Nielsen & McKinsey partnered to launch NM Incite

The Nielsen Company (Nielsen) and McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) recently announced the India launch of NM Incite, a global joint venture between the two companies.

The joint venture has been created to help leading companies harness the power of social media intelligence to drive superior business performance. NM Incite gives companies the capabilities to better understand value and take advantage of the rich insights made possible by social media.

"Social media is a fast developing platform for consumer opinion and can emerge as an ocean of insight for brands that care to listen. NM Incite aims to help marketers understand this media better and leverage it for growth," said Piyush Mathur, President, India, The Nielsen Company.

McKinsey will contribute to client capability building and expertise in the areas of marketing & sales, organization and service operations. McKinsey serves multiple clients and has developed proprietary knowledge and distinctive insights in areas such as digital marketing, marketing ROI, word-of-mouth marketing and consumer purchase behavior.

"We evolve our consulting methods based on our client requirements. Social media is increasingly becoming too powerful a marketing tool to ignore it any more. This joint venture will help us in delivering to our clients the key to unlock the potential of social media," said Sahana Sarma, Head Sales and Marketing Practice, McKinsey & Company, India.

"Social media in India is where search used to be 3-4 years back and brands who take early positions will definitely stand to gain. Only 8% of social media users in India have not read a product review in the last 12 months and 77% have visited a product website after reading a review on a social media site. This gives an idea of how extensively the Indian user is interacting with brands online," added Mathur.

NM Incite is headquartered in New York and is led by Dave Hudson, previously Executive Vice President, Global Client Services of Nielsen's Telecom Practice, as CEO. Mr. Hudson brings more than 20 years of experience in operating and consulting roles, working with clients to leverage Nielsen data to improve business performance and drive growth.

NM Incite builds upon the industry-leading social media and online brand metrics, consumer insights and real-time market intelligence of Nielsen BuzzMetrics to transform business operations including product development, marketing, communications and customer service. With the creation of this new venture, BuzzMetrics becomes wholly a part of NM Incite.

Impact of social media on consumers

To gauge the impact of social media on consumers today, Nielsen Online conducted a study among 800 online consumers in India, and the study revealed that 70 percent of all social networking users access it everyday. It is interesting to note that only two percent of the people surveyed are not on any social networking sites. A whopping 4.7 million messages were posted in the last one year across the top 25 Indian forums.

One in two people, across all age groups, have interacted with a brand on a social networking site in the last one year and 57 percent have reviewed at least one product in the last 12 months. Three out of four people have read expert reviews on consumer electronics/ durables in the last one year, with the highest reviews in the category done by 41-45 year olds. Three out of Four teens has become a fan of a brand online. More women read expert car reviews than movie or clothing reviews.

Online reviews are influencing decision making today. 77 percent of the users visited a product's website after reading its review on social media. 52 percent of those who read online reviews about a product bought it. Seven out of ten people who bought a product used online reviews as the main or only source of information.

"Our clients recognize the importance of social media today. They are now on the lookout for an opportunity to harness the potential of this rapidly evolving medium. NM Incite will help companies do this, by leveraging on the wealth of social media expertise that Nielsen and McKinsey bring to the table," continued Mathur.

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