Nielsen launches CMI Journey in New Zealand, revealing what drives consumer decisions and the media that influence them

New path-to-purchase research solution connects 30 consumer categories and more than 50 media touchpoints, giving advertisers, agencies and media owners deeper insights into how New Zealanders make purchasing decisions

Auckland, New Zealand, November 3, 2026 - Nielsen has announced the launch of CMI Journey in New Zealand, a new path-to-purchase research solution designed to help advertisers, agencies and media owners understand how consumer decisions are formed, influenced and ultimately converted into purchases.

Building on Nielsen's established Consumer & Media Insights (CMI) offering, CMI Journey goes beyond traditional audience profiles to reveal what motivates consumers, which factors influence their choices, where barriers emerge and how different media channels contribute to decisions before, during and after purchase.

Covering 30 New Zealand consumer categories and more than 50 media touchpoints across paid, earned and owned media, the new solution is designed around a robust research sample of New Zealand consumers. It connects category perceptions, purchase triggers, evaluation criteria, conversion drivers and post-purchase advocacy into one unified evidence base.

The result is a more complete picture of the consumer journey, helping businesses understand not just who their customers are, but why they make decisions, what influences them and when communications can have the greatest impact.

Lucas Carreras, Nielsen's Executive Commercial Director, Pacific, said: CMI Journey represents an important evolution in how the advertising industry can connect audience intelligence with commercial outcomes.

Knowing who your customers are is only part of the picture. The real opportunity lies in understanding what drives their decisions, the moments that influence their choices and the role media plays along the way.

CMI Journey brings these insights together in a way that gives advertisers, agencies and media owners a much deeper understanding of the path to purchase. By connecting consumer motivations, behaviours and media engagement across 30 categories, we're helping the industry move beyond audience reach to understand the moments that matter in influencing consumer decisions.

Unlike research focused primarily on the point of purchase, CMI Journey examines five interconnected phases of consumer decision-making:

Understanding existing category experiences, perceptions, behaviours and brand associations before active consideration begins.

Identifying the needs, emotions, life events and triggers that prompt consumers to consider a purchase.

Revealing how consumers research, compare options, seek recommendations and build confidence in their decisions.

Understanding the factors that convert consideration into action, including price, availability, convenience and purchase barriers.

Exploring post-purchase experiences, satisfaction, loyalty, recommendations and advocacy.

Across these phases, CMI Journey examines more than 50 media touchpoints, spanning television, radio, streaming, online video, search, social media, out-of-home, retail environments, recommendations and other consumer interactions such as the role of word of mouth and consumer opinion sites.

This connected view helps identify the different roles media channels play throughout the purchase journey, from creating awareness and inspiring consideration to building trust, influencing selection and supporting conversion.

For media owners, CMI Journey provides evidence of where, when and how their channels contribute to consumer decision-making across different categories. This creates opportunities to demonstrate media value beyond audience size and reach, strengthen advertising propositions and build more compelling, evidence-based conversations with advertisers.

For advertisers, the solution provides category-specific intelligence on the motivations, triggers, evaluation criteria and barriers shaping consumer behaviour. By identifying where consumers progress, hesitate or abandon their journey, brands can uncover opportunities to refine communications, address customer experience gaps and support conversion and loyalty.

For agencies, CMI Journey provides a shared evidence base for strategic planning, client briefs, channel selection and campaign development. Category-specific journey insights and consistent planning frameworks can also help pitch teams build sharper proposals, support recommendations with evidence and develop compelling client narratives more efficiently.

Helene Maurer, Nielsen's Commercial Director, NZ added: CMI Journey addresses a critical challenge facing New Zealand's advertising and media industry.

Every category has its own path to purchase, and consumers don't make decisions in a straight line. Someone choosing an insurance provider will have very different motivations, information needs and media interactions compared with someone buying a car, planning a holiday or choosing where to eat.

CMI Journey gives us the ability to understand those differences in much greater detail. For media owners, it's about demonstrating where their channels genuinely influence decisions. For advertisers, it's about identifying the triggers and barriers that shape purchasing behaviour. And for agencies, it's about turning those insights into sharper strategies, stronger briefs and more persuasive pitches.

Ultimately, this is about giving the New Zealand market a much clearer understanding of how consumers make decisions, and how communications can play a meaningful role at every stage.

CMI Journey builds on Nielsen's established CMI research capabilities by adding a dedicated layer of path-to-purchase intelligence.

While Nielsen CMI provides comprehensive insights into consumers' demographics, lifestyles, attitudes, behaviours and media consump

LINK:	https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2026/nielsen-launches-cmi-journey-...
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