Nielsen Unveils Hey! Nielsen

Online Social Network for Popular Culture

September 24, 2007- New York, NY –  The Nielsen Company today began the public beta testing of Hey! Nielsen, an online social network site for a diverse range of pop culture enthusiasts who are eager to make their voices heard to Nielsen clients and other decision-makers in the entertainment industry.

Developed with Affinitive, a pioneer and leader in word-of-mouth (WOM) and social media marketing solutions, Hey! Nielsen could be an effective mechanism for Nielsen to explore – and define – a wide variety of experimental media and marketing research.

“Hey! Nielsen gives lovers of pop culture an opportunity to sound off online and to make their voice heard by decision-makers,” said Karen Watson, Senior Vice President of Communications at The Nielsen Company, and Executive Sponsor of Hey! Nielsen.  “If you’re passionate about any aspect of the entertainment world, you will find like-minded consumers on Hey! Nielsen.  We hope this will be a fun place to share opinions and discuss your favorite shows, movies and music.  And because we will be providing our clients with insights from Hey! Nielsen members, joining the network is a way to let the entertainment industry know what you think.”

Nielsen will also launch ¡Oye! Nielsen, a Spanish-language version of the website in January.

Although the site is still under test and development, users will be able to participate in the site’s main functions during this test period:

• Members will be able to voice opinions and grade their favorite music, TV show or movie.  These ratings and opinions will be available to other members, who can then respond with their own views. 

• Members will have profiles and the ability to build a network of “recommenders,” or friends, giving like-minded members the ability to share ideas about additional sources of entertainment they might like.

• Members can contribute to the Hey! Nielsen Score, which will be a measurement system for the “buzz” on a star, TV show, movie and other entertainment property.  The Hey! Nielsen Score is a combination of a number of factors including users’ opinions and ratings on the site, Internet buzz and raw data from sister companies including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen BuzzMetric’s BlogPulse.com, a key input into Hey! Nielsen, monitors nearly 60 million blogs every day.  A significant percentage of the blog buzz deals directly with entertainment, and this data will be woven into the overall Hey! Nielsen Score. 

• Members will be able to install Hey! Nielsen “widgets” on their desktops or other social networking sites in order to track developments and Hey! Nielsen scores for entertainment they care about even when they are not on the site. 

The information collected on Hey! Nielsen could be an important step toward metering and understanding user engagement around entertainment.  Initially, Hey! Nielsen will be able to provide demographic information, comments, and scores of each user that engages on a specific entertainment property. This information can be used as a supplement to existing products offered by Nielsen Media Research (TV ratings), SoundScan (music), Nielsen EDI (box office information), and other services that allow clients to tap into consumers’ connection to media

The development of Hey! Nielsen has been a cross-company collaboration within The Nielsen Company including Nielsen Media Research, Nielsen Entertainment, BuzzMetrics, Nielsen//NetRatings, Nielsen Games, Nielsen Wireless, Business Media, ACNielsen, and Custom Research.  In this way, Nielsen can access the unique assets housed in each of these groups and others, and eventually offer products and services to the clients of these businesses. 

The site, which was open only to Nielsen employees for closed testing over the past few months, is now open to the public at www.heynielsen.com.  

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com

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