SAN JUAN, PR — After being acquired by NIQ (NielsenIQ), MRI-Simmons is set to play a pivotal part in its parent’s new media division – and it’s bringing a new partnership with TransUnion.
NIQ in February announced it would form the division out of a combination of NIQ, GfK, and MRI-Simmons, addressing three core industry issues: defining the right audience for brands, delivering that audience and ensuring that it performs.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Josh Pisano, SVP, Business Development & Product Strategy, MRI-Simmons, says the company is using clients’ first-party data to leverage consumers’ off-platform behavior, interests, and values.
Partnership Through Integration
TransUnion and MRI-Simmons just announced a new, two-pronged integration:
- “MRI-Simmons data can now be layered onto the TransUnion identity spine, enhancing MRI-Simmons’ 60,000 consumer variables for data enrichment and activation.”
- “MRI-Simmons’ audiences are now available in TransUnion’s TruAudience Data Marketplace, enabling advertisers and publishers to reach precisely defined audiences in 80 million streaming households.”
In NIQ’s House
MRI-Simmons is a consumer research company that provides insights and data to media, advertising, and marketing professionals. Their services include gathering detailed demographic, lifestyle, product usage, and brand preference data from national samples.
Pisano says the acquisition changes things.
“What we don’t typically have is the outcome or performance data,” Pisano admits. However, the synergy with NIQ’s resources heralds a change: “Really helping to combine the outcomes with the audience dimensions and targets that were used for a marketing campaign can together bring a very powerful solution.”
Navigating Data Challenges with Expertise
Clients often grapple with the representativeness of their consumer data. Pisano notes that specific segments, such as the 18-24 demographic, are frequently underrepresented.
Pisano is emphatic about the significance of having data that truly represents a brand’s audience. “If you’re not understanding the full population of your audience… you are likely to decision incorrectly,” he cautions. He suggests complementary strategies, like contextual targeting and diverse focus groups, to cover any blind spots in data strategies.
He says, “We try to help our customers understand, depending on their focus and their target, where those things might actually impact the way that they’re driving a decision.”
You’re watching Beet.TV’s coverage of Beet Retreat San Juan 2024. This series and event is sponsored by Albertsons Media Collective, Moloco, OpenX and TransUnion. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
