Nielsen has acquired privately held 60-employee startup Vizu and will incorporate the firm's technology for measuring real-time online ad effectiveness into its cross-platform campaign measurement service.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. San Francisco-based Vizu's investors included WR Hambrecht, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Greycroft Partners and iNovia Capital as well as angel investors including Ron Conway and Esther Dyson.
Vizu's Ad Catalyst system will be immediately available as part of Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings to provide a real-time measure of an ad's reach and resonance across both online and TV, Nielsen said.
In March 2012, Nielsen announced a partnership with GroupM to develop the new Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings measurement service, which is designed to integrate media planning and measurement across TV and online platforms. That service uses the Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings as well as its existing TV audience measurement capabilities to measure total and overlapped reach and frequency of marketing campaigns.
Nielsen also will offer Vizu's Brand Effect suite for reporting of online advertising performance by media plan participant, frequency of ad exposure, advertising execution and targeting strategy in conjunction with its own online ratings.
"We are committed to providing a complete understanding of a brand's end-to-end advertising campaign impact," Steve Hasker, president of Nielsen's global media products and advertising solutions, said in announcing the deal. "Vizu has developed a best-in-class solution for measuring and optimizing brand advertising effectiveness online, which offers a powerful complement to Nielsen's cross-platform solutions for the advertising industry."
Last fall, Vizu announced an enhanced integration with Adap.tv, which operates a marketplace for buying and selling online video advertising.
