TNS buys Sorensen to step up in-store media measurement efforts

Media Buyer Planner notes that market information specialist TNS has purchased Sorensen Associates, the makers of PathTracker, video analysis software and other low- and high-tech solutions for retail media tracking and efficacy studies.

The combined company should be able to give the recently-created Nielsen In-Store a run for its money, and it certainly looks like the retail media measurement market will continue to be a hot segment through 2007. Part of the excitement comes from the In-Store Marketing Institute's PRISM measurement initiative, the first data from which we should be seeing shortly.

Since measurement is always the subject of great debate, multiple large companies have the opportunity to establish themselves as mindshare leaders, so TNS's acquisition of widely-respected Sorensen makes a lot of sense. Given that more established players means more ways to determine the efficacy of any one of the players, I certainly hope that the newly combined TNS/Sorensen can give VNU's Nielsen In-Store a run for its money.

Tags: Sorensen Associates, retail media, in-store media, TNS