Month: August 2023

Originally published on Nielsen Insights

For audience measurement to be accurate, it must be inclusive. And inclusive audience measurement has never been harder to achieve, or more important to get right. Nielsen’s Chief Diversity Officer Sandra Sims-Williams and Chief Product Officer Deirdre Thomas sat down to discuss DE&I’s crucial impact on audience measurement, both at Nielsen and across the media industry.

Nielsen’s brand purpose is “Powering a better media future for all people.” How does Nielsen prioritize that as a company, and what tangible impact does that have on the media industry and world at large?

Sandra Sims-Williams: When we operate in a culture that is diverse and inclusive, innovation flourishes, our clients win and employees bring the best that Nielsen can offer to the communities we measure.

The rest of the media industry is coming around to the need for greater equity—just look at the writers’ strike, the actors’ strike, the growth of women’s sports. At Cannes Lions, the big narrative was the need to drive inclusion in media, both in terms of access and representation. There is no longer a general market. We have to use creativity, innovation and technology to embrace diverse audiences and their unique experiences.

How has Nielsen evolved as a company to prioritize its commitment to data accuracy and excellence in the face of change and disruption? 

Deirdre Thomas: Everything we do is in service of delivering accurate, equitable, unbiased and reliable media measurement that works for everyone, and measures everybody, everywhere. We use big data validated by large persons-level panels to accurately and objectively track and report the viewing habits of everyone.

One of Nielsen’s core values is inclusion. How does that influence business decisions and the way the entire company operates? How is Nielsen driving real change, both internally and externally?

Sandra Sims-Williams: Measurement is key: Leaders must be held to KPIs and be accountable, and we have public 2024 DE&I goals about representation in our workforce and our sourceable spend with U.S. diverse businesses that we include in our annual ESG report. Nielsen is activating DE&I in the way only our business can. We help our clients develop a unique connection between our DE&I insights and how their business can grow by spotlighting diverse audiences, content and communities.

No one expected a global pandemic in the winter of 2019/2020. How has the company updated its products and methodologies since then to be truly resilient and representative? 

Deirdre Thomas: We’re constantly innovating to adapt to changes in consumer behavior and industry needs. We made several changes in reaction to the pandemic. The first is that we turbocharged our measurement of streaming ads and content to reflect the explosion of streaming consumption during the pandemic. We expanded our coverage — for example, enabling measurement of ads on Netflix, and measuring Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime — as well as enhanced the functionality of our streaming measurement product. We’ve also built a strong identity system and enabled advanced audience measurement across streaming, digital and linear platforms in our Nielsen ONE Ads product.

Sandra Sims-Williams: Through thought leadership we are also surfacing Nielsen’s products and solutions that measure diverse content. It’s not just how much representation is seen, the narratives that are being told is just as critical.

Nielsen is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year. Looking ahead to Nielsen’s second century in business, what changes in media industry representation do you anticipate? 

Sandra Sims-Williams: Underrepresented voices are being seen and heard. The centers of influence across advertising, entertainment and storytelling are expanding to be much more global and diverse. Media platforms are evolving so rapidly, enabling direct connections to audiences and increasing the power of creators through personal, direct influence. Authentic connection and conversations—that’s what audiences want, and that demand is growing.

Today it’s multicultural marketing; tomorrow our industry must embrace that growing demand from diverse audiences and create space for unique, diverse voices. If you don’t have a strategy to do that, you don’t have a growth strategy.

What do you think will be the next major disruption for audience representation and data accuracy?

Deirdre Thomas: Privacy will continue to be of the utmost importance to consumers and thus to agencies, advertisers, publishers and measurement providers. This disruption is already well underway but absolutely will continue, and the whole industry will need to adapt to consumer preferences and privacy legislation. While people are excited about all the content that’s now accessible at their fingertips, they are also increasingly wary about exchanging their personal data for that content. At Nielsen, privacy has always been and will always be at the center of our business. When we are entrusted with audience data— whether through our panels or our clients’ first-party data—we tightly safeguard personally identifiable information. Our clean room strategy, identity system, and deep relationships with our panelists are critical elements of our privacy strategy and key enablers of our ability to measure ALL people accurately in a privacy-first world.

To learn more about Nielsen’s diversity, equity and inclusion commitments, along with other ways we work to operate responsibly and sustainably, read our 2023 ESG report.

Just as we keep our consumer customers at the center, the same level of attention and priority is given to our business clients. Fifth Third’s Treasury Management business, for example, offers solutions that help clients manage their cash flow to efficiently collect and disburse payments, manage liquidity and mitigate risk.

Payable solutions such as Expert AP help our clients control their payments and improve access to payment information. Expert AP is an innovative, full-service business-to-business payables solution. It covers 100% of clients’ domestic payables and optimizes the payment mix. It helps Accounts Payable departments run more efficiently and impacts their bottom line. Our clients’ suppliers also benefit with additional payment and enhanced data options.

