Thursday, June 28, 2007

Nielsen Buys Mobile Measurement Firm Telephia

As expected, Nielsen, the measurement and media firm, has bought out mobile measurement and metric firm Telephia. The company, based in San Francisco, was founded in 1998. It raise a big $38 million fourth round of funding back in 2001, and that was the last publicly-disclosed round. Its listed investors are here.

The deal comes three weeks after Nielsen unveiled Nielsen Wireless, to assess and measure mobile content, reports AdWeek. Telephia says it serves over 100 clients in the United States, Canada and Europe. More details on how Nielsen plans to develop mobile measurement effort in the release here.

This acquisition has come in the wake of an increased need for concrete metrics for marketers. The ongoing melding of traditional and digital advertising campaigns has created an interest in investment risk with emerging platforms such as everything mobile. These metrics would help carriers and providers to effectively monetize inventory.

Advertisers are willing to experiment and make fairly reasonable commitments to mobile advertising. But you can’t have a vibrant market until there are metrics around it to help folks understand what success means.

No comments: