Leslie Wood Takes Top Research Spot at Nielsen Catalina

US joint venture company Nielsen Catalina Solutions has appointed advertising analytics veteran Leslie Wood for the newly created position of Chief Research Officer, based near New York and reporting to CEO Mike Nazzaro.

Formed in 2009 as a joint venture between Nielsen and Catalina Marketing Corporation, the firm helps clients link marketing exposure with purchasing behavior. Last month it partnered with mobile advertising network 4INFO to link its purchase data from 60 million shopper households, with mobile viewing data from 70 million unique users tracked by 4INFO's AdHaven platform.

Wood joins with more than 30 years' experience of single-source methodologies, gained during her involvement with SymphonyIRI's BehaviorScan service, Arbitron's ScanAmerica and Arbitron and Nielsen's Project Apollo scheme.

For the past thirteen years, she has run her own media research consultancy LWR/Media Trust, prior to which she was a Partner in A-to-S Link, where she developed the AdImpact measure. Prior to this, she was the SVP Director of Media Research at Ted Bates and Backer Spielvogel Bates for most of the '80s.

In 2001, Wood created The Fusion Lab, a consortium of eight companies - including Nielsen, MRI, Arbitron, Initiative, Mediacom, RJ Palmer, IMS and CBS - brought together to investigate and explore the concept of fusion between TV and product purchasing/usage data.

Nazzaro says that Wood's appointment reflects the expanding demand for the firm's multi-platform 'watch-and-buy' services.

'Leslie is an expert not only of single-source analytics, but also of reach-and-frequency research, optimizers, data integration and return-path data,' he states. 'All of this feeds Leslie's passion for building support tools for the advertising industry.'

Web site: www.ncsolutions.com .