1911-2001

The woman who first combined breakfast cereal with breakfast radio, Gwen Nelson, has died at 89.

Gwen, a pioneer in market research and one of Australiaﾒs early female executives, joined J. Walter Thompson agency in 1938 after spending her early years caring for her aged and sick parents.

With Bill McNair and poet Judith Wright she set up the first research group. Her first success was with Kelloggﾒs, which accepted her then revolutionary idea of advertising breakfast cereal on commercial radio.

During World War II she worked with the Manpower Directorate recruiting women for the war effort before, in 1943, undertaking the first full-scale radio audience research in Australian on behalf of 2GB.

Subsequently, she worked on syndicated radio research for three stations in Melbourne which led to the formation with McNair of the McNair Survey Group. Together they pioneered the personal interview approach in which trained interviewers went door-to-door.

Gwen then helped introduce TV ratings when television began in Australia in 1956. While she retired from market research in this year, Gwen spent the past 20 years as a committed and active volunteer for many womenﾒs affairs and aged care organisations.

Reproduced with the permission of author John Graham and the Sydney Morning Herald, in which the full obituary appeared on 27 March 2001.

Back

Print this page



Other Articles in this edition