OREANDA-NEWS. Nielsen announced it has completed its acquisition of Repucom, the global leader in sports measurement, evaluation and intelligence. The acquisition will expand Nielsen's sports offerings globally, making the company the premier provider of analytics and insights within the growing sports industry. The global spend on sports sponsorships has nearly doubled since 2010, increasing from $35bn to $60bn. Nielsen's acquisition of Repucom includes all operations, data, advanced analytic IP and tools, and ongoing client work.

"Sports is a galvanizing force that unites consumers, brands and advertisers, and the sports marketing economy continues to grow each year," said Howard Appelbaum, President, Nielsen Entertainment. "Our acquisition of Repucom creates tremendous momentum for Nielsen. This combination of data and measurement capabilities strengthens our clients' position in the market, increases campaign effectiveness and connects their brands with passionate sports fans."  

Repucom has established some of the most robust methodologies in sports measurement.   Its award-winning logo recognition and media monitoring technologies measure more than 5.3m hours of content and 1.1m interviews per year. Combined, these attributes have helped establish the company as the leading global provider of choice for more than 1,700 of the top rights holders, brands, agencies and broadcasters.

As a result of the acquisition, Nielsen clients will be able to use Repucom's industry leading methodologies including its QI Media Value, which measures the quality of brand exposure based upon a proprietary method that considers size, duration, location and number of concurrent brands seen. Repucom's brand exposure data and metrics are considered currency in the global sports marketplace. Coupling sponsorship data with Nielsen's buyer intent and purchase data provides clients with uniquely powerful solutions to help them make smarter business decisions.

Paul Smith, founder of Repucom, said, "This acquisition represents the validation of Repucom's business model and is an important turning point for the entire sports marketing economy. Nielsen is making a significant investment in its global sports offering, as this acquisition marks an expansion into China, Mexico and Russia. Businesses that operate in sports today have a much more sophisticated view on data. Decisions that were previously made based on emotional connections are now centered on insights and grounded in robust data. This acquisition is a testament to Repucom associates for building this world class brand and technology portfolio and to Nielsen for recognizing global sports marketing as an industry that is perfectly positioned for our combined measurement and performance improvement capabilities."

Nielsen has been providing insights and intelligence to leading sports teams, leagues and brands across major sports categories for several years in the U.S. The company connects its sports clients with talent analytics, advertising measurement, television and audio ratings, digital ratings, and more using Nielsen's best-in-class data capabilities. Solutions including television and audio measurement, Nielsen Catalina Solutions, Nielsen Buyer Insights and N-Score, Nielsen's syndicated solution for assessing an entertainment personality's endorsement potential, among others—power these rich insights.

ABOUT REPUCOM   
Founded in 2004, Repucom has grown from its origins in Sydney, Australia into the trusted adviser in sports and entertainment intelligence, helping clients to maximize their commercial success, with offices in 18 countries, employing 1400 associates. Repucom solutions allow businesses around the world to better understand and connect with their audiences and clients through media, sponsorship, communication and experiential platforms. It's able to do this because it has been watching and listening to fans and their behaviour for more than 30 years. In that time Repucom has built one of the most comprehensive, reliable and trusted sources of holistic market data in sport.  

ABOUT NIELSEN  
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers Watch and Buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services across all devices where content — video, audio and text — is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance.  Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90 percent of the world's population.