Actor Liam Neeson scores highest in Nielsen survey of celebrity endorsers

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Ad executives looking for a celebrity to endorse their product can’t do much better than actor Liam Neeson.

That’s the conclusion of the Nielsen company, which looked at celebrities who made commercials during the first three months of the year and ranked them with a calculation that takes into account likability, public awareness, influence and other factors. Its first “N-Scores” were released Tuesday. Neeson and Pierce Brosnan had identical scores of 94, although Neeson was judged to have a greater influence in getting products sold.

By looking at the effectiveness of celebrity pitchmen, the company best known for television ratings will now compete with Marketing Evaluations Inc., a company that produces the better-known Q Score, a measurement of public attitudes toward well-known figures.

Besides attaching scores to celebrity endorsers, Nielsen intends to offer marketers detailed information about the personalities and habits of people who respond well to each celebrity so they can better match pitchmen and products, said Chad Dreas, Nielsen’s managing director of media analytics.

“What do they buy? Where do they shop? What do they watch?” said Dreas, describing the details Nielsen intends to sell.

Neeson, who has been featured in an ad for Supercell Games, is viewed positively by 78 per cent of Americans who know him, Nielsen said. Brosnan and Matthew McConaughey, both featured in car commercials recently, also scored well in Nielsens’ measurement.

Jeff Bridges stood out among celebrities for the amount of influence he carried with his fans, Nielsen said.

Other celebs with recent ads that scored well in Nielsen’s measurement were Jennifer Garner, Natalie Portman, Sofia Vergara, Jim Parsons, Dennis Haysbert and J.K. Simmons.