate consumers and to improve its sample cooperation rates. In September 2003, Nielsen ran newspaper, magazine and outdoor ads in Chicago created by WING Latino and placed by MediaCom that were built around an eye-catching "What do you see? No matter what you see, tell us what you watch" Theme. That campaign was deemed unsuccessful and failed to improve Nielsen's awareness, or cooperation rates, according to the company, though Nielsen executives now believe it may been due to the creative.

In April 2004, Nielsen broke a much more ambitious effort created and bought in-house by its internal marketing department that was specifically designed to counter the advertising and marketing efforts of Fox-backed anti-Nielsen advocacy group Don't Count Us Out. Those ads, which ran in the New York marketplace, were targeted at Hispanic and African Americans.

Interestingly, Nielsen has raised concerns during the course of the Don't Count Us Out effort that its advertising and marketing may have unfairly influenced Nielsen's recruiting and ratings efforts in the markets where they ran.

Nielsen has a long-standing policy of "de-listing," or removing rogue broadcasters who conduct marketing campaigns - particularly direct mail - efforts designed to influence the outcome of Nielsen ratings reports. The practice, known as "hypoing," usually is associated with promotions or contests run by stations during the so-called diary sweep periods.

For those reasons, Nielsen specifically decided not to utilize TV ads in its new outreach campaign, said the spokeswoman.

Some of the print and radio ads in the new campaign will feature copy translated into Chinese and Spanish.