Nielsen Wins “Most Innovative Approach” at the Best of Business Intelligence (BOBI) Awards

LONDON -

- Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics Analysis of Consumer Experience to Influence Marketing Decisions for Pfizer’s Smoking Cessation Product - Champix - Cited by Judges as a Unanimous and Clear Winner

The Nielsen Company today announced it received the award for “Most Innovative Approach” from the British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association for creating a bespoke research methodology commended for its business impact, cost effectiveness and novelty.

The methodology, utilising Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics analytical solution, was developed for Pfizer enabling it to investigate what consumers say online about their brands - in this case, smoking cessation aid, Champix - without compromising European Union regulations unique to the prescription healthcare industry which have resource implications that effectively prohibit pharmaceutical companies from benefitting from the consumer-generated realm.

The regulations centre around the requirement to “make every effort” to follow up all ‘Adverse Events’ - consumer comments around experiences not intended by the drug or its usage - including contacting the consumer concerned as well as notifying the Drug Safety Group. The research was able to comply with these regulations as well as provide a unique new source of business intelligence for Pfizer.

The BOBI judging panel comments: “This was a unanimous and clear winner. Overall, we felt it was a smart, innovative, cost effective piece of research which demonstrated the business impact and could be used elsewhere in the business. It demonstrated innovation in two ways:

- Overcoming internal challenges to the research, which are faced on a regular basis and delivering a pragmatic, practical solution - Learning from the consumer by using an emerging methodology to monitor online consumer discussions (Consumer-Generated Media)

Michael Goff, Business Intelligence Manager, Pfizer U.K., says: “Apart from the obvious relevance for our brand, the general value to the pharmaceutical industry of understanding consumers’ opinions of prescription medicines is evident for all to see. The research offered us the opportunity to understand what consumers were hearing about our brand, how this was being interpreted, and what impression of the brand was being created on-line for potential future users. Its most obvious business impact was that a potentially expensive marketing program was demonstrated not to be necessary.”

Brad Little, Director of Industry Solutions, Online, for Nielsen says: “Our BuzzMetrics’ dataset of over 100 million CGM sources is used by companies across the globe because they recognize the incredible value in harnessing this content to learn about and improve their products. Regulations have made it difficult for prescription healthcare companies to harness this type of research so we worked with Pfizer’s brand and market research teams, the Drug Safety Group and legal teams to establish a methodology that enabled Pfizer to monitor this content and, consequently, improve their strategy, marketing, consumer insights, and many other critical parts of the business.”

EDITOR’S NOTES

About Nielsen Online

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive, independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, mobile, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behaviour. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital and marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-online.com. Also, visit our blog at www.nielsen-online.com/blog.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com

“Distributed for ad:tech London 2009 by PR Newswire”

Contact: Alex Burmaster: +44-20-7014-0597 alexander.burmaster@nielsen.com

Source: Nielsen Online

Contact: Alex Burmaster: +44-20-7014-0597, alexander.burmaster at nielsen.com