In view of the multi-faceted offerings within the company family—including Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), Nielsen Entertainment Marketing Solutions (EMS), Nielsen Sound-, Video- and BookScan—Andrew Wing, president and CEO of Nielsen Entertainment, set the mandate. 'The emphasis on supporting our partnerships with distribution and exhibition has never been greater, and that need is expanding to markets around the world. [There is] a unique opportunity to take Nielsen EDI to the next level, and to work...across Nielsen Entertainment and the rest of VNU to leverage the company's information assets to deliver greater insights to our clients.'
'We reached a new generation within the company,' Borys agrees. 'Working from the great foundations that these services represent, we are now capable to create a coherent picture of the marketplace. We are preparing to combine complementary services into even more useful tools.' One of the practical ways is 'co-locating all divisions under one roof. It's more than a symbolic gesture. We're coming together to work together—with the vision of serving our clients better. By covering the entire life cycle of a motion picture across all distribution channels, we can create the real story of its performance.' Starting with the Nielsen Research Group (NRG) to test campaign materials and track consumer awareness, along with capturing the theatrical performance with EDI, to following its afterlife through Nielsen VideoScan, Borys and his colleagues are surely onto something.
As the new recruit, Tonya Bates plans on 'growing the business further through product innovation and by enhancing Nielsen EDI's existing services.' Reflecting upon her previous position at Nielsen VideoScan, Bates notes, 'Video is not the competition but definitely an adjunct to the business that further extends the life of a motion picture. It's totally complementary.' A self-proclaimed 'real film buff," Bates says she "couldn't begin to pick a favorite film. Obviously, every year there are incredibly good movies to see and I just like to go.' Mixing business with pleasure always makes for a great job, but Bates enjoys something else as well. 'The film industry moves much faster in terms of data collection. There is an immediate need for instant feedback, which makes it very exciting. The importance of having information ready and getting it out quickly drives everything. The retail environment of home entertainment takes much longer. There is nothing quite like looking at matinee grosses daily and analyzing weekend figures as early as Monday.'
'We work with a very efficient combination of calling and electronic capture,' Bates explains. 'We do what's best, the most efficient and accurate way at any given time. From our clients' perspective it doesn't matter how we obtained the data, as long as they receive what they want and when they need to. Wireless delivery, for instance, is one of our newer and definitely convenient applications. Of course, the wealth of our information is also accessible via the Internet from anywhere, anytime. At Nielsen EDI, all box-office data is continually updated. Again, that's different from retail, where other point-of-sale collection services work with aggregation points.'
It requires a tight organizational structure to collect data from approximately 50,000 movie screens in 14 markets worldwide, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, Spain, France, Mexico, Argentina and Australia. 'Geographic expansion is an important part of our strategy,' confirms Borys, 'but we would not want to single out any markets yet.' Moving towards closer release dates between the United States and the rest of the world has not caused any operational problems. 'Honestly,' Borys replies, 'it has been more of an opportunity for us. The entire Nielsen EDI system is engineered to provide a global one-stop reporting solution. You can go to one place in search of reliable information as films open from one territory to the next. This is where the global web-based delivery system has taken root. Thanks to BOFFO, our clients have convenient access to comparative information.' With data available all the way from 1993, the Box Office Flash Figures Online service facilitates the analysis of real-time film performance on a nationwide, regional, local or theatre level. 'In the case of Latin America,' Borys illustrates, 'territory managers can review every country from Mexico to Chile. In Europe, they look from Austria right across to the United Kingdom.' In addition to capturing amounts in local currencies, Nielsen EDI tracks attendance numbers and tickets sold for all countries abroad. Despite the inherent advantages of inflation-free comparisons, Borys assesses, 'traditionally the U.S. has been a very cash-oriented business. All decisions from billings to settlement are based on dollar grosses.
'As we continued its development over the past year," Borys reflects, "FilmSource truly evolved into a distillation of information in all its depth available. The innovative online interface really mines Nielsen EDI's databases and brings together the past, the present and the future. All of our box-office performance data and talent credit information—more than 150,000 different credits, 30,000-plus film titles—are combined into an unmatched analytical tool with incredibly detailed historical information from around the world.' By way of example, Nielsen EDI's customers can ask detailed questions like, 'Show me the highest-grossing May films with a given rating in Spain during the last five years. We can do box-office filmographies of Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan that result in one-click updates on the performance of their films across different territories.' To top it all, a custom filtering tool pulls together every single one of about 100 different data points in the system. The backbone is a finely tuned, centralized server system 'that took years to perfect.' Borys enthuses, 'It's a real art to standardize so many procedures within one single platform that can be utilized efficiently and contains the same information as you move from country to country.'
In Amsterdam, Nielsen EDI will once again harvest the fruit of its collective labor. At press time, 23 films qualified for the third annual Golden Reel Awards, with an international box office of more than 100 million dollars. 'Sometimes it looks like it has become easier to make a hit,' Borys muses. 'These blockbusters are the foundation that keep filmgoers coming back again and again, but we have become somewhat blas about such success. I completely disagree. The competition is ever as tough when it comes to marketing and releasing a hit feature. I estimate that about five percent of all releases reach the $100 million milestone. To be able to honor this many films is simply amazing. Competition and choice, in combination with the increased sophistication of filmgoers, are continually raising standards.' We can all agree with him in thanking 'studios and filmmakers for continuing to deliver such great films.'
