Nielsen CEO David Kenny on Nielsen One and Reaccreditation

It’s been a rocky few years for Nielsen following the loss of its third-party accreditation in late 2021. Though the Media Rating Council (MRC) confirmed late last year that the measurement company's status remained suspended, Nielsen has been working hard to earn back trust from buyers and sellers. It's currently in the process of rolling out its new cross-media industry solution, Nielsen One, which will eventually replace the long-standing C3 and C7 currencies. Ahead of the 2023 upfront, Adweek caught up with Nielsen CEO David Kenny to learn the latest on Nielsen One, its accreditation status and how the company is positioning itself in the marketplace. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Inside the TV Industry’s Numbers-Crunching to Build Its Multicurrency Future Adweek: How are you thinking about Nielsen One, and how does it fit into the larger view of the company? David Kenny: We've always had an evolution of audience measurement. We started by measuring broadcast channels, then we added cable and then we added time shifting. We've been measuring digital for a while, but we've reached the point where the consumer doesn't see a big difference depending on whether the program came to them over a linear signal or over a streaming signal. The methodologies need to be converged to a single method. That doesn't mean everything's equal because there's always been a difference in content, even in the traditional world. I think there's a need for a foundation that everyone can trust, which is what share of the population did you reach and what share of their time did you use. To me, it's the natural next evolution of measuring the audience properly. The rollout started in January and will be completed by 2024. What have been some initial learnings, and how is the marketplace reacting?Transitions are always hard. Part of the reason I put a date was so that we could actually force people to think through the transition. The data is very useful. It's very insightful. The robustness of using it every day as a trading currency, we still have some work to do because it needs to be simpler. We've got to help people reconcile what they knew, and whether it be in a gross rating points or even with the digital people, to have everybody look at it the same way. So I think the parallel period’s important. There's also a lot of plumbing. The way this feeds a Mediaocean, the way this feeds a WideOrbit, the way this feeds the agency planning systems, the way this connects to other people's first-party data, all of that we are solving with agencies and clients. I would say there's a lot of work still to be done operationally. We're also seeing a range of readiness. I think digital platforms have an easier time thinking it through because it's the way they've been thinking. Some networks are leaning in, have understood it, have a robust cross-media strategy. Others are still treating linear and streaming as two things. Some of these agencies are far along in the tools, and some need some help. Coming up on the upfront, how are you thinking about Nielsen’s position?The interesting thing will be how much optionality they all agree to, to change things in the future. In terms of the measurement, it is still important that there be a trusted, audited, full view of the market, and I still think Nielsen's the proven player there. Forever there have been secondary guarantees, and I've actually embraced those. They're important, and I think it's been important that Nielsen be easier to work with at the foundation but to allow secondary guarantees that reconcile back. Some of that got spun as alternate currency. I think there's a big difference between somebody trading without Nielsen at all and somebody trading with a secondary guarantee that's more related to a specific outcome or a specific audience. I'm hopeful that there are more secondary guarantees. I think that makes the market more interesting. I think it's easier for the buyers and sellers to reach some agreements here. Foundationally, certainly, from all the planning that we're seeing on the sell-side and all the planning we're seeing on the buy-side, the volume of people still intending to use Nielsen as this base currency hasn't changed at all. I want to make sure we're leaning in so that people don't see us as blocking secondary guarantees but actually encouraging them, because I think that you calm down some of the noise. I want to make sure we're leaning in so that people don't see us as blocking secondary guarantees but actually encouraging them.David Kenny, CEO, Nielsen How is Nielsen differentiating itself from all of these other companies?We have continued to submit ourselves to a rigorous third-party audit process throughout. We're the only ones who have been in that process, stayed in that process. Secondly, being syndicated so that we have one measure for everybody and that it's transparent. We've also got more data coming in on the ACR side than others. Partnerships with folks like Roku have been super important. Our knowledge of workflow, being able to understand all the plumbing and to help agencies manage that. Glad you touched on accreditation. I know it was denied again in the fall—It was not denied in the fall. The MRC said there was a lot of progress. It wasn't ready for the full accreditation vote, so it's never been denied. It's always only been suspended. You get denied, and you can't prove efficacy at all. We have been suspended while some KPIs get back to the highest standard, which is definitely pre-pandemic. [The MRC] had to clarify. There was some spin on that, but the reality was there was a discussion in October, and they said, "Not yet." There were six extra things. We've been working on those, and when those are finished, they will bring it back again. And I think that's not so far away; we're making real progress on all of those. We feel quite good about where they are. What have you and Nielsen been doing to win back trust from publishers and buyers?Being as transparent as possible about the numbers we're producing and the methods that achieve them. That has been through the MRC committees, which we've continued to be showing up to and being transparent on methods. It's also been direct engagement. The VAB has a measurement effort [the JIC]. We've engaged with the IAB, and I think the ARF has been very important because [it] is actually the closest to really understanding methods and what can be relied upon statistically. But we've also been very clear that we produce a single number; it's a syndicated number. Everyone sees the same thing. So people have opinions that might favor their story. At the end of the day, I think staying true to what we've always been, which is the best estimate of what the audience is actually doing at a granular level. And I think the more we're proving that out, the more trust we build. What are your biggest priorities over the next couple years?Having done all the work we've done around auditing and accreditation, I do want to make sure we keep moving on quality. We keep moving on process control and keep using technology to make sure we continue to improve every year the efficacy of what we're doing. It's not like when accreditation is restored, we're done. We're going to continue to make sure we set the gold standard. The second part, there isn't enough trust in the media ecosystem generally. Between advertisers, agencies, platforms and networks, when you've got this kind of change, there becomes a level of mistrust. I want to make sure there's trust in Nielsen, but that Nielsen is actually helping build trust between the other players. I think a lot of trust comes from transparency. So making sure we continue to be transparent and we engage in open transparent systems. And we don't have any one of these association groups driving the steering wheel, but we're bringing people together for a common view of the market. I just think [it] is going to be the way that market stays healthy, the way Nielsen stays healthy. That trust in Nielsen, and then using that trust to build trust in the ecosystem. That is the other big thing I'm focused on. This story is part of Adweek’s Finding the Customer digital package, which spotlights marketers’ efforts to accurately measure and track evolving consumer behaviors and engagement. How the Big Measurement Companies Actually Measure Up

Finding the Customer

Nielsen CEO David Kenny on Nielsen One Learnings, Reaccreditation and What's Next

The brand is working to win back the industry's trust after a rocky few years

Mollie Cahillane

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Mollie Cahillane