How do you compare broadcast apples and digital oranges?

AC Nielsen’s acquisition of IAG Research for $225m may suggest that a lot of people are asking the same question.

There are 14,000 ‘Nielsen families’ across the USA — the source of those pesky ratings that agencies, clients and broadcasters bicker over. What if the Nielsen’s can go digital? Could their viewing habits and web activities be linked at last?

The jury will be out for some time, until the first co-ordinated data bears fruit. If it is an or-pple, a combo of digital and broadcast ratings, the likes of Coke and Fed-Ex will have another stick to beat media owners.

For now, if you run a smaller business, take comfort form the fact that if you do your own marketing measurement based on actual responses, it appears there’s one area where you are ahead of the big boys.