Nielsen announced July 2 that it has acquired Vizu, an online ad measurement and optimization company, says Scott McKinley, VP of ad effectiveness at Nielsen. The acquisition has been finalized.
“It’s a perfect synergy between the two companies,” says Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu. “Neilsen had a Vizu-shaped hole in their product line.”
That hole was in measuring online ads for brand advertisers, Beltramo says. Adding this to the television metrics Nielsen already has gives them the means to measure the effectiveness of brand advertisements across channels, he says.
Vizu will become part of the Nielsen Online Brand Effect Suite. Nielsen will now have a more complete set of brand advertisement measurement tools in the Brand Effect Suite, McKinley says. After the acquisition, Nielsen will offer mobile brand effect measurements, television brand effect measurements and online effect measurements to clients, he says. The acquisition of Vizu will enable real-time online ad measurement, and will be broken out into several categories, including ad exposure frequency and targeting strategy, Nielsen said in a statement.
“We serve the same clients,” McKinley says of Vizu. “Vizu has a lot of strength and a track record with advertisers and publishers. It’s a natural fit.”
All of Vizu’s employees will be given positions at Nielsen, Beltramo says, adding that his new title will be EVP of product leadership at Neilsen. Vizu has about 50 employees, he says.
Both Vizu and Nielsen declined to release the financial details of the acquisition.
