The tool is aimed at brands and companies that are unable to carry out a custom marketing mix study due to budget, time or data limitations, and new brands that lack advertising history. 

It uses performance benchmarks of other similar brands to simulate and optimise marketing allocation decisions and media strategies. 

"Determining the optimal allocation of marketing dollars is a critical question for all marketers," said Tsvetan Tsvetkov, senior vice president of marketing effectiveness at Nielsen.  

"No matter the size of the company, marketers are looking to make efficient investments to gain a competitive advantage.

"Recognising budget and resource limitations of many brands, we are thrilled to now be able to provide insights and everyday analytic tools to help drive an effective marketing mix strategy for brands of all sizes and all budgets." 

Nielsen has also made the following announcements:

• It has been granted accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for its inclusion of digital measurement in the TV ratings
  
• It has collaborated with RichRelevance to bring new personalisation capabilities to its Marketing Cloud tool