If you missed the news, Nielsen hired a Chief Client Officer. His name is Peter Naylor, and he arrives at Nielsen with a very strong resumé.
The man was the first VP of Global Ad Sales at Netflix, he led ad sales in the Americas at Snap, and was SVP of ad sales at Hulu.
He’s been on the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, including a stint as IAB’s chairman, along with service at the IRTS and the She Runs It Foundation. Sounds like a great hire, and he’ll report directly to Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s CEO.
So far, so good, but if you read Rao’s quote in the release, there’s a troubling side for those of us who toil in the radio industry:
“The key to Nielsen’s continued success is working closely with our clients to build the best marketing intelligence platform in the world,” said Rao. “Peter is the perfect person to help that mission, building on Nielsen’s momentum of Big Data + Panel measurement, live streaming innovation, and our AI transformation. He has led teams across linear TV, streaming, and social media. He knows what consumers and clients want – and need – as behaviors continue to evolve. We can’t wait to keep building with him and our partners.”
Again, this all sounds good on the surface, but if you read the quote through, did you notice something—or more specifically, did you notice something missing? If I take the statement literally, Nielsen has hired a Chief Video Client Officer because the words “radio” and “audio” never appear. Radio? What’s radio? Oh, that’s the money machine that hits up big clients for 36% rate increases, per the Cumulus/Nielsen lawsuit filings.
Admittedly, Nielsen’s biggest issue right now is competition in the national television and streaming business. It’s a big money segment, and there are multiple competitors trying to take a piece of the pie, so it’s understandable that Nielsen would hire someone like Peter Naylor, who likely knows everyone and, I assume, has a good reputation in that space.
However, my view is that a Chief Client Officer should work with all clients. I don’t expect that a standalone, locally owned AM/FM combo that subscribes to Nielsen Audio in a 100+ metro should expect a visit from Mr. Naylor at any time in the future. However, would he appear via Zoom at an NAB COLRAM meeting? Will he attend an MRC Radio Committee meeting when Nielsen is called in to discuss their take on audit findings about the radio service?
Even better, will he appear on a panel at a Barrett Media Summit and be able to speak knowledgeably about our industry?
Maybe radio doesn’t need someone to be a Chief Client Officer for Nielsen. The client-facing people that I know at Nielsen are generally very good at taking care of their customers. The record isn’t perfect, but especially the former Arbitron people that are still there (should that read “somehow survived the last 12 years?”) care very much about client concerns, even if they can’t always deliver good news. They’re honest, and most have been in the radio business at some point in their careers. My statement comes from first-hand experience on that side of the table.
Still, this reminds me of when Nielsen One was first announced back in late 2020. In this column, I noted that Nielsen failed to offer even a crumb to radio. My suggestion would have been to say that radio and audio will be included at some time in the future. That future date could be 2060, but so what? It would have shown that the company remembered their decent-sized profit center called radio audience measurement.
History has repeated itself. Nielsen’s new Chief Client Officer will likely be spending much of his time with national video “publishers”, agencies, and advertisers, and that makes sense in the company’s current competitive position.
However, couldn’t someone in Nielsen’s PR group have said, “Why don’t we mention radio somewhere in Karthik’s quote?” Maybe they thought “AI transformation” included radio in some way, but for me, using the word “radio” or “audio” would have said, “We know that whatever our biggest competitive challenges are, we still love the radio business.”
We’re headed into the holiday season, and perhaps I thought the Sugar Plum Fairy would sprinkle goodness and hope on Nielsen’s executive suite, causing the occupants to remember our business. Humbug!
Speaking of holidays, I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this week.
Let’s meet again next week.
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