Nielsen has released a new reporting service that combines audience measurement for online and mobile called TotalWeb. The service, which is operated by the Nielsen Online unit, claims to show the unduplicated, unique audience for more than 200 major websites across the PC and mobile space, something badly needed as the two mediums converge. Back in October, Nielsen began including TV viewing on consumers’ computers along with its main TV ratings panel. All these combos are part of Nielsen’s ultimate goal of being able to offer all media audience measurement seamlessly as part of an ambitious initiative called A2/M2 (Anytime/Anywhere), which is still being tested.

TotalWeb’s first report suggests that for a number of web publishers, mobile internet increases the total size of their audience by 13 percent over PC alone. The data is collected via Nielsen Online’s MegaPanel, which the company describes as a metered internet panel.

The report also measured which categories saw the greatest traffic lift when a mobile audience is factored in:

-- weather and entertainment each raised a site’s audience by 22 percent when the PC web and mobile web are joined;
-- games and music, 15 percent lift;
-- e-mail’s reach increased 11 percent;
-- sports’ average increased 10 percent, followed by business/finance at 4 percent. 
Release

-- Nielsen Online launches brand strategy consultancy: In addition to offering new ways of sorting its metrics, Nielsen Online has created a consultancy unit that will advise marketers on tapping into user-gen and managing their online reputations. The new Digital Strategic Services group will be headed by Nielsen EVP Pete Blackshaw, who helped found the company’s Buzzmetrics, which Nielsen purchased in full last May. Release (PDF)

• Nielsen Acquires Media Measurement Firm IAG Research For $225 Million
• Nielsen Buys iTV And VOD Analytics Firm Audience Analytics
• Nielsen TV Panels To Include Online Shows; A ‘First Step’ To Measuring All Video Watching