Nielsen Acquires Game Measurement Firm; Branch Acquires Tune

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Grandpa’s Got Game

Nielsen has acquired gaming intelligence firm SuperData Research to better track user engagement with video games and esports, VentureBeat reports. SuperData tracks the behavior of 160 million gamers and extrapolates that out to the US population. As gaming and esports become more popular – just look at Amazon’s plan to make Twitch a $1 billion ad business – Nielsen needs insight into a huge chunk of consumer media behavior. “We recognize the growing importance of the digital gaming ecosystem,” said Chris Morley, who heads up games and esports at Nielsen. But Nielsen will have to compete with The NPD Group, which has been measuring game sales since the 1990s and gets data directly from video game publishers as opposed to tracking consumer behaviors. More.

An Olive Branch

Branch, a four-year-old mobile deep-linking and attribution startup, is acquiring Tune’s mobile attribution business, Ad Age reports. It’s a useful pairing, since Branch only recently pivoted into attribution and needs a developed product and Tune’s mobile measurement has been damaged goods since Facebook revoked its measurement status in 2014 for allegedly holding on to data too long. In February, Branch became the first new company added to Facebook’s mobile measurement partner program since 2013 [AdExchanger has more on that]. “Given the current environment surrounding data privacy, it was a longshot at best for Tune to regain its partner status. That may have encouraged its sale,” reports George Slefo. More.