Receivables solutions help our clients receive funds more efficiently, gain better insight into their cash position and make informed investing and borrowing decisions. Solutions such as Expert AR Receivables Matching, Expert AR Statement Production, Real-Time Payments and Cash Logistics create operational backroom efficiencies that enable clients to focus on projects that power business performance.

Fifth Third also offers liquidity management solutions that help clients channel their balances into investment income and improve cash position forecasting; information management tools that put comprehensive reporting in our clients’ hands so they have the data they need when they want it; and risk management solutions that provide fraud mitigation tools that help safeguard clients’ financial information from fraud.

Fifth Third’s Embedded Payments business, within the Treasury Management group, enables payment capabilities to be placed directly at the point of need to power our clients’ products. We help our clients deliver value to their customers by natively integrating payment functionality into their software and digital experience. Our Embedded Payment solutions help our clients build robust and scalable offerings and experiences for their customers. In addition, our Embedded Payments team helps facilitate the flow of electronic or digital commerce with our card and merchant services offerings. This includes:

Credit and debit card issuance.Merchant acquiring services.Digital experiences to adopt new payment technologies (application programming interfaces or APIs).API-based payment and information reporting integrations for digital/ software experiences (real-time payments, etc.).

For more information about Fifth Third’s innovative and inclusive products for consumers and business clients, read the full 2022 Sustainability Report.

Originally published on U.S. Bank company blog

When Jimmy Woodley started cleaning buildings in 1969, he started out of the trunk of his car. In the more than 50 years since, his business – Woodley Building Maintenance (WBM) in Kansas City, Missouri – has grown into a family legacy that continues with his children, Tiffany and Terry, and his wife, Robery.

“My dad’s first sizeable contract was cleaning an office complex in Lee’s Summit after his previous job went on strike,” said Tiffany Woodley, the chief financial officer at WBM who joined in the family business at age 27. “He didn’t have the financing to do the work in Lee’s Summit, so he got a loan from his old boss and the business grew from there.”

Yet, as the business kept growing, Jimmy’s former manager told him he needed something else on his side: a bank. That’s where Mercantile Bank, which was eventually acquired by U.S. Bank, came in.

“The banking relationship is something you talk with other business owners about,” said Tiffany Woodley. “I’ve always enthusiastically shared my experience with U.S. Bank because, even if it is a large bank, there is a small bank personality. When something does happen, I can always reach out to people and that’s one of the main reasons I haven’t entertained making any kind of change.”

The oldest accounts at U.S. Bank with the WBM date back to 1977, with the partnership lasting through some of the most challenging times in recent memory. That includes during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Woodleys worked with U.S. Bank to apply for and receive a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was launched to help business owners keep their employees.

WBM is owned and operated by Tiffany Woodley; her brother and WBM’s president and chief operating officer, Terry Woodley; and her mother, Robery Woodley. It’s a successful business that is steeped in history that all started with Jimmy, Terry Woodley said.

“The banking relationship is something you talk with other business owners about. I’ve always enthusiastically shared my experience with U.S. Bank because, even if it is a large bank, there is a small bank personality.”

– Tiffany Woodley

“When Tiffany and I joined the company, it was already a good size to support our parents,” said Terry Woodley, who joined the business when he was 30. “Since then, we’ve been able to grow and also create a joint venture with another building maintenance company that was the brainchild of my father and his good friend, Skip Marsden.”

While Marsden passed before the launch of that joint venture – which is known today as Tier One Property Services – and Jimmy Woodley passed not long after, Terry and Tiffany have seen it grow from idea to a multi-state, multi-million-dollar commercial janitorial, building maintenance and specialty property services business.

“It was their trust in one another that led us to where we are today with Tier One,” said Terry, who noted that WBM is a majority stakeholder in Tier One Property Services.

Looking back over the decades and generations, the relationship between the Woodleys and U.S. Bank runs deep.

“The entrepreneurial spirit and growth mindset that started with Jimmy lives on in Tiffany and Terry,” said Jack Golden, a business banking relationship manager at U.S. Bank. “It’s an honor to support them as they continue to grow Woodley Building Maintenance and strategically plan for the future of their business.”

Today, succession planning is top of mind for the Woodleys and they are working with Golden to outline possible paths forward as they think about the legacy of their company.

“The third generation are my kids, and my kids have other interests,” said Terry Woodley. “One is studying cyber security and the other is working towards becoming a chiropractor, so we want to see what options are out there for the business down the line.”

When looking back during their 50-year anniversary as Woodley Maintenance Company in 2019, Terry Woodley said, “it is humbling to take a step back and reflect on our history and the journey that led us to where we are today. It is a notable accomplishment for our customers, our team, our partners, and our family.”