As the e-commerce channel expands, the future success of brands will be significantly affected by how successful they are online. As increasingly time poor consumers seek convenience and on-the-go purchases, online sales of FMCG will gain more importance.

Creative is the thing that drives what we engage with, share, talk about, debate, remember and buy. Creative has great power, regardless of where, when and how it runs.

With the advancements in big data, advertisers know more about consumers than ever before. And yet, they’re still challenged with how to drive the greatest return for their marketing budgets. And we all know what happens when executives don’t see the ROI they’re expecting—they cut budgets.

FMCG success today is now dependent on quality product images, solid SEO and prominent placement on e-tailer websites—far more so than simply having an abundant quantity or variety on the shelf at the local store.

While unexpected by many, the Amazon-Whole Foods linkage highlights just how profoundly consumer expectations are changing with regard to food and beverage shopping—and will continue to do so moving forward.

What impact will the digital transformation have on the FMCG industry? What will it mean for the consumer, retailer and manufacturer? And what can we learn from digital disruption in other industries?

Measuring an ad’s ability to communicate trust is a tricky business: perceptions of trust can be non-conscious, formed almost immediately and biased by subtle factors. Given these nuances, explicit research methods aren’t sufficient.

In addition to being hyper connected and digitally driven, Millennials are focused on personal experiences. And for many, those experiences happen away from home. Notably, Millennials are very interested in travel. In fact, they travel more than any other generation, including Baby Boomers.

Without data integration, the only thing cool technology can do is stare helplessly at a pile of bricks it can’t assemble into anything useful.

Though mobile shopping habits are on the rise, there’s certainly a method to the madness, as global consumers are also using digital tools to monitor their spending and manage their finances.

Consumers around the world are increasingly focused on clean eating and the benefits of eating more healthfully, with 70% of global respondents saying they actively make dietary choices to help prevent health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension.

Many consumers appear to have strong preferences about the origin of the products they buy, but how important is this attribute really when they consider a purchase? How does it stack up against other selection factors?

Depending on our age, our approach to something as simple as getting up-to-date news or eating out can be drastically different. But today’s consumers are bucking yesterday’s preconceived generational notions.

Three factors form the foundation of a successful ad campaign: Reach, resonance and reaction. Reach the right audience, and ensure your advertising resonates positively so you can generate the desired reaction. Simple–right? Wrong.

In about four months, we’ll have officially made it to "the future"—at least according to the time-stamp on Doc Brown's DeLorean in the "Back to the Future" movie series. So now that we’re there, what will 2020 look like?

At Nielsen’s annual Consumer 360 Conference, Nielsen CEO Mitch Barns and Daniel Zhang, CEO of China-based Alibaba, sat down to discuss how global companies are leveraging digital and big data for commercial gains amid growing fragmentation, technological developments and evolving consumer demand.

Dr. Robert Heath is a professor at the University of Bath and a pioneer in establishing the value of emotion in advertising. We recently talked to him about emotional resonance, its importance and how it can be used in improving the effectiveness of advertising.

Though you may already use primary and secondary media research to guide your marketing strategy, you may be missing out on key information if you’re not measuring marketing effectiveness too. So you need more information to answer some very critical questions.

Marketing mix modeling has never been more valuable to chief marketing officers—and the need for effective modeling has never been greater—than today. There is no silver bullet for modeling online and offline data, however, which means CMOs need a solution that helps them see both pictures of the world they work in.

With more people watching and buying online than ever before, advertisers are diving head first into digital to reach their audiences. Online advertising expenditures increased more than 25 percent (26.6%) year-over-year as of the second quarter of 2013 and exceeds several traditional media categories. But are these investments worth their price?

There’s no denying the influence that e-commerce is having on the retail landscape, and that influence is starting to go mobile. And as that trend grows, marketers have an opportunity to leverage the influence of consumer preferences.

While the entertainment quotient of Super Bowl XLVIII might be in question by some, the fact that the big game is a pillar of American entertainment can’t be disputed. A large contributing factor in that entertainment experience—some might even consider the driving factor—is the ads.

As the debate rages on about the high cost of advertising during the Super Bowl, one thing is certain: big bucks are being spent in attempt to reach the growing audiences and big spenders tuning in on game day. So let’s take a stroll down memory lane and look at some of the ads that have made history over the past five years.

As we prepare for this year’s big game and even bigger ads, let’s take a quick look back and commemorate those titans of the ad industry that have consistently proven that they’ve got the creative mojo to score big. And as kick-off approaches, we’re kicking off the Super Bowl Advertiser Hall of Fame because for many, the game is as much about the ads as the game itself.

Australian manufacturers are sacrificing long-term brand health for short-term gains and ignoring the fact that the right marketing mix drives sales, loyalty and brand health.

Marketers who can connect with sports fans have a captive audience. That’s because sports fans are connected and passionate when they’re engaged. And for sports like football, which compete with the holiday shopping season for attention, it’s crucial to deliver the right message in the right environment at the right time.

A product launch is a critical time to drive awareness and brand favorability—even more so when focusing the launch on a specific market. So as it prepared to launch its Starbucks Refreshers, Starbucks teamed up with SheKnows.com in order to connect with an ideal audience for its launch.

The demand to measure the return on investment for marketing spending accurately has never been greater. Big data holds the keys to this kingdom, but harnessing and utilizing an overabundance of quality data has not historically been an easy feat.