The Nielsen Company-McKinsey social media JV enters India

The social media firm, named NM Incite, will offer social media monitoring and consultancy services to advertisers

Research firms, The Nielsen Company and McKinsey have formally announced the launch of their global joint venture, named NM Incite, in India. The company was soft-launched in July in the country.

Speaking to afaqs!, Karthik Nagarajan, director, online division, The Nielsen Company, explains, "NM Incite will offer social media monitoring and advisory services to clients. To begin with, it will target clients, who are looking forward to using social media for online reputation management, gathering consumer feedback and market research."

However, the firm does not plan to execute and manage social media marketing campaigns for advertisers.

Nagarajan adds, "NM Incite will target its services to both advertisers and digital agencies and will use Buzz Metrics, the social media monitoring tool owned by The Nielsen Company, for analysing the social media space."

"We evolve our consulting methods based on our client requirements. Social media is increasingly becoming too powerful a marketing tool to ignore any more. This joint venture will help us in delivering to our clients the key to unlock the potential of social media," says Sahana Sarma, head, sales and marketing practice, McKinsey & Company, India.

"Social media in India is where search used to be three to four years back; and brands who take early positions will definitely stand to gain. Only 8 per cent of social media users in India have not read a product review in the last 12 months; and 77 per cent have visited a product website after reading a review on a social media site. This gives an idea of how extensively the Indian user is interacting with brands online," Piyush Mathur, president, India, The Nielsen Company, mentions in an official communiqué.