Nielsen Panels – Denmark

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Nielsen’s Panels

For nearly 100 years, Nielsen has provided companies worldwide with essential insights into consumer behavior – and our panels make this possible.

What is a panel?

A panel is a group of people we have chosen to represent a larger universe of people. Since it is not possible to include all people in a specific area, e.g. the whole of Denmark or a given Danish city, we use advanced sampling and statistical methods to ensure that our panel is representative of a larger part of the population. How do we do it? Our data experts create smaller populations in the panel whose behavior is similar to that of the general population. In this way, it is possible for us to understand the behavior of the general population, without interviewing every single person in a given city or area.

How is data from the panel used?

We use data from the panel to understand consumer behavior, for example what people watch on TV or how long they listen to the radio per day. Nielsen’s panels contribute to knowledge about consumers’ media behavior, which i.a. has an impact on the TV industry’s program planning, as well as the purchase of ads and commercials.

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What is representation?

It is impossible to question every single person about their behavior – and this is where data science becomes relevant. We use large amounts of reliable statistical data to understand a specific market.

We then use random probability sampling to isolate smaller populations in the total population. When we have a smaller data set, we use statistical modeling, weighting, and similar data science methods to ensure that the characteristics of the smaller sample are similar to the overall population.

By using various data science methods, we gain insight into the behavior of the population by isolating a representative sample and modeling it so that it reflects the behavior of the general population.

Our ability to provide accurate, representative measurements of consumer and media behavior cannot be matched by large datasets, telephone surveys or data collected via digital devices.

Data science & big data

Few people would argue that it is better to have smaller amounts of data than larger amounts of data. However, this does not mean that more data equals more useful knowledge. It is important to emphasize that not all data is the same. Most people leave digital footprints throughout the course of a day, and these footprints can help companies create content, products and experiences that are tailored to your interests. However, these digital footprints cannot stand alone. Think about when you change the channel while watching TV. Here, your TV box or provider knows when the channel is changed and at which address the TV is located, but they do not know WHO has changed the channel.

It is in this connection that data science comes into play, especially in the digital area, where technological measurement tools such as code readers, meters and watermarks cannot be used. For example, ISPs know that their online advertisements have been clicked, but they don’t know WHO clicked on them. However, with data from our panelists, we can model and calibrate techniques to provide an accurate representation of the behavior in the larger datasets.

Frequently asked questions

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