VNU Begins Layoffs; Readies $15 Million In-Store Test
Media and research giant VNU has begun a reported 4,100 in layoffs, about 10% of its global workforce.
The cuts come just days after VNU announced its commitment to an estimated $15 million in-store research project that could lead to the national launch of a new measurement service as early as next year. That service will track in-store media in a format that makes it comparable to TV spots.
The first layoffs came last Friday, when 10 staffers were let go from The Hollywood Reporter’s editorial staff, according to news reports. Other magazines in VNU’s business media stable, including Billboard, likely will lose staff too. (VNU also owns Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek; no editorial staff cuts are expected on those publications.) VNU did not return a call for comment by press time.
The layoffs are expected to have less impact on VNU’s research divisions, especially sister units ACNielsen (which handles marketing research, including supermarket scanner data) and Nielsen Media Research (best known for TV ratings).
Last week, VNU struck its development deal with a consortium of top brands to develop and market the in-store measurement service that the brands began testing last spring. VNU will start testing the in-store measurement service in early 2007, with plans for a national launch later in the year. The company eventually will expand the service to some 90 countries where it already tracks in-store activity. The test will cost around $15 million, funded primarily by VNU.
A new division, called Nielsen In-Store, will test the service with the consortium that is led by Procter & Gamble and coordinated by the In-Store Marketing Institute. As the consortium’s commercial partner, VNU stands to earn a decent return on what promises to be the first measurement tool that media buyers can use to compare in-store media to traditional ad media (November PROMO).
Nielsen In-Store is part of NielsenConnect, a relatively new division that coordinates consumer and media data from several Nielsen ventures, such as BuzzMetrics and VideoScan. VNU tapped George Wishart to run Nielsen In-Store as global managing director; he had been president-CEO of VNU’s Interactive Market Systems division.
VNU will combine data from several divisions for the in-store measurement service: ACNielsen (retail measurement and consumer panels); Spectra, Trade Dimensions and BASES (retail data); Nielsen Media Research (audience measurement and analysis); and Interactive Market Systems (media planning and modeling).
