25 YEARS OF AIM TV THROWBACK: Our fight with Nielsen Media Research
AIM TV didn’t just survive; it thrived for 25 years by engaging in significant battles. One of the earliest lessons I learned as a small independent player working with large corporations is that our size must become our strength. As an independent, I could tackle challenges that larger, more bureaucratic organizations with more to lose were unable or unwilling to confront.
Nielsen Media serves as the currency of television, even more so in the past when it held a virtual monopoly on TV audience estimates. Nielsen’s estimates were derived from sampling a small group of viewers that represented the viewing habits of the entire nation.
Smaller sample sizes result in less accurate estimates.
In the Latino-targeted TV space, the U.S. Hispanic audience was especially susceptible to fluctuations and inaccuracies due to Nielsen’s misunderstandings and limited sample sizes. This preference for Spanish-language TV virtually ensured that few English-language networks or outlets recognized the need for English-language content that included second and third-generation Latinos (the majority of U.S. Latinos). The few roles that were featured often relied on stereotypes, depicting characters such as drug dealers, gang members, gardeners, and maids.
Young Latinos were justifiably frustrated and our shows American Latino TV and LatiNation, though successful, were being held back from their full potential.
After trying to dialogue with Nielsen to encourage them to correct their sample (something that should be in their best interest—after all, they claimed to be the arbiters of accurate data) and being dismissed or even misled, we reluctantly chose to take on this multi-billion dollar behemoth.
I was fearful of the consequences and their lawyers. There was no way we could afford to fight them in court. After our lawyer and friend, Ted Hammerman, signed off on the creative and told me to “steel myself” for blowback, we launched a B2B (Business to Business) trade marketing campaign called “Change the Sample,” which later morphed into a B2C (Business to Consumer) campaign called “Help Change TV” that encouraged people to sign a petition. Tens of thousands did, and the campaign went viral before that word even existed.
We ultimately received coverage in major national outlets like CNBC and the New York Times, as well as international publications such as the Toronto Globe and Mail. However, launching the campaign was one of the scariest moments of my career.
In the end, it opened my eyes and cemented my disgust for corporations, where people seemed to believe it was acceptable to engage in immoral actions they would likely never consider in their personal lives. They misled and lied, attempted to assassinate my character, and tried to intimidate me, but that only strengthened our resolve. My team supported me, and I greatly appreciated it. Many of them appear in this video.
After media interviews, press conferences, and guerrilla marketing at trade events with Nielsen screaming “no mas,” I am not sure that our David vs. Goliath story instigated any real change in the industry other than raising awareness of Nielsen’s shortcomings and the untapped power of the Latino market. Still, it taught me a valuable lesson… if not me, who? If not now, when? Fighting for what’s right is worth the risk, regardless of your opponent’s size.
I still don’t particularly enjoy fighting (okay, maybe just a little), but I will if necessary, and you should too.
Here’s the first salvo we launched in our campaign against Nielsen, around 2005 or 2006.
PS Shortly after this skirmish with Nielsen, I fell in love with punk rock. Coincidence?
