Streamlining the media planning process, Nielsen‘s new media budget forecasting solution is an intuitive, web-based simulation tool that will enable brand marketers to easily evaluate thousands of combinations of marketing allocations and budget options, to make more informed, media planning decisions.

“For advertisers tasked with maximizing the impact of their limited marketing dollars, Marketing Budget Explorer simplifies a traditionally complex practice. Deciding which brands, channels, markets or even day-parts to execute against is neither an easy nor a light decision to make.  Today, the stakes are higher, the need for dynamic decision making is greater and the ability to reduce wasted spend and increase ROI is a critical charge for all marketers,” said Lana Busignani, Head of Marketing and Sales Effectiveness for Lead Markets at Nielsen.

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Nielsen’s database of marketing ROI studies show that the average return for marketing activities is only about $0.70per $1 spend, which means marketing efforts are getting back less than they are spending and brand teams are at risk of losing profit and marketing budget. Priming the market for a positive return, Nielsen’s Marketing Budget Explorer will help users optimize marketing budget allocations under various scenarios, predict outcomes, identify profitable paths to growth, look at budget allocations across different brands within a portfolio and easily change and test plans, anytime, anywhere.

Nielsen’s Marketing Budget Explorer is grounded by a sophisticated simulation and data engine that estimates the impact at any spending level. Results from Marketing Budget Explorer are supported by Nielsen’s robust suite of Marketing Mix and planning tools. The insights delivered are informed by benchmark data, based off of other brands in a similar category, powered by Nielsen’s proprietary benchmark database that consists of over 40,000 measured marketing results, globally. Also available, is the option to use results from Nielsen’s custom marketing mix studies that measure the impact of a brands’ marketing efforts on sales.

When used with benchmark insights, Marketing Budget Explorer is less resource intensive, making data-driven decisions highly accessible for smaller brands and markets that traditionally have had limited access to analytics.  This newest offering continues Nielsen’s vision of making sophisticated analytics more accessible to brand marketers, executive decision-makers, insights teams and agency partners, for everyday decisions.

Busignani continues, “With the launch of Marketing Budget Explorer, we are putting the power of analytics into the advertiser or brand manager’s hands to help make marketing mix modeling data more accessible to key decision makers within companies of all sizes. Nielsen has brought to the market a steady stream of everyday analytic products, leading the drive to foster greater efficiency, growth, and automation around media budget allocation decision making.  We are excited to bring this to the marketplace as a building block within our Connected System.”

Nielsen’s Marketing Budget Explorer will be launched on a rolling basis to all markets, globally. Currently, benchmark insights are available in the U.S, Canada and select global markets, including  Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Spain.

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