Saturday, August 7, 2010

McKinsey and Nielsen unite to form social media firm

Nielsen and McKinsey & Co. recently entered into a joint venture to form a social media which will give companies deeper analysis of the media as a marketing tool. Social media uses web-based technologies that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. It is relatively inexpensive compared to the traditional media and hence enables anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and social benchmarking. The interactive feature and potential for wider coverage makes this media a more potent tool for marketing.

NM Incite, the name of the joint venture, will use the expertise of both Nielsen and McKinsey to generate relevant information for clients. Nielsen Buzzmetrics, which offers consumer insights and metrics on online media, will be part of the joint venture. McKinsey, on the other hand, has sales and marketing experience in various forms of social media: Digital marketing, marketing return on investment, work-of-mouth marketing and consumer behaviour.

NM Incite will start by offering three solutions in three areas: measuring and improving marketing effectiveness, product-launch optimization, and customer-service experience.

Nielsen CEO David Calhoun believes that the joint venture with McKinsey would help many companies decide the best way to advertise by using the social media. He is of the opinion that many companies are currently unsure about how best to utilise this media and that such metrics and information can help organisations transcend boundaries.

McKinsey global managing director Dominic Barton also believes that real-time market intelligence will assist the leaders in making more informed decisions and help businesses achieve untapped growth potential.

This joint venture goes a long way in proving that social media as an advertising forum is definitely here to stay and could play an important part in the marketing campaign of firms in future.

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