• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 4, 2008

The name Nielsen may be most closely associated with the medium of television, but it is the Internet--especially social forms of online media--that is having the greatest influence on the way the research and publishing giant delivers its own messages to the public. In its latest foray into online publishing, the Nielsen Co. has quietly launched the "Nielsen Blog," a new Web destination featuring the waxings and musings of its array of experts on marketing and media research topics.

The first installment of the blog, located at blog.nielsen.com, delves into what arguably is the industry's biggest annual marketing and media event--the Super Bowl--and future iterations will focus primarily on other big cyclical events and topical issues. The next big focus is likely to be the Academy Awards, another event that draws on the vast arsenal of Nielsen advertising, media, marketing and entertainment data streams.

Unlike official Nielsen communications such as client communiques, press releases, and corporate announcements, the blog postings are designed to be a more informal and subjective take written by the individual research gurus and technical wonks who make up the Nielsen organization. It's also a way for Nielsen executives to speak directly to their constituencies without having to rely on conventional media outlets to get the word out.

"It gives us a more direct voice," says Karen Watson, senior vice president-communications of Nielsen Co., who was the chief architect behind the new blog, as well as "Hey! Nielsen," an online social network Nielsen launched late last year to build an online community around people who care--and care to comment on--the media, marketing, and entertainment subjects that Nielsen is most closely associated with.

Like the social network, the new blog blurs some lines for Nielsen, which historically has taken the most passive role possible in monitoring and measuring media. By becoming an online publisher, it also hopes to utilize its own media to influence the market, including how consumers use media. For example, Watson notes that Hey! Nielsen is currently is running a campaign to recruit people to pay attention to Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XLII next month.

"We're asking people to watch the Super Bowl ads," she says. Hey! Nielsen currently has 13,319 members, none of which are Nielsen employees--all of whom have been taken off the original beta version of the site.

One thing Watson says Nielsen will not do with its online media outlets is sell advertising.

"We think that might be a conflict," she says.

Ultimately, she says the goal of the new blog is to encourage Nielsen executives to talk more informally to their stakeholders and to become "comfortable" and "more transparent" via online media.