• by Joe Mandese , April 25, 2008

People in the advertising business tend to take Nielsen data pretty seriously, but a top company executive Thursday disclosed that Nielsen data is now being used for purposes far more consequential than TV ratings or product research. It's being used to detect and counter terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland.

During a free-wheeling keynote at Media magazine's Outfront conference in New York, Jon Mandel, president of NielsenConnect, touched on the dizzying array of consumer information databases now at Nielsen's disposal, including "disease plume tracking" that is now being used for "counter terrorism."

"You may think lives depend on television ratings, but trust me, in disease plume stuff, they really are at stake," Mandel quipped.

Following the speech, Mandel declined to disclose what entity or entities Nielsen is providing the information to, though it presumably is the Department of Homeland Security. He did, however, explain how the "plume" data is used.

If prescriptions for drugs used to treat infectious diseases begin to spike in a market, the Nielsen data can track how it spreads and whether it is taking on epidemic proportions or migrating in a way that might reveal a biological attack.

Mandel's speech focused on the broad array of data the Nielsen Co., now has at its command, and how units like NielsenConnect are putting them together to reveal consumer insights and market intelligence for clients.

Mandel, a former top Madison Avenue media honcho before joining Nielsen, cited Nielsen's recently acquired NeuroFocus unit, a Berkley, Calif.-based company that measures brainwave activity and biometrics who reveal how people reacted physiologically to marketing and media content.

Mandel said the NeuroFocus data is revealing, "what commercials drive what purchases and how. And also what commercials watched by what product purchasers get viewers to stay and watch the next commercial, which makes the B position more valuable. We can even do that for Web sites, magazines and so on.

"I don't know what this is going to unleash, but we're going to unleash this stuff and you guys are going to have to deal with it," he forewarned.