Nielsen, Headset and Deloitte announce a strategic alliance to provide data & insights to legal cannabis market in Canada

Toronto, March 12, 2019 – Today Nielsen, Headset and Deloitte announced a strategic alliance that will provide key stakeholders in the cannabis space with critical market insights to understand federally regulated cannabis consumption and sales in Canada. The alliance will bring various data-driven offerings to the market, which will allow businesses in the cannabis industry to make informed decisions for their business and customers.

The alliance members bring together data and insights that will provide real-time market intelligence for the cannabis industry and allow clients to monitor the competitive landscape, identify opportunities and stay ahead of industry trends as never before. In addition, clients will be able to easily explore pricing, category, segment, shopper insights, and brand trends to help discover opportunities in the marketplace to drive success in the evolving legal cannabis market.

“Our clients—from life science and retail, to financial institutions and government—are all looking for the same thing: information to drive action and growth,” says Jennifer Lee, Deloitte Canada partner, who leads both the Consumer Advisory and Analytics Practice, and the Cannabis sector for the firm in Canada and globally. “We want to see our clients succeed, which is why this alliance is so important. With this strategic alliance, we are bringing together the top organizations in the consumer and cannabis space, because we know that insight-driven organizations are more successful. When Canadian businesses succeed—from cannabis entrepreneurs to our largest clients—our country succeeds.”

With Canada becoming the first G7 country globally to legalize recreational cannabis, an entirely new industry has opened up bringing opportunity, innovation and entrepreneurship; as well as, some unknowns. With this alliance, actionable data insights from consumers and retail outlets will provide a competitive advantage to clients looking to understand the cannabis market to ensure they are executing fundamentals as effectively as those in traditional fast-moving consumer goods categories.

“As the cannabis industry heats up in Canada it is critical that organizations leverage data to drive informed decisions in this fast-moving and rapidly developing space”, says Cy Scott, CEO, Headset. “With this strategic alliance we are able to provide clients with unprecedented access to insights that facilitate their success in this new market that is rich with opportunity.”

“With cannabis legal across Canada, it is imperative that those involved in the industry and those looking to join have real-time market intelligence available for the cannabis industry,” says Mike Ljubicic, Managing Director, Nielsen Canada. “This strategic alliance, along with our full suite of complementary cannabis tools, will help our retail and manufacturing clients and those looking to enter the market, to monitor the evolution of legal cannabis in Canada. Understanding the cannabis space is important to mitigate threats and identify future opportunities, as it will impact categories across the FMCG landscape.”

About Deloitte
Deloitte provides audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. Deloitte serves four out of five Fortune Global 500® companies through a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories bringing world-class capabilities, insights and service to address clients’ most complex business challenges. To learn more about how Deloitte’s approximately 264,000 professionals—9,400 of whom are based in Canada—make an impact that matters, please connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

Deloitte LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership, is the Canadian member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.

About Headset
Headset is the leading cannabis data and analytics provider, turning retail data into real-time market insights. Identify opportunities in the emerging cannabis market by discovering the segments, brands, and products that are resonating with consumers, and/or understand market trends to better recognize and mitigate potential threats to your existing business. Powered by real-time transaction data from retailer POS systems along with a proprietary product catalog and dictionary, Headset provides an unprecedented view into this emerging market. For additional information, please visit www.headset.io

About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.