Should Nielsen buy a SSP?

Image representing Nielsen Online as depicted ...
Image via CrunchBase
The news is out today that UKOM has dropped Nielsen in favour of comScore.

Nielsen and comScore are really useful assets for any marketing agency to have access to but both have their challenges.

There's a game I play with Nielsen data. It's called "how much is it really?" and it applies to their estimates of what big brands are spending on Display. Sometimes I know the right figure (we might be running the account) and Nielsen are out by a factor of x3 or x4.

One of the advantages comScore has fought for in recent months is comScore Direct. They let sites tag themselves for free. comScore gets better data. Those sites make sure they're not underselling their page views - although it's been controversial.

Here's where this blog post turns into a brain dump of speculation.

Should Nielsen buy an SSP?

Having a Supply Side Platform would give Nielsen two important things;
1) tags on sites
2) accurate floor prices for Display

However, this seems like quite a sideways leap for the company. Except, there is Nielsen Online and that seems much closer to the SSP model.

What do you think? A savvy move or insanity?

Popular Posts