Nielsen opens CPG insights to third-party analytic companies

NEW YORK – Nielsen on Thursday announced that it will for the first time open its consumer packaged goods data and insights to third-party analytic companies on a historic and broad scale, with the launch of the Nielsen Connected Partner Program.



The move enables Connected Partner companies and Nielsen clients to find each other and collaborate in an open ecosystem, freeing them from common barriers to connecting applications and data sets at scale.



Several companies, including Applied Predictive Technology, a Mastercard company, are already signed up as Connected Partners and using the Nielsen data in collaborative analytics initiatives.



“The proliferation of data, accelerated pace of business and rapid advancement of digital technologies has created a global environment where success is dependent on connections,” stated Chris Morley, president of Nielsen, U.S. Buy.



Tied to a deeper global technology investment for client growth, the Nielsen Connected Partner Program is a managed network of companies who serve CPG manufacturer and retail clients using data shared under a set of data release rules.



Early Connected Partners of the program come from a diverse roster of businesses who serve mutual clients within the CPG and retail industries. In addition to APT, Pathformance, is an authority on digital shopper marketing and consumer activation, for example. And Prevedere, a leader in business performance forecasting, tracks and manages thousands of global sources on economic, environmental and consumer behavior data, to determine leading indicators for company revenues, profits and individual products.



“Nielsen’s Connected Partner Program enables our clients and Connected Partners to easily and effectively connect by harnessing the data necessary to net mutually beneficial results," Morley said. "We have the most robust sales and reference data in the world powering this program. It is the DNA of this program.”



The program will ultimately allow Connected Partners and clients to bridge their insights through a mutual data source. A single set-up process eliminates common challenges and industry barriers for efficient data collaboration.



“Our mutual clients are excited about how Nielsen’s Connected Partner Program is already making it easy – both commercially and technically – to use Nielsen’s market tracking data and insights in the APT Test & Learn software, to test and optimize new business concepts,” said Kevin Keane, SVP alliances, APT.



After Nielsen client consent is granted, approved Connected Partners can access subscribed data sets to perform work on behalf of the client. With Nielsen data as the common language, the Nielsen Connected Partner Program helps reduce the time required to identify and connect with the right third party. It shifts the current work model from data management and data alignment to systematic, data-driven decision making.



Nielsen is actively bringing in companies that deliver data sources, data services, data analytics and data activation to the network of Connected Partners. For program participants, the ecosystem has a uniform coding system, based on Nielsen’s reference data, allowing the output of one Connected Partner’s analysis to be easily used as the input to another.



“This gives us the unique ability within the marketplace to leverage our data in an open, controlled way to Connected Partners who participate in our network," Morley noted. "Together, this will give clients the tools they need to address the demands of the industry, discover enterprise-level areas to strengthen performance and amplify their investment across Connected Partners in the network.”



An active list of Nielsen’s Connected Partner Program members includes APT, Chuze, Destini, Eversight, MediaFly, Pathformance, PivotStream, Prevedere, ShopAdvisor and TABS Analytics.