CHICAGO, September 30, 2026 – NIQ (NYSE: NIQ), a leading consumer intelligence company, today announced the expansion of its relationship with Google through the integration of Meridian, Google’s open-source MMM framework, into NIQ Cadence™, NIQ’s AI-native marketing effectiveness operating system. The strategic partnership gives marketers a single place to measure marketing performance and act on it, shortening the distance between insights and optimization.

Marketing leaders are under growing pressure to prove the return on every media dollar, and traditional measurement has struggled to keep pace. In NIQ’s latest CMO Report, 74% of CMOs said they were under more scrutiny to prove marketing ROI, while just 9% felt they had adequate access to real-time insights. NIQ Cadence™ was built to help close the 65-point actionability gap between accountability and timeliness. Rather than treating measurement as a one-time event, the integration brings Meridian into NIQ Cadence™, a unified platform which brings data, models, and scenario planning together so marketers can measure marketing performance and act on optimizations in real-time.

Integrating Meridian into that loop means the transparent, open-source modeling that organizations already trust now sits alongside the data that feeds it and the decisions that follow. NIQ’s proprietary global data and a marketer’s own inputs flow into the Meridian model, the model runs inside NIQ Cadence™, and the results move straight into scenario planning, optimization, and ongoing performance monitoring.

“Marketing leaders have told us they don’t need another standalone model. They need a faster path from insight to action,” said Jason Tate, General Manager, Marketing Effectiveness at NIQ. “By bringing Meridian into NIQ Cadence™, we’re helping teams expedite data preparation, accelerate modeling cycles, and keep marketing measurement connected to the business decisions it should drive. All of which is dynamically updated through automated APIs, helping marketers get insights faster and more consistently.”

Key benefits include: 

• Faster model development through streamlined data connectivity and reduced manual preparation 
• Faster decision-making across media investment opportunities  
• Continuous performance monitoring to keep MMM results fresh  
• Scenario planning and optimization within the same environment  
• Greater transparency through Google’s open-source Meridian methodology   

NIQ has been a certified Meridian partner since 2025 and has a deep expertise helping brands implement MMM programs using Google’s framework. The integration into NIQ Cadence™ represents the next phase of that relationship, extending Meridian from a measurement methodology into an ongoing marketing effectiveness workflow.