The Nielsen Company's latest play aims to dramatically improve understanding of consumer behavior and engagement. Find out if its foray into social media will pay off and give its consumer research more marketing impact.

The entertainment industry rises and falls based on its ability to understand and engage consumers. From focus group to exit interview, the studios and networks try to hedge their bets any way they can. Enter the giant of TV ratings, The Nielsen Company, with a website that provides virtual exit interviews.

Launched this fall, Hey! Nielsen (H!N) is a new online social community, with real-time commentary and ratings from the opinionated on all things entertainment -- think film, TV, music, video gaming, portals and social media sites and celebrities. According to Karen E. Watson, senior vice president of communications at The Nielsen Company and its executive sponsor, "Hey! Nielsen is uniquely positioned as the online destination of choice for uber-media thought leaders and passionate media consumers to share their opinions on entertainment."
 
In addition to the usual opinion and social networking functionality, H!N has features such as ratings (like Q Ratings), the ability to submit opinions and comments, to connect and to create a network of recommenders. Currently H!N works together with Nielsen's media, wireless, video gaming and interactive units using data from Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Buzz Metric's Blog Pulse (which monitors 60 million blogs daily) and from Media Research, Nielsen Entertainment and ACNielsen. Its goal is to get fans rating, reviewing and blogging about their favorite shows, movies and stars. For consumers, it's an opportunity to sound off, support the actors and series they love, see what their friends think and export to their profile pages.

Launched in late September 2007, H!N is on track in terms of user involvement, with over 8,000 members in mid-November. While the original Beta users were employees, the current 8,000 members are consumers, just like you and me. However, given that Facebook is at 60 million, it's not surprising that H!N's focus is on audience development.

To dramatically increase membership and usage, H!N needs a better user interface, more relevant content, more opinions and smarter search. For the H!N score to influence consumer behavior, there needs to be complete transparency around how it is compiled. For its bet to pay off, H!N needs to drive the number and type of consumers -- that means a lot more usage and strong WOM.

H!N reports ambitious plans for 2008:

• On the marketing side, expand user participation
• On the product side, build out sub-categories; for example under TV, add genres such as sci-fi, comedy, etc.
• In Q1, launch a Hispanic and Spanish-language offering, titled ¡Oye!
• Become ubiquitous across online, mobile (launch a WAP site and enable mobile voting and commentary), and the desktop (develop widgets so opinions can be exported/imported and syndicated
• On the platform front, integrate with the Nielsen panel, Telephia, and other offerings (both custom and syndicated research)

Nielsen is placing a bet that social media will complement and extend its product suite. The H!N site has the potential to dramatically improve our understanding of consumer behavior and engagement around entertainment. Nielsen has said its goal is to work together with the entertainment industry to assess consumer reaction via focus groups, private screenings and online panels (like Alloy). According to Karen E. Watson, "Hey! Nielsen, as well as ¡Oye! Nielsen in 2008, will provide cross-platform intelligence reports to its clients illustrating consumer sentiment and emerging trends on entertainment properties." The ability to gather consumer opinions and integrate them into Nielsen's broader platform will be extremely compelling to the entertainment industry.

What if a single source existed for real-time exit interviews (think opening weekend with millions of consumers texting their opinions of "Sweeney Todd" -- musical or slasher flick?), and it was fully integrated to Nielsen's polling audience and panels? Would the studios, networks, labels and game makers value (and pay for) these services? You bet they would!

The value proposition to studios, networks, portals and their agencies is apparent. But, what's the value proposition for consumers? Why go to H!N to express your opinions?

The idea of cutting through the advertising clutter and getting opinions from people with similar tastes is appealing, as Yahoo!, Fandango and Amazon have demonstrated. It's the integration of those opinions with the Nielsen data, and the ability to choose my own group of recommenders, that cranks up the relevance. It will be key for H!N to engage the attention of digital millennials: they want their opinions to matter -- and they care deeply about influencing the labels, studios and networks.

For its bet to pay off big, H!N needs to show true engagement with influencers -- the uber-media thought leaders it's targeting. To drive that engagement, H!N is planning to deploy member levels such as Rising Star, Legend and Mogul. Will that be enough, though? Not by a long shot. Those thought leaders crave the insider gossip, the back story, the back stab. And that's where Nielsen needs to leverage its other properties (and potentially relationships with the studios, networks and labels) to own the intersection where entertainment insider meets movie buddy.

Peter Blackshaw, executive vice president of Nielsen Online Strategic Services, says, "understanding passion is the next frontier of market research. Passion provides enormous insight into both loyalty and viral advocacy, and we are paying very close attention to the root drivers and nuances around this level of emotion-charged consumer engagement."
 
Hey! Nielsen -- if you want to own this intersection, it's time to double down.

Susan C. MacDermid is senior vice president of Real Branding. Read full bio.