Nielsen launches media data clean room with Snowflake

Nielsen is launching a cloud-based Media Data Room to share first-party data with clients in a privacy-safe way using Snowflake’s Media Data Cloud as the underlying platform.

The first data set made available will be Nielsen Respondent Level Data, which is a modeled representative subsample from the company’s data set of 35 million household set-top boxes and smart TVs, used to model national linear TV in the U.S., the company said in a statement.

Snowflake is already embedded into many client operations, according to the statement. It’s also the provider for the clean room of OpenAP, the data activation collaborative involving most U.S. TV publishers. Snowflake's recently launched many-to-many clean room technology is expected to underpin data sharing by the Joint Industry Committee that OpenAP administers (but Nielsen has declined to join).

Read more about Nielsen's decision to not join the JIC

“The modernization of our data architecture in service of delivering analytics to customers in a highly customizable, secure and reliable cloud-based environment is yet another example of how we innovate to serve the complex needs of the media ecosystem,” said Srini Varadarajan, chief technology officer for Nielsen Audience Measurement.

The Media Data Room is part of the modernization of Nielsen’s data architecture, which sits atop the cloud-based Media Data Lake repository housing all data used by the company for audience measurement. It’s the first phase of a data modernization strategy that will be powered by Snowflake’s data clean room technology, Nielsen’s statement said.

The MDR will play a significant role in the transition to big data plus panel national TV measurement and ultimately support the industry’s transition to individual commercial audience measurement, according to Nielsen.

“Advertisers, agencies and media companies all need data collaboration and accessibility in near real-time, all wrapped in a privacy-preserving technology,” said Bill Stratton, global head of media, entertainment and advertising for Snowflake, in the statement. “In joining Snowflake’s Media Data Cloud, Nielsen will be delivering the next generation of data products for their clients.”