Nielsen suspends in-store research service ‘indefinitely'

US-- Nielsen has put the launch of its in-store media measurement service on hold indefinitely, saying it is not financially viable in the current economic climate.

The company said that while support was there from the industry as a whole, many clients were “not in a position to fully fund a syndicated service at this time”.

Nielsen In-Store has been in development since 2006 and aimed to measure consumer exposure to in-store marketing devices such as TV and radio, shelf talkers, digital signage and other point of purchase displays.

It was built on work by the Prism initiative – an acronym of Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric – which was led by a consortium of retailers, manufacturers, agencies and the In-Store Marketing Institute.

The institute's executive director Peter Hoyt said it was “a shame” that the service had been suspended. “We all had such high hopes for this,” he said. “There were some incredible findings gained through the early stages of the project though, and I imagine that sooner or later someone else will appear who can build on this platform.”

Consumer goods maker Procter & Gamble was also said to be “disappointed” by the news. Other backers included Kraft and Unilever and fifteen retail chains. Wal-Mart was a member of the Prism consortium but withdrew its support for the national launch of the syndicated service in December.

In line with the US decision, Nielsen has also axed plans to launch the in-store service in Europe this year.

A Nielsen spokesman confirmed that the suspensions will have an impact on staff working on the service, though at press time it was not known how many employees will be affected or whether any will have to be laid off.

“We are investigating opportunities to transition these employees to other roles within the company,” the spokesman said.

In a statement, the company said it would continue to work with clients interested in exploring “how we can address their shopper marketing needs on a custom basis until a syndicated service is financially viable for many of our clients”.

Nielsen has had to can or delay a number of key initiatives in recent months as clients rein in their spending because of the global economic downturn. In November it axed its joint out-of-home TV audience measurement service with Integrated Media Measurement Inc, while in December the company said it would temporarily halt the rollout of its local people meter system in mid-size TV markets.

Author: Brian Tarran

Related links:

VNU to commercialise Prism tool

Prism to shed light on in-store marketing effectiveness