Nielsen has tapped Peter Naylor as its first chief client officer.
In the newly created role, Naylor, who has previously led ad sales for Netflix and Hulu, will serve as a critical partner for Nielsen’s clients, including advertisers and publishers across traditional and digital channels, ensuring that Nielsen is meeting its clients’ needs. Naylor will work with the measurement company’s sales, product and research teams, and will report directly to Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao.
“The key to Nielsen’s continued success is working closely with our clients to build the best marketing intelligence platform in the world,” Rao said in a statement. “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.”
“Nielsen’s partners represent the very best of advertising and media. I am thrilled to be in a position to support them and the markets we serve during this dynamic time in media,” Naylor said. “As a Nielsen customer for over 20 years, I will tap into my experience to help clients find even more success with Nielsen data, while also sharing partners’ needs to develop even better world class products at Nielsen.”
Prior to joining Nielsen, Naylor served as both Netflix’s first VP of global advertising sales, where he built the streamer’s first sales, research and creative services teams, as well as SVP of advertising sales at Hulu, where Naylor helped set the standard for ad-supported streaming ad models and practices.
Beyond his time at Netflix and Hulu, Naylor led sales for the Americas at Snap Inc., where he helped drive revenue by 50% during his tenure, and has also served on boards of the IAB, the IRTS and the She Runs it Foundation.
The news comes just over a month after Nielsen began rolling out its new big data plus panel measurement tool, which combines Nielsen’s existing panel with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices through the company’s partnership with big data partners like Roku, Comcast, Dish, Vizio and DirecTV.
The new system marked the next step in “future-proofing” ratings as streaming becomes more and more prevalent in the TV landscape, Rao told TheWrap in September.
