The Nielsen Company and Nicholas Hall & Company agree new strategic partnership for OTC Services
- Deal will enhance global reporting capabilities and enable business development opportunities for both partners

December 4, 2009 - The Nielsen Company today announced that it had agreed the terms of a new strategic partnership with Nicholas Hall & Company (NHC), a specialist OTC consultancy and a leading provider of business intelligence and market analysis to the consumer healthcare industry worldwide for more than 30 years.

The partnership between the two companies allows for data sharing, exchange of knowledge and intellectual property, and creates a framework for development of new services that will bring significant value to manufacturers in this sector.

Over-the-counter medicines (OTC) is a key strategic growth area for Nielsen, and a sector where clients are looking for a full range of capabilities, from global strategic business analysis to local level tactical insight on consumer purchasing and behaviour. The partnership will leverage the strengths of both Nielsen and NHC to ensure client needs are met through enhanced data sets and more focused insight.

Pat Dodd, President, Nielsen Europe, said: “The OTC sector is catching up with other sectors in consolidation and globalization and Nielsen needs to be in a position to respond with global insights. Partnering with NHC, a world-renowned, focused OTC consultancy with global expertise, is an ideal way to support the business we have with clients in this sector”.

An immediate focus for product development will be an upgrade to Nicholas Hall & Company’s global OTC database, DB6. Nielsen will provide market level sales data to NHC across multiple geographies and these inputs will contribute to enhancing the DB6 dataset. Over time, DB6 will be further enhanced through additional data content and reporting.

Nicholas Hall, Chairman & CEO of Nicholas Hall & Company, said: “Nielsen is the gold standard in retail measurement and we are delighted to partner with them. Taking Nielsen retail measurement data into DB6 will ensure we deliver the highest quality measurement of global OTC sales and will better inform our strategic insights for our multinational clients.”