Skip to content
News Center > Thought Leadership

The Case for Growth Through Transparency: A Way Forward for Digital Advertising

3 minute read | March 2020

In recent months, Apple and Firefox changed their browser policies to phase out third-party cookie tracking and Google announced its intention to do the same within two years. While these changes are meant to benefit consumers, they unintentionally create an environment in which marketers have less objective insight into the audiences that see their ads on apps, platforms and websites—particularly if the use cases of publishers and advertisers are not addressed. Without an independent view, market confidence in digital advertising could see significant erosion. 

At Nielsen, building confidence through disruption is part of our DNA. In 1950, we introduced the first TV ratings in response to the launch of the first national broadcasters. As viewing fragmented, we pioneered methods to correct biases in big data sources so they could be introduced into our media panels. Today, we are innovating to measure digital and streaming and create a new measurement paradigm to keep the common market intact.

What all these moments have in common with the current one is that transparency is essential to unlocking growth. Digital media supports an ecosystem that connects people around the world. For it to continue growing, the market needs confidence that the measurement it depends on is unbiased, built with a fundamental respect for consumer privacy, and can survive the next decade of media innovation. 

Here are three initiatives we are embarking on to ensure Nielsen measurement continues to bring transparency to digital advertising:  

Once again, the choice our industry faces is to grow through transparency or contract with market fragmentation. At Nielsen, we believe it is absolutely possible to have both consumer privacy and market fairness—and we are committed to making sure that happens.

This article was originally published in Adweek.