Nielsen Announces 05 U.S. Breakrough Innovation Award Winners

PepsiCo, Kraft, L'Oreal, MillerCoors, Procter & Gamble and Nestle Purina Among Those Recognized

New York, NY - May 5, 2015 - Nielsen announced 12 U.S. Breakthrough Innovation Winners for 2015:

Advanced Haircare, L'Oreal Paris

Atkins Frozen Meals, Atkins Nutritionals

Duracell Quantum, Procter & Gamble

Lunchables Uploaded, Kraft Foods

Monster Energy Ultra, Monster Energy Co.

Mountain Dew Kickstart, PepsiCo

M ller Yogurt, Muller Quaker Dairy (PepsiCo)

Redd's Apple Ale, MillerCoors

Special K Flatbread Breakfast Sandwiches, Kellogg's

The Red Bull Editions, Red Bull

Tidy Cats LightWeight, Nestl Purina

TOSTITOS Cantina Tortilla Chips and Salsa, Frito-Lay (a Division of PepsiCo)

Breakthrough Innovation winners identify opportunities in consumers' lives and fulfil unmet desires, according to Rob Wengel, Senior Vice President, Innovation, Nielsen. Today, consistently successful innovation is not a pipedream but a choice available to creative leaders. We uncovered the science of creating breakthrough innovations and winning in this dynamic and highly competitive market.

Creating game-changing innovation is challenging, and turning it into enduring sales is even harder. The Breakthrough Innovation Project and Award celebrates this exceptional triumph by companies that are changing category dynamics, not just conforming to them. Nielsen studied 3,522 consumer products that were introduced to the market in 2013 and determined which products had truly broken through in their categories that were sustained two years later. This year's Breakthrough Innovation Project identified only 12 that met the Nielsen requirements for distinctiveness, relevance and endurance to earn the top spot. The comprehensive Breakthrough Innovation Report, with case studies for selected winners that detail their approach and how they applied the science of innovation successfully, will be launched June 22-24th 2015 at Nielsen's U.S. Consumer 360 event in Washington, D.C.

One of the most exciting discoveries of the Breakthrough Innovation Project is to reveal and validate the causal mechanisms of innovation success; the science of innovation, says Taddy Hall, Senior Vice President, Breakthrough Innovation Project, Nielsen. The same fundamental factors persist through all of Nielsen's Breakthrough Winners and distinguishes them from their less successful peers.

About the Breakthrough Innovation Award, Report and Project The U.S. Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation Project is a long term in-depth analysis of more than 20,000 product launches over 6 years. Since its inception in 2008, the project has celebrated 74 top products, representing less than 0.5% of new product launches. The findings and winner spotlights are featured in the Breakthrough Innovation Report which is published yearly and launched at Nielsen's U.S. Consumer 360 event in June.

Champions in the report must satisfy three requirements in order to qualify for the award. Each product is required to be distinctive and deliver a new value proposition to the market. Succeeding products must have significant relevance by generating a minimum of $50 million in year one U.S. sales. The ability to endure the market demonstrated by achieving in year two at least 90% of year one sales is the final condition for all companies vying for a winning place.

About Nielsen Nielsen N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers Watch and Buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services across all devices where content - video, audio and text - is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90 percent of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

Contact Meg Chari, 917-454-8201, meg.chari@nielsen.com

LINK:	http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2015/nielsen-announces-2015-us...
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