What is Nielsen doing with big data? The company announced a new currency days before the Media Ratings Council meets to approve it.

The number of Hispanic and Black households using TV also generally increased across each age group with Big Data + Panel. With 45 million Big Data households and 75 million devices, our Big Data + Panel approach expands coverage and scale. Greater coverage and scale allow for the measurement of even more people and programs.

Big data can counterbalance its panel’s shortcomings. Set-top box and automatic content recognition (ACR) data capture fragmented viewing behavior more accurately than panels, which lack the necessary scale. But bigger doesn’t always mean better: Big data must be cleaned to correct any errors and calibrated to mitigate biases and ensure representativeness.

Decades of search dominance give it a Big Data lead and a familiar user interface that people generally trust to reliably give them information they seek. GenAI’s hallucinations and the difficulties with monetizing AI search beyond a subscription format make it messy to incorporate into a search engine.

The panel versus big data dilemma might sound familiar to TV advertisers, which are still in the throes of a messy currency overhaul. The strongest solutions—in the TV currency debate and attention sphere—will employ both panel and big data to counterbalance weaknesses. Currency aside, optimizing for attention may help fight against the hazards of AI. The MFA problem is about to get a lot worse.

Nielsen’s “big data” currency will miss this year’s upfronts due to pressure. The big data product would have supplemented Nielsen’s legacy panel with data from smart TVs and set-top boxes. The move disrupted some advertisers’ plans to incorporate the big data inputs into their media buys. This is happening despite Nielsen’s accreditation reinstatement by the Media Rating Council in April 2023.

Well, it's interesting, Netflix, they did that big data drop to show the number of hours viewed on all their shows.

The big data point: Tucked inside ICSC’s report is a notable data point that suggests a shift in how consumers will shop this holiday season. Consumers plan to purchase from an average of 2.4 different types of retailers, compared with 3.4 in 2022, per ICSC. That suggests retailers need to aggressively lean into discounting and marketing to capture shoppers’ attention (and dollars).

Panels can calibrate big data sets. While automatic content recognition and set-top box data can provide the scale needed to support analysis of smaller audiences, it needs to be adjusted for under- or overrepresentation of certain demographics. Panels can help correct for machine error. It’s surprisingly common for connected devices to record viewing activity when the TV is off.

Nielsen has been racing to launch big data and cross-platform measurement products as competitors make strides, but it shocked advertisers earlier this year when it opted to stick with panel-based measurement at Upfronts. Nielsen released its big data currency in late August just days before the Media Rating Council convened to approve it.

Nielsen is trying to diversify its measurement offerings—hence its big data currency and the launch of Nielsen One—but it’s doggedly sticking to panel data. Losing MRC accreditation in 2021 kicked off an era of fractured measurement, but its panel-based currency is still one of the most traded on currencies at Upfronts.

The road less taken: Although moving from on-premises data centers to public cloud providers can help companies effectively harness AI, ML, and big data analytics tools, it’s a false assumption that immediate cost savings will materialize—Dropbox saved $74.6 million by pulling its data from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to its own infrastructure, per Data Center Knowledge.

FIs that are able to use big data to develop effective marketing strategies stand to win over more customers with personalized financial solutions, per The Financial Brand. Where does it come from? FIs can tap into a variety of sources to gather data on their customers. Social media: Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube reveal valuable information on users’ interests and preferences.

I don't know that they're quite there yet, but they certainly are using big data and artificial intelligence to be able to assist. Rob Rubin:. Well, it would be really helpful for a lot of people if they could tell them a second before it happens. David Morris:. Well then you have minority report, but then maybe we're in a world we don't want to be in anymore, Rob. Rob Rubin:. I know. David Morris:.

Watch for red flags: Just because enterprises have come to depend on digital computing and Big Data, it doesn’t mean that the cloud is recession-proof, as sometimes claimed. Although recent earnings reports have eased fears, the slowdown could intensify. As companies with smaller cash reserves than Big Tech rush to curb spending, cloud computing could be a top area to cut.

Why it’s worth watching: Despite the US’s early dominance and continued academic research lead in AI, China’s ultra-competitive tech industry and greater access to big data to train AI systems is positioning it as a global leader for AI implementation.

What it means for the elite workforce: Using AI, Big Data, robotics, cloud computing, and rising compute power to fulfill more workplace roles could chip away at tasks done by the most educated, highly skilled workers. Three recent examples illustrate the threat:.

The war over tech talent remains a global phenomenon, as many CIOs report skill shortages in the areas banks are spending the most on—like cybersecurity, big data and analytics, and technical architecture—according to data from Harvey Nash’s 2021 digital leadership report.

Today, with the growth of big data, advanced analytics, and AI, marketers can tailor messages to individuals based on their needs in the moment. Most marketers believe that they do personalization well. Unfortunately, their customers don’t agree. Although 71% of retailers feel they excel at personalized marketing, only 34% of consumers think the same, according to a March 2022 report from Sailthru.

Most agencies are in the early stages of incorporating big data into planning and measurement workflows, observed Moe Chughtai, global head of advanced TV at MiQ. Even if teams are up to speed on available data, targeting capabilities, and alternative currencies—and that’s a big if—outdated software holds them back.

Compounding the issue is the sector’s high water use, which London utility Thames Water is currently assessing to make sure that drinking water isn’t sacrificed for Big Data. A number of companies in addition to Microsoft are eyeing data center projects in Madrid and Frankfurt.

While big data often provides the scale needed to support analysis of smaller audiences, it comes with its own challenges. It must be cleaned to correct any errors and calibrated to mitigate biases and ensure accurate representation. Any measurement solution worth pursuing will draw from aggregated big data and panels. But data sources are only part of the equation.

Despite a post-pandemic dip in annual growth, robust spending on martech will result in a $14.54 billion market in 2022.

The war over tech talent remains a global phenomenon, as many chief information officers report skill shortages in the areas banks are spending the most on—like cybersecurity, big data and analytics, and technical architecture—according to data from Harvey Nash’s 2021 Digital Leadership report.

First, this accreditation is for the panel-based National Ratings Service and it does not include any big data from smart TVs or set top boxes, which means it still doesn't really have enough scale to accurately measure viewership that's fragmented across linear, and all the various streaming platforms, so that's the first reason.