Nielsen Appoints Scott Brown Head of Audience Measurement To Lead Cross-Media Strategy

Nielsen has promoted Scott Brown to general manager, audience measurement. In this new role, he will “continue to innovate Nielsen’s measurement products and ultimately drive the unification of linear TV, advanced TV and digital video solutions,” the company said.

Brown’s leadership appointment comes as the distinction between linear TV and digital video continues to blur and all players in the media industry — including advertisers, agencies, networks, content creators and platforms — are demanding a clear view of media consumption across all screens and ad models. In response, Nielsen said it is reinventing the way it brings product offerings to market under a unified platform vision and strategy.

Eric Bosco, chief product officer for Nielsen Media, said: “Consumers are watching premium video in a fundamentally different way today than they were even five years ago. The opportunity for marketers is enormous. We’re bringing together the ability to effectively plan, optimize and measure through the full funnel so that marketers can monetize this opportunity to the fullest extent. Scott will play a critical role in bridging all of our measurement solutions together to ensure that we meet the evolving needs of the market.”

Under Brown, Nielsen is currently overhauling its digital measurement methodology to position the company to create a “flexible, independent platform that can quickly adapt to evolving privacy and policy changes.” Brown is also spearheading the effort to incorporate addressable advertising into TV measurement.

“Marketers and publishers want to understand their audience across all platforms in a simple way. They want to understand where the true incremental reach comes from and how different platforms and services perform to ultimately help inform both advertising strategies as well as program and content decisioning,” said Scott Brown, GM of audience measurement at Nielsen. “Nielsen has historically measured media types and platforms independently. However, as convergence across all media types continue, the industry will require a single methodology for a holistic view that captures how digital, connected TV and other platforms perform alongside linear TV. This is the holy grail.”

Previously, Brown was chief technology officer for Nielsen’s measurement products. In that role, he led the technical implementation of its measurement products across mobile, computer and connected TVs including the migration of its infrastructure to the cloud. That cloud-based platform currently underpins Nielsen’s entire audience measurement product suite today.