Nielsen to Use Social Networking on Super Bowl Ads

The Nielsen Co. will measure consumer preferences for the 2008 Super Bowl's ads using HeyNielsen, its first social networking site, the company announced Monday.

Hundreds of users from a volunteer panel will use a ratings and review scale on HeyNielsen.com to provide feedback in real-time on advertisements televised during Sunday's matchup between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. In addition, Nielsen will allow other HeyNielsen.com members to report whether they agree with the posted reviews.

"Our goal with HeyNielsen is to shine extra light on important emerging questions for advertisers: What do highly engaged consumers think? How do they react to advertising? To what extent do they tell others?" said Karen Watson, senior vice president of communications and executive sponsor of HeyNielsen, in a statement. "The HeyNielsen Super Bowl panel is essentially an online focus group that will provide our clients with immediate gut-level reactions to the ads."

Members of the HeyNielsen panel can rate each commercial on a scale from one to four and then add their commentary on the subject, Nielsen said. The program will show which commercials were most favorable to the panel and whether the members would likely use the advertiser's services in the future.

In addition to the HeyNielsen panel, Nielsen Online also will provide real-time analysis of messages and opinions from 70 million blogs, message boards, online communities, video-sharing sites and sports enthusiast sites. The site will also offer custom, online surveys for users to complete before and after the game to judge the most anticipated advertisers and commercials and reactions to the commercials.

HeyNielsen is an online community that allows users to rank blogs and Web sites in various entertainment categories. Using data from the users, HeyNielsen generates a score that indicates a topic's impact, influence and value, Nielsen said.