Vizu’s platform has two key components: Audience Incite, which attempts to work out the characteristics of a website’s audience by asking a single question of a selection of visitors to quantify the incidence of particular attributes; and Ad Catalyst, which uses the same poll-based approach to ask visitors about purchase intent, brand awareness and overall sentiment.

Alongside the ad measurement platform, Vizu also makes its polling technology available as an online DIY research tool and uses a network of partners to conduct full online market research projects.

Nielsen plans to make Ad Catalyst available immediately as part of its Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings and Brand Effect services. The former mixes online campaign measurement and TV ratings data to produce information on the unduplicated reach and frequency of TV and online advertising, while the latter is used to gauge early consumer response to online and TV ads in flight.

Steve Hasker (pictured), president of global media products and advertising solutions at Nielsen, said: “Vizu has developed a best-in-class solution for measuring and optimising brand advertising effectiveness online, which offers a powerful complement to Nielsen’s cross-platform solutions for the advertising industry.”

Vizu was founded in 2005 by CEO Dan Beltramo and CTO Nick Rau.