The Nielsen Company is the Official Market Research Services provider to the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

We are a Tier Three provider and were the 20th domestic commercial sponsor announced.

Nielsen works in collaboration with The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) in the UK. Specifically, we provide research and insight services to the London 2012 marketing team, including developing a market research strategy, undertaking tracking studies and organising online panels and surveys.

London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe welcomed the appointment: "This is more fantastic news for the project, as we've signed yet another market leading company to the commercial programme. The Nielsen Company will assist us in the decision making process by testing our ideas in the market place. One of our challenges – and opportunities – is connecting with young people. Nielsen will help us do this and will, I'm sure, prove to be a huge asset to our marketing push."

"Nielsen is pleased to partner with LOCOG in support of London 2012. The Olympic values are shared by Nielsen’s employees, and we look forward to providing critical consumer and media insights that will deliver an Olympic and Paralympic Games experience that London and the UK can be proud of," said Susan Whiting, Vice Chair, The Nielsen Company.

Examples of how Nielsen is providing intelligence to LOCOG:

"We used Nielsen to help us research the price elasticity of demand for tickets – how wide we can range the ticket prices in a way that will be acceptable to the public. Getting that right was something where having evidence to help us with our assumptions was very important."

"Nielsen really helped us by defining what the propensity of the British public was to volunteer so we could define exactly the right number [of Games Maker volunteers] to have. We got just the right answer by calibrating how we position its appeal."

-Paul Deighton, CEO of LOCOG