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NEW YORK – Nielsen (NLSN) announced a strategic relationship with IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a leading provider of automotive information and insights. Through this collaboration, Nielsen will integrate comprehensive automotive data from Polk Automotive Solutions by IHS Markit into its audience and outcomes measurement solutions. Leveraging Nielsen offerings, advertisers will have a clearer understanding of today's auto consumers, empowering them to make more effective, data-driven marketing decisions about engaging with auto audiences.

Optimization and measurement utilizing Polk data helps the industry move beyond basic tools and legacy metrics toward evaluating actual sales activity, a key imperative today.

As the automotive industry adapts to an economy profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing consumer preferences, marketers realize the need to be more astute in how and when to reach current vehicle owners and in-market buyers. Bringing together Polk Automotive Solutions and advanced Nielsen solutions enables marketers to leverage comprehensive information on new and used vehicle transactions and more than 30 years of robust automotive behavior data to inform their planning, activation, measurement and outcomes initiatives. Polk Automotive Audiences are built on the analytics of more than 50 million new and used vehicle transactions per year across the U.S. and are inclusive of every make and model.

"By adding new dynamic elements to a historically static medium for reaching audiences, our collaboration with Nielsen is a significant step forward for advertisers and marketers," said Joe Kyriakoza, Vice President and General Manager, Polk Automotive Solutions by IHS Markit. "Optimization and measurement utilizing Polk data helps the industry move beyond basic tools and legacy metrics toward evaluating actual sales activity, a key imperative today."

Through this relationship, marketers can make more effective decisions about engaging auto audiences, implement cross-screen targeting and activation of auto audience segments, and understand if their campaigns are reaching desired auto audiences. In addition, marketers will be able to observe the impact of their ads on auto-focused audiences, and determine the incremental sales lift driven by their campaigns. Publishers will also be able to showcase the impact of their platform and promote their strengths, receiving the key metrics they need to prove real value to advertisers. 

Among the benefits, clients can:

• Reach audiences and personalize advertising messages based on a diverse set of criteria, such as buying stage, detailed vehicle attributes, brand affinity and more

• Optimize media plans using Polk Audience segments for more efficient and effective media buys

• Improve campaign performance and reduce campaign waste by optimizing reach and frequency of Polk Audiences

• Better understand media performance insights across platforms, creatives, networks, and buyers

"Robust data and insights are playing an increasingly vital role in helping savvy marketers make informed decisions about how they allocate and optimize media spend," said Ameneh Atai, General Manager, Commercial Strategy at Nielsen. "By incorporating Polk Automotive Solutions into Nielsen's cross-media offering, we're giving brands unparalleled access to the insights and direction they need to approach all marketing decisions with precision and confidence."

Nielsen Audience Segments for Polk Audiences are currently available for activation in the Nielsen Auto Cloud, helping marketers target vehicle owners based on their auto behaviors. This data will also be leveraged for TV outcomes measurement, providing the ability to gain granular insights in how TV advertising leads to outcomes. Over the next 12 months, Nielsen will continue to expand Polk Automotive Solutions into additional offerings across planning, audience measurement and outcomes in a phased approach.